How LHA is paid

The implementation of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) means that in most cases we will send payments directly to you, we will do this by paying your Benefit straight into your bank account.

When you apply for LHA you will be asked to provide your bank details. We will use these details to pay your benefit direct into your bank account every 2 weeks.

You can give us your bank details by

completing the online payment into bank account form, or by
downloading our payment into a bank account form from the downloads section and returning it to us

The payment you will receive will be for the previous 2 weeks.

In some circumstances we understand the applicant may not be able to cope with paying their own rent and need their payments to be made straight to their landlord.

These circumstances could be that the applicant has

learning difficulties
Medical conditions
debt problems
inability to open a bank account
a history of rent arrears
mental health problems
un-dischanged bankruptcy
previous evictions
utility service arrears

Our safeguard policy has been put in place to ensure these applicants are treated fairly and payments can be made straight to their landlord if they meet the safeguard criteria. If you do meet the criteria you will need to complete an application for payment direct to landlord form.

If you are having trouble paying please see our LHA - difficulty paying leaflet for advice.