Universal Credit
Please note that if your tenant has made a claim for Job Seekers Allowance (Income Based) effective from 8 February 2016 and they are single, without children or a disability then they may be required to claim Universal Credit.
Universal Credit may include money towards their housing costs. Your tenant will have to arrange to start paying their own rent, if they don’t already do this directly to you.
Find out more about Universal Credit
Track housing benefit payments online
Landlords can now sign up for an online account to view details of current, future and past housing benefit payments.
This account will allow you to view and print your payment schedules at a time that suits you, without the need to contact us about payment and entitlement queries.
Once you've registered, you will be able to view:
- details of tenants for whom you are receiving housing benefit payments.
- current housing benefit entitlement levels for individual tenants
- details of any current overpayments for tenants who have deductions being made from ongoing payments to you
- details of any outstanding invoices that you are liable for
Register for an account
To sign up, you will need:
- your payee reference (which can be found on any payment schedule)
- the bank account number that your latest benefit payment was made to
Terms and conditions
- You must observe all your obligations under data protection legislation and not perform your obligations under the agreement in such a way as to cause any other party to breach any of its obligations under the data protection legislation.
- You must ensure that any person with access to personal data is subject to a duty of confidentiality (whether contractual or statutory) and ensure that access is strictly limited to those individuals who need to know/access the personal data.
- You must implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure security of access to the online system. This will include, as a minimum, the changing of passwords when a member of staff who has access to the system leaves your employment.
Housing benefit administered us
If you are a private landlord, the amount of housing benefit your tenant can receive is set by the Local Housing Allowance (LHA).
If your tenant is receiving housing benefit and is eight weeks or more behind with their rent, you can ask for the benefit to be paid directly to you.
You should put your request in writing, with the following details:
- how much your tenant owes
- the period this covers
Sometimes we will also arrange for the benefit to be paid directly to you if your tenant is a vulnerable person who finds it hard to manage their money.
Please note that we cannot discuss details of your tenant’s housing benefit claim with you.
When housing benefit is to be paid directly to you, we will let you know:
- how much housing benefit your tenant is due each week
- when the payments will start
- if the amount of their benefit changes
- if their benefit is suspended or ends
- if we are deducting an amount from their benefit to recover an overpayment. (If you don’t agree that you should repay the overpayment, you must contact us within one calendar month to ask for a review of the decision).
Your responsibilities
You must check regularly to confirm that your tenant is still living at the property.
You must tell us immediately if you know of any changes in the circumstances of your tenant(s) that may affect their benefit e.g. if they move out of the property while still liable for rent.