Frequently Asked Questions

Question:

Who will you pay my benefit to?

Answer:

Council tax rebates are always deducted from the council tax bill you have to pay, and then refunded if you have already paid too much.

Housing benefit has different rules. If you pay rent to a private landlord and get Local Housing Allowance, the Government wants you to manage your own financial affairs wherever possible and benefit will normally be paid into your bank account. Let us know if you don't believe you can manage to do this.

If you pay rent to a housing association you can simply ask us to pay your benefit directly to your landlord.

Please note: if you are a landlord and your tenant is not using his/her housing benefit to pay their rent, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can find out why. Where the tenant is 8 weeks or more in arrears it will be possible to pay future housing benefit directly to you for a limited period of time until the arrears are cleared.