Benefits and support How we pay your Housing Benefit

We pay at the end of the period the payments are for.

Manchester City Council Housing Services tenants

  • We pay it straight into your rent account on Tuesdays.

Housing Association tenants

  • We can pay it into your bank account every four weeks or every two weeks
  • We can pay your benefit straight to your landlord every four weeks:
    • if you ask us to
    • if you owe eight weeks or more rent
    • if we decide it's in your best interests to do so.

Private tenants

If you have been getting Housing Benefit without a break since before 7 April 2008 you usually have a choice about how we pay your benefit:

  • We can pay your benefit into your bank account every four weeks or every two weeks
  • We can pay your benefit straight to your landlord every four weeks:
    • if you ask us to
    • if you owe eight weeks' or more rent
    • if we decide it's in your best interests to do so.
    • We must be satisfied that they are acting properly over benefit matters.

If you started getting Housing Benefit after 7 April 2008 under the Local Housing Allowance rules, you cannot choose how we pay your benefit. We must pay Housing Benefit into your bank account unless there are special reasons that mean we can consider paying to someone else, like your landlord. See when can we pay your landlord direct.

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