Information for landlords

Housing benefit is awarded to help tenants pay their rent.

Who can claim?
How is a claim made?
When should a claim be made?
Verifying the claim
The Verification Framework
How is benefit calculated?
Payment of housing benefit
What does housing benefit cover?
Will the rent be restricted?
Claims made by single people under 25
Can my tenant get extra help?
Overpayments
Your duties and responsibilities
Your rights
Fraud
Checklists to speed up your tenants' claim

Who can claim?
Anyone who pays rent to a landlord can claim, although a person who pays rent and lives in the same household as a 'close relative' may not get benefit. In housing benefit terms, close relatives are a:

parent
son or daughter
step parent
step-son or stepdaughter
parent-in-law
son-in-law or daughter-in-law
brother or sister or partner of any of these people

We cannot consider your tenant for housing benefit if the tenant or their partner:

were previously living with you as your partner in this property
are responsible for a child and you are the parent of that child
are director or employee of the company from whom they are renting
are renting from a trust of which their child is the beneficiary
occupy the property as a condition of their employment

We may not be able to pay housing benefit where either the tenant or their partner have previously owned the property they are now renting.

How is a claim made?
The tenant will need to submit a completed claim form, which is available from our reception, or upon request by contacting us. Tenants can also complete form HCTB(1), which is given by the JobCentre Plus office if they register for Income Support or Jobseekers allowance. The tenant must provide certain supporting documents as requested on the application form. Photocopied documents are not acceptable. We can only accept original documents.

When should a claim be made?
The claim should be made as soon as help is needed. Delays in making a claim may lead to a loss of benefit. Your tenant needs to make a claim for the accommodation they occupy. If a tenant lives in a house of multiple occupation and moves from one room to another they need to us advise us in writing.

Verifying the claim
Our visiting officers may call at any time to check the details of the claim. The officers always carry identification with them, which the claimant is advised to check before allowing them into their homes. If they are unsure they telephone our call centre on (020) 8825 7000 to check. This part of our checking procedure is to ensure accuracy of payments we are making and to identify where fraudulent claims are being made.

The Verification Framework
As part of the government's fight against fraud we are committed to operating the Verification Framework. This means we will ask to see documentary evidence to verify most of the information entered on the application form. We will have to see evidence of the claimant’s identity, residency and income details. We will not be able to pay benefit without this.

How is benefit calculated?
We compare the actual income received by the claimant and other members of his household with the amount the government says will cover their living expenses. (This is called the 'applicable amount' and does not take account of housing costs)

Usually benefit starts from the Monday following receipt of a claim in our office. If we receive a claim in the same week as the liability to pay rent begins it is possible to pay benefit for the whole of that first week. A benefit week runs from Monday to Sunday.

If your tenant is awarded Income Support or Jobseekers Allowance (income based), and makes a claim for housing benefit within four weeks of the date of that award, benefit can be paid from the beginning of their entitlement to Income Support or Jobseekers Allowance (income based). Housing Benefit may end if there is a change in the tenant’s circumstances. All claimants have a duty to notify us immediately of any changes in circumstances that may occur. If we are not told of a change in circumstance within one calendar month of the change, your tenant may lose benefit.

Payments of housing benefit
Payment of benefit can be made to the tenant or directly to the landlord.

If your tenant pays their rent weekly or calendar monthly, then housing benefit will be sent every four weeks in arrears (for the previous four-week period). We can make a provisional award (payment on account) if we have sufficient information to make a payment but cannot calculate the exact amount due.

The council makes payments to landlords directly into their bank accounts. Payments must be made to you if:

your tenant is eight weeks or more in arrears with their rent (you need provide evidence of this)
you are receiving money from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) towards rent arrears
the claimant requests or agrees to such an agreement
benefit owing to the claimant who has left the property with rent arrears

The council can decide to make payments to you if requested by the tenant or if it's in the tenant's best interests. We will suspend direct payments to you at the tenant's request and advise you if this happens.

If we become aware that your tenant has arrears of rent equivalent to eight weeks or more we will normally make payments direct to the landlord. It is important that you tell us if this situation arises so we can suspend further benefit payments but we will give the tenant an opportunity to give us the reason for non-payment of rent. We will then decide to whom future payments of benefit can be made.

The council must, by law, consider whether you are a suitable person to receive benefit payments. If you are not considered suitable, payment may still be made to your tenant.

We will advise you of any changes in entitlement but you must collect the difference between the full rent charged and any benefit paid.

Before you take court action against a tenant who you believe is claiming housing benefit, you should contact the council to confirm whether housing benefit is in payment and up-to-date.

