How Housing Benefit is paid
If you are a local authority tenant:
- We will pay your Housing Benefit directly into your rent account.
If you are a tenant of a Registered Social Landlord:
- Your housing benefit can be paid into your Bank, Building Society or Credit Union account, or
- Directly to your landlord.
If you are a private tenant:
- Your housing benefit can be paid into your Bank, Building Society or Credit Union account.
If you don’t already have one of these accounts, you will need to open one. You can open a basic bank account with any bank. There is more advice in our leaflet about basic bank accounts.
We must pay Housing Benefit directly to your landlord if:
- You are in rent arrears of eight full weeks or more, or
- Deductions for rent arrears are being made from your Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, or income-related Employment and Support Allowance.