How you will get your benefit

Any Council Tax Reduction that you are entitled to will be put straight onto your Council Tax account. You will receive a new bill confirming how your Council Tax instalments have changed due to the Council Tax Reduction. For more information on how to make these payments or to sign up for a Direct Debit please visit our Council Tax payment page.

Housing Benefit

How your Housing Benefit is paid depends on the kind of tenancy that you have. Please note that payment days and dates may change slightly around bank holidays, Christmas and Easter.

Council Tenants

Your Housing Benefit will be paid every week directly to your rent account with Sandwell Housing It will be paid weekly on a Friday. You should change your payments to make sure that your rent account is kept up to date. If you are not sure about how much you should pay our Housing Team will be able to help you.

Housing Association/Registered Social Landlord Tenants

If you have a tenancy with one of these organisations you normally have a choice as to how Housing Benefit is paid. You can get the Housing Benefit paid directly into your bank account and make the rental payments yourself. You will receive your Housing Benefit every four weeks in arrears. This means that the payment that you receive will be for the four weeks that have just ended. Alternatively, you can ask for payments to be made directly to your landlord. Your landlord will receive Housing Benefit payments from us every four weeks in arrears. Please note that you will be responsible for paying your landlord any difference between the rent that is charged and your Housing Benefit.

Private Tenants

Most Private Tenants are paid under the Local Housing Allowance Scheme. You will receive your Housing Benefit payments direct to your bank account every two weeks in arrears. This means that the payment that you receive will be for the two weeks that have just ended.

The current Local Housing Allowance rates for Sandwell are shown below. The figures shown are the maximum amount payable and the actual Housing Benefit entitlement may be lower than the figure below. (All figures are weekly amounts):

We can consider making Housing Benefit payments directly to your landlord if you have rent arrears or have difficulty managing your finances due to vulnerability. We can also make payments directly to your landlord where it is a condition of the tenancy and your rent is equal to or lower than your LHA rate. If payments are made directly to your landlord then they will be made every four weeks. Please note that if you have rent arrears of eight weeks or more then we are legally required to make the payments directly to your landlord.

Any payments made to your landlord will be paid four weekly in arrears.

Before October 1996 we used to pay Housing Benefit two weekly in advance. Anyone who has claimed continuously since before this date may still receive their Housing Benefit in this way.

Payment Dates 2024-25

All of customers who are in Housing Association or Privately Rented properties are paid on the same dates. The payment dates for the year 2024-25 are shown below: