Question About Universal Credit

Does Universal Credit pay part of a claimant’s rent directly to the landlord/landlady or indirectly via the claimant. I understood it was the former but M had a phone call from them yesterday morning, telling him that they usually paid the rent to the claimant who was supposed to then pay it to the landlord/lady. Now we’re both confused.

Gilli

Gill

UC usual practice is to pay straight to the claimant and then the claimant pays the landlord.

Hi Gilli,
as Cloudygal says, it is usual to pay it to the claimant, however it is now possible to have it paid direct to the landlord in certain circumstances When you can change the way universal credit is paid - Shelter England

Melly1

Hi im going to start claiming carer’s allowance, my grandma is 79 and is on state pension and PIP, my biggest concern is will her benefits be affected if i claim carer’s allowance,

Thankyou

Samm, if you are caring, you are entitled to Carers Allowance.

Can I ask what is the matter with Grandma? There may be other benefits she may not be aware of.

My main concern is will grandma’s state pension and PIP benefits get affected if i claim carers allowance

No, basic pension will not be affected. At her age, normally she would be getting Attendance Allowance, not PIP?
What is wrong with her? There may be other things she is entitled to?

Hi Samm

Have a look through our benefits page here:

You can also call or email our helpline for information on
advice@carersuk.org or 0808 808 7777 from Monday to Friday, 9am – 6pm

Best wishes

Jane

To get back to my original question here, Universal Credit works differently here in Northern Ireland, with rent being paid directly to the landlord or, as in M’s case, the landlady. The problem was that the Universal Credit office was having difficulty contacting the landlady to get her bank details so they just paid it to M, who was then supposed to pass it on to the landlady, but of course they didn’t tell him that. Thankfully it’s all sorted now - the Universal Credit has the landlady’s bank details so they’ll be paying their share of the rent from now on and M has paid the arrears.

Gilli