Paying your tenant’s Housing Benefit direct to you
We can pay direct to you if:
- your tenant wants us to; and
- you want us to; and
- their claim does not come under Local Housing Allowance rules.
Your tenant can ask us to stop paying you direct. We will tell you if this happens.
We must pay direct if your tenant owes eight weeks’ rent or more. If we think that’s not in their best interests, we can temporarily stop paying altogether.
When we are satisfied that there is less than eight weeks' rent owing, we can start paying your tenant again.
Request direct payments at benefit.enquiries@manchester.gov.uk
How we make direct payments:
- Straight to your bank account.
- Every four weeks for the four weeks that have just passed.
- If you have several tenants on benefit, we combine all payments into one payment and send you a list of payment details for each tenant.
Responsibilities
We do not take on your tenant's responsibilities because we pay you direct.
We won’t pay you direct if we decide you are not acting properly - including involvement in benefit fraud.
You must tell us about changes, for example, if your tenant moves out.
You must repay overpayments promptly.
Appeals
If we refuse to pay Housing Benefit direct to you, you can only appeal if you requested the direct payments. You cannot appeal if your tenant asked for direct payments and we refused.
Your decision letter will tell you how to appeal.
If we send the first cheque to the tenant but make it payable to you
We sometimes do this if the first payment is particularly large. This is to make sure the cheque is used to clear any rent arrears.
Contacting us
Email benefit.enquiries@manchester.gov.uk or ring 0161 234 5003 Monday - Friday 9am to 6pm.