We charge rent every week on a Monday. Every five to six years, because of how the calendar falls, there are 53 Mondays in a year instead of the usual 52. The new financial year (from April 2024 to March 2025) is one of these years - this means 53 weeks rent will be payable rather than the usual 52.
If you qualify for four rent free weeks you’ll still receive them.
If you pay by Direct Debit you don’t need to do anything, we will automatically adjust your payments.
If you don’t pay by Direct Debit, you will need to adjust your payments yourself to take into account the extra weeks rent.
If you claim Universal Credit
You’ll need to tell the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) about the change to your rent. You should do this by updating the ‘Confirm your Housing Costs’ on your Universal Credit journal after 1 April 2024.
Universal Credit will only pay for 48 weeks so you will need to pay the difference between what your monthly rent is and what the DWP pay us. This only happens when there are 53 Mondays in a Financial year.
For example, if your rent is £90 per week, your monthly payment will be £367.50. The DWP will only pay us £360.00, and you will be required to make up the difference.
Set up a Direct Debit
If you haven’t yet set up a Direct Debit it’s easy to do and has a number of advantages:
• If your rent changes we will automatically adjust the amount for you
• You can choose to pay monthly or weekly
• If you pay monthly you can choose what day of the month the payment will be taken
To set up a Direct Debit log into the tenant portal and set up a Direct Debit online. You will need your tenancy reference number to register and your bank account details for the Direct Debit instruction.
You can find more details about how to pay your rent on our website here.