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Local Housing Allowance

What Safeguards are there?

The government recognises that some tenants may struggle with the responsibility of paying their rent and has provided guidance on when direct payment to the landlord may be appropriate. This means that we can still pay benefit direct to your landlord if we consider that you are likely to have difficulty managing your financial affairs.

When may the council make payments to the landlord?

Although you cannot choose to have your benefit paid to your landlord, we can, in the following circumstances, decide to pay benefit to your landlord:

• If you are likely to have difficulty in managing your financial affairs
• If you are unlikely to pay your rent
• If you are eight weeks or more in arrears with your rent
• If you are having deductions from Income Support/Job Seeker's Allowance to pay off rent arrears

How we deal with the above situations is detailed in our LHA Safeguards and Direct Payments Guidance (pdf, 176kb) and the policy that was adopted by the Council on the 7th April 2008. The guidance and policy will minimise the risk of tenants losing their homes due to eviction for rent arrears and also reduce any fears that landlords may have regarding potentially vulnerable tenants and those who are unlikely to pay.

Who can ask for the payments to be made to the landlord?

The following people may tell us that you are having, or will have difficulty paying your rent:

• You can approach us yourself - please phone our @ Your Service Team on (01304) 872199 or visit one of our area offices – an appointment will be made for one of our Benefits Officers to interview you
• Your friends or family – they should download a ‘Direct Payment’ application form from the link below, fill it out and return it to the address given on the form, together with the supporting evidence they have. If they prefer they can collect a form from any of our area offices or phone (01304) 872199 and ask for one to be sent to them
• A person acting on your behalf e.g. a social worker, probation officer, welfare group representative etc. – they can either write to us or complete a ‘Direct Payment’ application form, as detailed above
• Your landlord – he/she should complete a Direct Payment Application Form (pdf, 44kb) , as detailed above.

We may also identify tenants who may have difficulty managing their money from our own face to face contact, for example, when carrying out home visits.

Contact

Tel: 01304 872199

Email: revenues@dover.gov.uk