	Benefits Service Torbay Council Town Hall Castle Circus Torquay TQ1 3DR
	housing.benefits @torbay.gov.uk
	01803 207201 (tel)
	01803 292866 (fax)

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Landlords Information

Housing Benefit is paid by the Council to help people on low incomes with their rent. The information below details how this affects you as a landlord, or agent.

Confidentiality

Housing Benefit is legally the tenant’s income, so the details of any benefit claim they make is confidential. Unfortunately, if Housing Benefit is not being paid to you, we cannot even tell you if a benefit claim has been made.

If Housing Benefit is payable to you, we will be able to tell you:

The weekly entitlement
When benefit starts and finishes
When the entitlement changes

If you need any more information about your tenant's entitlement we can only give this if we have their written authority to do so. Some landlords ask their tenants to sign an authority when they move in , or make it a condition of the tenancy agreement.

When will Housing Benefit start?

Generally a claim is payable from the Monday after we receive it, but if a claim is made in the first week of a tenancy it will normally be paid from the day the tenant moved in. You should therefore encourage your tenant to claim straight away if they think they may be entitled.

Housing Benefit cannot normally be backdated. It is therefore very important that tenants make their claim as early as possible. The tenant then has one calendar month to provide all the information or evidence needed otherwise the claim may not be paid.

Claims can be made before the tenant moves in, but they must confirm that they have moved in when they have done so.

Your tenant can make a claim for Housing and Council Tax Benefit simply by ringing the Council or calling into any of the Council's "Connections" offices and asking for a claim form.

If you have any doubts about whether your tenant has made a claim it is important that you speak to them first about it and ask to see the receipt for their claim.

Rent Arrears

In certain circumstances, Housing Benefit can be paid to you even if your tenant has requested us not to. If there are 8 weeks or more of rental arrears we must make payments direct to you, and we may do so if we think it is in the tenant’s best interests. It is therefore important that you tell us about rent arrears if these are a concern.

Local Housing Allowance (LHA)

Housing Benefit entitlement which is paid under the LHA rules can be paid to you if the Council believes that;

the claimant is likely to have difficulty in managing his/her financial affairs;or
it is improbable that the claimant will pay the rent - perhaps there is a history of rent arrears;or
there are rent arrears

Please see the Council's Safeguard Policy under LHA and the information booklet on LHA for landlords.

The Council would especially like to hear from you if you if you are considering enforcement action (e.g. eviction or notice seeking possession) and you believe the rent arrears are due to non-payment of Housing Benefit.

You must remember however that it is the tenant who is liable to pay rent, not the Council.

How is Housing Benefit worked out?

Housing Benefit is income-related. If the tenant is in receipt of Income Support, Job-Seeker’s Allowance (Income Based), Employment and Support Allowance (income related) or a Guarantee Credit from the Pension Service they will normally be entitled to the maximum Housing Benefit. If their income is higher, their Housing Benefit will generally be lower. See also Local Housing Allowance.

Payments

Tenants of Housing Associations

Housing Benefit can be paid to the landlord or tenant.

Tenants of Other Private Landlords

Under the Local Housing Allowance rules, the tenant no longer has the option for us to pay their landlord direct (unless the tenant is more than 8 weeks in arrears or is considered to be unable to manage their own payments - see our Safeguard Policy (see Related Documents)).

We pay landlords four weekly in arrears. Tenants are normally paid fortnightly in arrears.

Payments into Bank Accounts (BACS Payments)

As you know we have been introducing BACS payments to those customers who had their Housing Benefit paid by cheque over the last few months and we are now in a position to offer this method of payment to landlords.

The Advantages are:

Paying your benefit directly into your bank account is much safer.
You will not have to worry about cheques delayed in the post or going missing.
You will have access to your benefit sooner.
You will not have to wait for cheques to clear and by choosing to have payment by BACS it will be credited to your bank account on the mondayit is dueand the money will be available the same day.
Paying by BACS also helps your Council save money as it is a less expensive way of making payments.

There is no change to the frequency of the Housing Benefit payment or to the period covered by the payment, so if the current frequency is four weekly in arrears this will be the same when payment is made by BACS.

Request - Landlord Payments via BACS (Printable)

If you would like to find out more about BACS payments please contact us on 01803 207201, alternatively email: housing.benefits@torbay.gov.uk.

When will Housing Benefit stop?

Benefit will end when your tenant leaves the address even if you still expect them to pay rent for the accommodation.

It may also end if the tenant has a change of circumstances, or does not provide information we have requested. If you are receiving direct payment we will notify you if benefit ends but we cannot always tell you exactly why because of the rules about disclosing confidential information without the tenant’s consent.

There is provision, in some circumstances for the council to make payments for an extra four weeks if a tenant has left and there is an unavoidable liability of the rental charge.

Reporting Changes of Circumstances

You must report promptly to the Council any changes in your tenant’s circumstances that you can reasonably be expected to know about. You may be asked to repay any overpaid Housing Benefit if you have not told the Council about changes in your tenant’s circumstances.

If you become aware of any of the following, you should tell us straight away:

Tenant leaving the property (or intending to leave)
Tenant being absent from the property (even on a temporary basis)
Changes in the rent, or conditions of the tenancy
Other people moving into or out of the tenant’s flat
Tenant starting work, or starting to pay rent in full when you are still getting Housing Benefit for them

Appeal Rights

You can appeal against any decision to recover overpayments from you if we are asking you to repay them. You can also appeal against a decision to pay Housing Benefit direct to you (or to stop doing so).

If you wish to appeal it must be in writing and made within one month of the date the decision is made.

Overpayments

Some tenants may have received too much Housing Benefit at this address or at a previous address. The Council will usually seek to recover the overpayment from the tenant by deductions from their on-going benefit entitlement. If you are receiving direct payments of Housing Benefit these will be reduced because of the deduction being made and it is your tenant’s responsibility to make up the shortfall between their rent and their Housing Benefit. This does not mean the Council is recovering the overpayment from you as the landlord.

In certain circumstances the Council will formally ask you to repay an overpayment of Housing Benefit. See the section above on reporting changes in circumstances. You will be notified of details of the overpayment, the period covered by the overpayment and your appeal rights.