Important notice for Housing Benefit recipients regarding early payments

South Somerset District Council has been made aware of an administrative error which has occurred with Housing Benefit payments.

A number of customers will have received payments earlier than scheduled.

The details are as follows:

If you receive your housing benefit by BACS, payments which were due on 21 December, 28 December and 4 January have been paid early.

This is a breakdown of what has happened:

Normal receipt date           Actual receipt date

21 December 2018            20 December 2018 - paid one day early - next payment will be 18 January

28 December 2018            21 December 2018 - paid seven days early - next payment will be 25 January

4 January 2019                 24 December 2018 - paid 11 days early - next payment will be 1 February

11 January 2019               11 January 2019 - paid as expected

A Council spokesman said: "We apologise to anyone affected by this error sincerely and whole-heartedly, and we will do all we can to ensure this does not happen again with a thorough investigation being conducted."

"It means that some of our customers will have received significant payments prior to Christmas. It is important for those customers to understand that these payments were made early in error and there may be a longer than normal period of time until they receive their next payment. It means these customers will need to manage their finances carefully to ensure they remain secure over the holiday period."

"Again, we sincerely apologise for this unfortunate set of circumstances."

As stated, from 11 January 2019 BACS payments resumed as normal.