FOI request (FOIR-172033889)

Housing benefit element

Requested Mon 03 February 2020
Responded  Thu 13 February 2020

Response

Q1 - 4107 claims are paid to the Landlord

Q2 - Where a claimant is a tenant of a private landlord, Housing Benefit regulations relating to Local Housing Allowance claims mean that, payment of Housing Benefit will usually be made direct to the tenant. If the tenant/landlord feel that the tenant may have difficulty in making payments of Housing Benefit to the landlord they may make a request for a 'safeguard' to be considered.

Payment under 'Safeguard' is considered if it is shown that the customer may have difficulty in dealing with their financial affairs due to a history of:

• substance or alcohol dependency

• gambling addiction

• debt issues

• mental health, medical or other issues that might cause the tenant issues in dealing with their financial affairs.

If successful, payment to the landlord will be allowed, but will be reviewed at an appropriate future date to ensure the 'safeguard' remain relevant. Also if the tenant feels their circumstances have changed and wish payment to be made to themselves they can request this at any time.