What does housing benefit cover?
Housing benefit cannot help towards certain costs that you may include in the rent charged. Benefit is not allowed towards the cost of:

water rates
meals
any counselling and support services
most service charges included in the rent such as heating, lighting, hot water, power for cooking, personal laundry and cleaning.

Will the rent be restricted?
It is not always possible for housing benefit to be paid based on the full rent payable as the Rent Service sets the maximum level of rent, which we can use and this can be affected if:

the rent charge is unreasonably high
the accommodation is too large

Claims made by single people under 25
All new claims made by single people under 25 years of age may be subject to a restriction on the amount of benefit payable towards their rent. This means that the maximum amount of rent eligible for housing benefit will be restricted to a single room rent level set by the Rent Service. This will be based on market rents for the borough for single room accommodation with shared toilet, kitchen facilities and one other room such as a living room.

It is possible to obtain a pre-tenancy determination before a tenant moves to new accommodation. This is normally valid for a year and will give the maximum level of rent on which we will calculate the benefit due.

Can my tenant get extra help?
Your tenant can apply for discretionary housing payments.

The discretionary housing payments scheme provides additional financial help paid towards housing costs ie rent and council tax. These are not payments of housing benefit and council tax benefit.

Overpayments of housing benefit
When an overpayment of benefit occurs we will tell you:

how the overpayment is calculated
the reason for the overpayment
the amount of the overpayment
the period the overpayment covers
the method of recovery

Any overpayments made could be recovered from you. If there is still entitlement to benefit we will usually recover the overpayment by making deductions from the ongoing benefit. You will be advised about how much the deductions are and when they will start.

We will decide whether to recover the overpayment from you or your tenant if there is no longer any entitlement or the tenant has vacated the property. The council can recover overpayments in respect of one tenant by making deductions from housing benefit payments of other tenants you may have. Where this occurs, any payment deducted must still count as rent paid by your tenant.

You can help us to avoid overpayments by telling us of any known changes that might affect the benefit paid to your tenant.

Your duties and responsibilities
You must notify the council, in writing, of any change in your tenant's circumstances. You may be liable to prosecution if you fail to do this.

Changes in circumstances include:

if you are aware of any changes in the tenant's income or if the tenant gets a job
the tenant vacating the property or moving into other accommodation in the same property
someone moving into the property with the tenant or if someone living there moves out
rent increases
if the tenant or partner is absent from the property for over a month

If you do not tell us about a known change in a tenant’s circumstances we will recover the overpayment from you in cases where housing benefit is paid direct to you.

When there is a change in entitlement we will tell you:

the effective date of the change
how this will affect the amount of benefit being paid
the additional amount to be paid or the overpayment that has occurred
briefly what the change is

When entitlement ends we will tell you:

the date benefit ended;
bbout any overpayment of benefit
briefly why benefit has ended

Your rights
You have limited rights of appeal under the housing benefit regulations. You can appeal against the calculation of an overpayment but you do not have the right to appeal against a decision to recover overpayments from you.

Tenants have more rights of appeal and can appeal against:

the start date of the claim
the amount of benefit paid
the income and capital used to work out the benefit
the calculation of an overpayment

Appeals are heard by an independent body, for more information visit www.appeals-service.gov.uk .

You will only receive information about the amount of benefit and date of payment. We can only discuss claims with you in more detail if we have a signed declaration from your tenant.

Fraud
Landlords can play an important role by helping the council fight fraud. Ealing Council is committed to investigating allegations of housing and council tax benefit fraud, and pursues a vigorous prosecution policy.

If you report a suspected fraud resulting in a reduction/cancellation of your tenant’s housing benefit, we will not recover any overpaid housing benefit from you where we are satisfied that you have not contributed to the overpayment.

Please contact us immediately if you think fraud is being committed.
Please cooperate fully if a member of the investigation team contacts you. Be assured that our officers are trained, professional staff who will act strictly within the law.

If you wish to report a fraud you can do so anonymously, if you would prefer. All information will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Checklists to speed up your tenants' claim
Delays in paying housing benefit can occur when a claim form has not been fully completed or information requested on the application form has not been provided, eg proof of rent or income.

In order to speed up the payment of housing benefit and/or council tax benefit we aim to gather all the information needed to assess a claim when your tenant first makes their claim.

The following checklists will help you and your tenants ensure that the correct information and evidence is provided at the time the claim is made.

Evidence supplied for proof of income or capital will, if it contains National Insurance details, count towards evidence of identity.

The evidence asked for must be provided for both the tenant and their partner. Choose the checklist which matches your tenants' circumstances.

Tenants in receipt of Income Support, Job seekers Allowance or Pension Credit

Tenants who are working or in receipt of benefits other than Job Seekers Allowance (income based), Income Support and Pension Credit