Housing Benefit

Does my tenant have the right to change who receives payment without my consent?

For Local Housing Allowance (LHA) Housing Benefit will be paid direct to your tenant unless they can show satisfactory reasons why it would be in their best interests to have payment made to you. e.g. This may be due to medical reasons or a previous history of bad debt.

For non LHA claims at any stage of their claim your tenant may choose to have the Housing Benefit paid direct to themselves instead of you.

If this happens and the Council has already made payments to you in respect of their current claim the Council will inform you in writing of your tenant's decision to have payments changed to be paid to themselves.

If you are unhappy with the new arrangement you must discuss the matter with your tenant. The Council cannot usually become involved.