Housing and Council Tax Benefits
How Benefit is Paid
Housing Benefit
Rent Rebate for Council tenants is added directly to your rent account.
Rent Allowance payments to Housing Association tenants may be made to you, or directly to your landlord if you prefer.
Rent Allowance payments to tenants renting privately rented accommodation must be made to you and you cannot choose to have your benefit paid directly to your landlord. Payment to your landlord can only be made in exceptional circumstances and if you are likely to have difficulty paying your rent. Fareham's Benefits section has a vulnerability policy (202 Kb)
which identifies the circumstances in which Housing Benefit payments can be made to a third party.
Payments will be sent every 2 or 4 weeks, and in arrears. In some circumstances, we may be able to pay you weekly. Contact us for further information about this. We prefer to make the payments directly to your bank, as this means that you are more likely to receive the payment when it is expected.
We can send you a crossed cheque but payment of Housing Benefit directly into your bank account (BACS) can provide many advantages:
- Payment is direct to you and therefore eliminates the possibility of payments being delayed or lost in the post
- The payment is treated as cleared funds allowing both you and your landlord earlier access to the money thus ensuring rent is paid on time
- Also saves you time and trouble of paying the benefit cheques into your bank account as the payment is automatically transferred
Furthermore, you will receive a statement to confirm that the payment has been transferred, enabling you to monitor the benefit payments being received.
If you don't have a bank account, now may be a good time to think about opening one. You can get advice about opening and running a bank account from any bank or building society. There are also organisations that can give you advice about money, including if you have already tried to open an account and have not been able to. Many banks now offer basic bank accounts which offer services such as cheque books or debit cards which means that you can manage your money from your account but will not be able to get into debt as you will not be able to withdraw money from your account if there are insufficient funds.
If payments are made to your landlord, they will be sent every 4 weeks in arrears. Again, we can make the payment direct to the landlord's bank account, or by crossed cheque.
If your landlord is able to show us that you are 8 weeks in arrears with your rent, he or she may be able to apply to have your benefit payments paid directly to him or her, regardless of whether you agree to this. We will always look very thoroughly into cases where such requests are made to ensure that claimants and landlords are treated fairly.
Council Tax Benefit and Second Adult Rebate
Council Tax Benefit and Second Adult Rebates are always added to the Council Tax account of the liable person. The Council Tax section will ensure that you receive a new bill every time that you have benefit credited to your account or your amount of benefit changes.
|.
|.
