Super Sponsor Scheme and Homes for Ukraine: guidance for local authorities

Thank you payments

Local authorities will administer ‘thank you’ payments to sponsors/hosts once they are content that the sponsor/host meets the suitability requirements of the scheme.

Sponsors/hosts will receive £350 a month during the first 12 months of their guests’ stay. This increases to £500 once the guest has been in the UK for 12 months in order to help sponsors who are able to continue hosting for longer, up to a maximum duration of two years. This includes when a sponsor or guest has been rematched, even if it is the sponsor’s first time hosting.

The thank you payment is available for a maximum of up to two years after the guest arrives. This is intended to support existing hosts, and to help new hosts to offer support to Ukrainians in the UK who may need a new place to stay, and to give guests who may need it more time to get ready to move into independent accommodation.

The payments will be tax free and should not affect the sponsor’s entitlement to benefits or council tax status.

Local authorities must ensure that they adhere to the following conditions of payment:

• only the named lead sponsor is eligible for the ‘thank you’ payment
• lead sponsors can claim £350 for the first 12 months from the date that the guest initially arrived in the UK, and £500 from after 12 months up to 24 months
• only one monthly payment will be given per residential address, regardless of the number of guests being hosted, size, or location of the property
• payments must only be issued to those lead sponsors where it is confirmed that they have passed the necessary property and safeguarding checks
• fraud checks must be conducted in line with the council’s anti-fraud processes
• lead sponsors are not eligible for the monthly payment if they are charging the guest rent
• in the case of a rematch, the new host is eligible for sponsor payments at either £350 or £500 per month depending on how long the guest has been in the UK, for the outstanding number of months up to the end of the guest’s first 24 months (so, if a guest departs their original sponsor and moves into a new host’s home after 12 months after they’ve arrived in the UK, the new host would be eligible for 12 months of sponsor payments, at £500 per month, as long as the conditions of payment are met)

Funding will be allocated for these payments but we expect local authorities to cover administration costs from the tariff, including costs of fraud prevention.