Refunds - paying to the housing provider
Where the client has not paid, or has underpaid the rent to their housing provider for the same period that the refund is due, the refund should be issued directly to the housing provider.
This is because the client does not need to be compensated because they never paid the higher amount of rent.
Instead the refund is issued to the housing provider to compensate for the Income Related Rent Subsidy they didn't get for the same period due to the incorrect rate of Income Related Rent that was previously calculated.
The housing provider will confirm to MSD:
- the client has not paid the correct rent to the housing provider during the refund period
- the amount of rent arrears that has been accrued during the refund period
Note that a refund cannot be used to repay historical rent arrears that is outside of the refund period.
Example
The client's rate of Income Related Rent and rate of rent charged was $260 per week. A decision is made to backdate the rate of Income Related Rent and issue a refund. The new rate of Income Related Rent is $65 per week.
The client has not paid the higher amount of rent to their housing provider.
The refund period is between 15 January 2023 and 5 February 2023. During this period the client made four rent payments.
Refund period (15 January 2023 and 5 February 2023) | |||||
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Totals | |
Rate of Income Related Rent previously calculated and charged as rent | $260 | $260 | $260 | $260 | $1040 |
New calculated rate of Income Related Rent | $65 | $65 | $65 | $65 | $260 |
Actual rent amount paid by client to housing provider | $60 | $60 | $60 | $60 | $240 |
The difference between the rate of Income Related Rent previously calculated (and charged as rent) and the new lower calculated rate for the period is $780. This is the total refund amount for the period. A refund of $780 would be issued to the housing provider.
The client would have rent arrears with the housing provider for $20.
