Liverpool City Council - landlords and housing benefit

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Landlords and Housing Benefit

Housing Benefit helps you pay your rent if you are:

  • unemployed
  • unable to work
  • on a low income                      

Who can apply?
Only the tenant can apply for Housing Benefit. 

Housing Benefit entitlement depends on the personal circumstances of the tenant as well as the level of rent, so landlords cannot apply on behalf of a tenant.

Information we can give to landlords
If you call Liverpool Direct (0151 233 3009) we can only give you limited information because our duty of care to claimants means that we have to treat as confidential the information they give. It is best if the tenants contact us, so that we can tell them their responsibilities and what we need to work out the claim quickly.

Landlords who are treated as a 'person affected' are recognised as having rights under Housing Benefit regulations and have the right to certain information. A landlord is a 'person affected' when:

  • we are looking to recover an overpayment from him or her. We can tell you the amount, period and reasons for any overpayment being recovered.
  • we are paying Housing Benefit directly to him or her. We can tell you the amount, weekly benefit rate and period covered by cheques sent directly to you, and the date direct payments stop.
  • a landlord has asked for direct payments and we have refused. We can tell you why we will not pay direct.                      

Please note: overpayment letters and landlord schedules have been designed to provide all the relevant information landlords are entitled to know.

Other Information
We can give landlords other information if it helps the smooth running of benefits administration or if the needs of the claimant make it suitable to give general information. An example might be where we are waiting for more information from the tenant.

We can talk the claim if the tenant gives us permission by signing a Tenant Consent form. In this scheme we are able to talk about missing information needed to work out their claim for benefit with their landlord. You can download a Tenant Consent form (PDF [107.8Kb] opens in new window).

Please note: where a claimant has not asked for benefit to be paid directly to the landlord, we cannot give any information about a claim at all.

Authorisation
We can tell information to landlords if a tenant has signed a letter of authorisation or asked in writing that their landlord act on their behalf. We will only tell information covered by the letter of authorisation. A general letter at the start of the claim is not, for example, enough to allow the release of personal data on all later occasions and we have the right to confirm the claimant's intentions whenever we feel that it is suitable.

Information

If you need more information you can download the 'Landlord Information booklet' (PDF [160.2Kb] opens in new window) which answers the most common questions private landlords have about Housing Benefit claims. 

We believe that landlords are important stakeholders in the service we give. As part of our commitment to make sure that every landlord knows what's going on in Liverpool's Benefit Service and nationally we produce a quarterly newsletter. To download a copy of the latest newsletter please click on the link below: 

Contact us
You can contact us in several ways:

Post
Liverpool City Council
Benefits Service
PO Box 13
Liverpool
L69 2JG

Telephone
0151 233 3009 (24hours)

Fax
0151 225 2145

Email
benefits.service@liverpooldirectlimited.co.uk

In person
You can visit us at any of our one stop shops.