Information for private landlords and the Landlord Portal

Landlords can view Housing Benefit payment details online by registering for our Landlord Portal.

Click here to register or login to the Landlord Portal.

You will need to have your Housing Benefit creditor reference number/s when you register.

If your tenants’ Housing Benefit is paid directly to you, our secure Landlord Portal will allow you to:

• check payments and get a breakdown of what you’ve received for each of your tenants
• view next payment dates and any overpayments of Housing Benefit made to you
• access payment data 24/7, 365 days a year
• view correspondence sent to you

How benefits are paid

We normally make payments through your tenant’s bank or building society account, not directly to you.

If your tenant is more than eight weeks in arrears we can pay you directly without their agreement, however you must provide proof of the arrears before we can pay you.

We will only pay you what we would have paid the tenant. In some cases, this will not be the full rent charged, meaning you will have to collect the difference from your tenant.

You may be asked to repay any benefit you get for periods after the tenant leaves.

Direct Payments to Landlords

If a tenant who is paid under the Local Housing Allowance scheme applies for Housing Benefit, they will receive payments directly, unless we consider them to be incapable of managing their financial affairs, unlikely to pay their rent, or they’ve accrued eight week’s rent arrears.

If we need to pay you directly then you will receive this money every four weeks in arrears.

For more details please see our Local Housing Allowance Safeguard policy – this document details the procedures the Benefits Service follows when making a decision of who Housing Benefit should be made to and the safeguards in place to help tenants and landlords.

You can provide details of your bank account on our BACs payment form.

Please keep your contact details up-to-date, this will ensure we can make you aware of any changes as soon as possible.

Overpayments of Housing Benefit

If we’ve paid too much Housing Benefit we can ask you or your tenant to pay the money back. We may recover this money by:

• taking it from the ongoing benefit of the person claiming (this is known as claw-back)
• taking it from the payment we make to you for other tenants
• sending an invoice to either you or your tenant.

Sharing Information

If we pay Housing Benefit to your tenant, unless we have their written permission we cannot give you any information about their claim. We can’t even tell you if they have made a claim.

If we pay Housing Benefit to you, we can tell you:

• details of any payment paid direct to you
• the date the payment starts and ends
• the weekly amount and how often it is paid
• the amount we are taking to recover an overpayment.

If we pay your tenant’s Housing Benefit direct to your agent, we cannot give you any information. You will have to ask your tenant or agent for any information you need.

Contact us - Benefits

0345 302 2315
(Text phone users add 18001 before dialing)

01235 547667

vowh.benefits@secure.capita.co.uk

Vale of White Horse District Council
PO Box 880
Erith
DA8 1UN