RR2 - A guide to Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit
How your benefit is paid
- How Housing Benefit is paid
- How Council Tax Benefit is paid
- How you will be notified about your benefit
This section explains what happens when the council has worked out how much Housing Benefit (HB) and Council Tax Benefit (CTB) you are entitled to.
Sometimes different terms are used for HB, and they are based on the way it is paid. ‘Rebates’ (like rent rebates) are credits to an account. For example, if you pay rent directly to your council, a rent rebate means you have a reduced rent bill. 'Allowances' (like rent allowance) are usually payments made to you to help you to pay the rent yourself.
How Housing Benefit is paid
Methods of payment
HB is paid to you by your local council. If you get rent rebate you will simply be asked to pay less rent but from 7 October 1996, HB has been paid in arrears to all private rented sector tenants who make a new claim or change address. Direct payment to landlords (see below) will be made 4-weekly in arrears. [HB Reg 92(4)]
Your council may pay your HB every 6 months if the amount of HB to be paid is less than £1 per week.
If the council decides that there is a risk of overpayment, or it is in your best interests, your HB can be paid weekly. [HB Reg 88(2)]
Your local council decides how your rent allowance is paid, but it must ask if you have any special needs so that it can take them into account. The payment may be made by: [HB Reg 91(1)]
- cheque or girocheque
- or credit transfer
- or cash
- or in any other way that the council decides.
Direct payments
Normally you can have your rent allowance sent directly to you. If you are not paying your
rent on time your local council may decide to pay your HB directly to your landlord – see below.
Payments direct to the landlord [HB Regs 95-96]
The council may pay your rent allowance direct to your
landlord if you ask for or agree to this. The council may also make payments directly to your landlord without your permission if:
- it thinks that it would be in your best interest to do so
- or you have left your home and there are rent arrears (the arrears can then also be paid directly to the landlord).
If you have rent arrears of 8 weeks or more the council must pay your rent allowance directly to your landlord.
The council may also refuse or terminate direct payments where it considers that your landlord is not ‘fit and proper’ to receive such payments.
If you are on Pension Credit, Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) and some of your benefit is being paid directly to your landlord for rent that you owe, the council must pay your rent allowance directly to your landlord.
There may be arrears of unpaid HB when a person dies. If the council has already decided to make payments directly to a landlord, any arrears of HB outstanding at the time of death must be paid to the landlord upon application, up to the amount of the rent outstanding. Otherwise the council may pay the arrears to the deceased person’s estate. [HB Reg 97]
Payment of Local Housing Allowance
If a tenant receives Local Housing Allowance they are no longer able to choose to have payment made to the landlord. However, if the local authority thinks the tenant is unlikley to pay the rent or is unable to cope with this responsibility, they can make payment to the landlord. As now, payment will be made to the landlord if the tenant has built up eight weeks of arrears.
How Council Tax Benefit is paid
If you are liable to pay the council tax, the council will normally send you a council tax bill from which your Council Tax Benefit has already been deducted. You will then have to pay only the reduced amount. This means that you will not actually receive any money, but your council tax bills will be reduced.
Where this is not possible because, for example, you have already paid the whole bill, the council may send you a refund of the amount of benefit you are entitled to. In some circumstances, your council may credit your council tax account with any outstanding benefit so that your future instalments will be reduced.
How you will be notified about your benefit
Decisions
The local council must reach a decision on your entitlement to HB/CTB within 14 days of receiving all the information and evidence they reasonably need, or as soon as possible after that. They will then notify you of your entitlement to each benefit. The amount of information included in the decision notices will vary but may include details of your applicable amount, earnings and other income, rent or council tax and deductions for non-dependants. The decision notice will say if you have the right of appeal against the decision. [HB Regs 76 & 77 Sch 6, CTB Regs 66 & 67 Sch 6]
Payments on account of Housing Benefit
These only apply if you rent your property in the private sector. The local council should make a payment on account if they have been unable to make a full decision within 14 days and you have provided all the information reasonably needed. They will base the payment on account on the information that they have, and on what they think is reasonable under the circumstances. [HB Reg 91]
If you pay rent to a private landlord, you should ask the council to make a payment on account if you have given them all the information they asked for (or you have good cause for being unable to provide this information) and they have not been able to tell you what you are entitled to within 14 days.
Any payment on account will be offset against your benefit entitlement when the council has been able to work it out.