Updating post from Reddit.
A few months ago I applied for a Discretionary Housing Payment from my local council to help with paying rent in the upcoming months. They agreed to pay to my landlord directly each month using the same banking information that I use to pay them. However the landlord agency keep saying they haven't received anything from the council. I've been bouncing back and forth, the council have checked with their technical team, payments were successfully sent to the right account, the same details I use, but the agency still say they haven't got it and it's been going on for 2 months. The council even say they make regular payments to the landlord from other claimants but the landlord says they don't get anything from the council.
Is there anything my landlord should be doing, rather than me chasing it up? Shouldn't they be checking with their bank in case the bank has held the money?
Ask the council to put it in writing that payments are made to the landlord. Ask them to provide a breakdown.
Give that to the agency. Tell them the landlord needs to escalate it themselves if the information is wrong as you have done everything you can.
I asked the council for a proof of payment but they said they don't do that, which is still odd. They've only given me an email to say "yes we have paid the landlord to these banking details" basically.
Landlord name mix-up?
There's only one account for the landlord agency on the council's system and it's the same one I pay to, so it's very unlikely it would have gone to a different one unless details were changed. I've asked my landlord to look into it but they're being quiet.
Get the council to make payment to yourself and then you pay it to landlord\agency
I've done that now for future payments, but they can't do anything about the previous ones as they've been settled.
Do a conference phone call with both at the same time and let the reps talk to oneanother.
I'll give that a try next time I call one of them, hopefully they agree to it, landlord agency seems to not want anything to do with the council by the way they've spoken.
Update, I've just got a letter from my landlord with a section 21 notice so I'm being evicted in 2 months, and I haven't even got that kind of money to find another place so soon :/ been here 5 years and had no issues til now.
If you think the landlord is lying in order to get more money, then that's fraud. If so, just pass it on the police. In fact, just let all the other parties know you think there must be fraud going on and you're going to the police, it may speed things up for you.