These frequently asked questions help landlords to understand more about their tenants’ claims for housing benefit.
Housing benefit is financial help towards housing costs for people on a low income. The amount of housing benefit also depends on the claimant’s income and savings. There may be a deduction for other adults living in the household.
When someone wants to get money to help pay for their home, they fill out a form called a housing benefit application. If they are also claiming income support or jobseeker’s allowance, they can fill out all the forms at the same time at Jobcentre Plus. It’s important to fill out the housing benefit form quickly because waiting too long can mean losing the benefit.
To make things faster, it would be helpful if you, as the landlord, could show proof of rent to support the information on the housing benefit form. The evidence of rent should include:
When someone is already living in your property, housing benefit usually starts from the Monday after we get the claim form. If we get the claim form the same week the person moves in, housing benefit starts from the day they move in. The money is given to the person living in your property, and it’s their responsibility to pay you the rent.
Housing benefit is usually given to the person who lives in your property. They can’t choose to give it directly to you. But, if we think the person is vulnerable by having trouble managing their money or has a lot of unpaid rent, we might give the money directly to you instead. We do not mean someone who does not want to pay his or her rent.
It is the housing benefit team which decides if your tenant is vulnerable. If a tenant cannot manage their money, we need to see written evidence of this. People who can provide this evidence include:
We will work with your tenant in making our decision.
Please check regularly to make sure your tenants are still living in the property where you receive housing benefit payments. If you notice any changes in your tenants’ circumstances, like moving out even though they still have to pay rent, contact the Housing Benefit team.
Housing benefit is legally your tenant’s income, so details of their benefit claims are confidential. This means that if housing benefit is not being paid direct to you, we can’t even tell you if a benefit claim has been made. But if housing benefit is being paid direct to you, we can tell you:
We can’t give more information without the tenant’s written permission. Some landlords ask tenants to sign a paper when they move in or make it a rule in the rental agreement that Portsmouth City Council can give the landlord the information they need.
Housing benefit can’t usually be paid for any time before your tenant moves in, even if they have to pay rent before they move in.
Sometimes there are exceptions. For example, if the new home is being changed to help a family member with a disability, the person can be considered as living in the home for up to four weeks before they actually move in.
Contact us or read our housing benefit frequently asked questions for more on backdating housing benefit.
If we think the overpayment was caused by fraud, and the landlord was not involved in the fraud:
If we believe you should refund the overpayment to us, we will send you a letter explaining why we think it should be paid back, the amount and how to repay. If you don’t agree with our decision, you can ask us to look at it again. Just write to us within one month from the date on the letter.
If your tenant hasn’t paid rent for eight weeks or more, we can give the housing benefit directly to you, even if the tenant doesn’t want us to. So, it’s important to keep in touch and tell us about any unpaid rent (especially if you are thinking about taking action like eviction or asking them to leave) and you believe the rent arrears are in part due to non-payment of housing benefit.
Remember – it is the tenant who is liable to pay the rent, not Portsmouth City Council.
Local housing allowance (LHA)is a way to figure out the most money Portsmouth City Council will pay for rent if someone gets help with housing costs and is renting from a private landlord. The amount of rent that can be paid with Local Housing Allowance is not based on how much the rent is. Instead, it’s worked out by looking at where the house is and how many bedrooms the family needs.
In Portsmouth, an independent rent officer decides how much most people pay for rent. Housing benefit rules decide how many bedrooms different sized families need.
