My tenant is in arrears

What we can do if your tenant is behind with the rent.

Your tenants can only make a new claim for Housing Benefit if:

A single person is of state pension age. Or if they are part of a couple and at least one of them was state pension age on 14 May 2019.
You can find the Pension Credit qualifying age using Check your State Pension age
You provide them with supported accommodation
They have been placed in temporary accommodation by the Local Authority

If not they need to claim Universal Credit.

Payment of Housing Benefit will automatically be made direct to the landlord where we are aware that

Rent arrears have reached the equivalent of eight weeks or more
The tenant is likely to have problems paying their rent and it is in the tenants best interest

If you think a tenant is struggling with the responsibility of paying the rent, you can ask us to make payments direct.

A request for direct payment can be made by the tenant, the landlord or another interested party.

This page was last updated on 06/10/2025 14:21:59

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