to not pay the full rent

[NIGHTNAMECHANGE]

Have name changed. I am in a council house and can't work. Because of the 4 weeks rent free, universal credit have reduced the monthly amount. I'm paying the rent with the reduced amount they give me. My question is, can/will the council also apply to recover the difference from my universal credit each month.

Of course they will

The 4 weeks rent free was meant to help people but it's put me in a shit situation. It's a big inconvenience for me. I cant afford it

Do you get the full housing element covered, other than these 4 weeks?

I vaguely remember a friend of mine having similar, but she still got the allowance over the weeks she didn’t pay rent so over the 12 months it was covered. For example
rent is £100 p/w
x 48 as 4 weeks free is £4800

The £4800 would be split over how ever many payment cycles there were.

yes

You don't have to pay rent for 4 weeks of the year. So your housing is 48 weeks of rent divided by 12. That's what you are paying.

Rent free weeks tend to be Easter, Summer and two at Xmas. If you pay by DD to housing, your DD is normally adjusted during these weeks to a lower amount.

My rent is £110 a week for 48 weeks of the year. So I recieve a total of £440 a month. But most months I pay £476. However, during the rent free weeks I don't pay as much.

It was initally designed to give people extra money(that paid their rent directly) at Easter, Summer holidays and Xmas.

They can't deduct it off UC no. You will always be behind that amount until your free weeks are credited. Often it says that you don't get the rent free weeks if you are in debt, so you need to pay it.

I can see how it is confusing.

What do you mean by 'I can't afford it'?

So over a 12 month period UC should cover the total due to landlord/council. You aren’t out of pocket, just shit that it looks like you have a shortfall each month x

Your rent is being paid - there cannot be a profit made on the housing element; they can't pay you more than it costs.

Look at this this way - if you are charged £100 a week, the full rent for the year is 100 x 48 weeks (52 minus 4 - for ease, it's not exactly 52 rent days) = £4800.

Had there been no rent free weeks, the cost would have been £5200.

You're being paid £4800 divided into 12 months = £400.

If you aren't paying your rent monthly, paying it weekly instead, the difference comes where there's a five week month and you've paid twice in the same month's UC. And sometimes you're needing to eat for five weeks on four weeks' income.

You can afford it because you are receiving all of your rent from UC.