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The government has admitted that it is concerned about the apparently arbitrary way councils decide whether tenants are vulnerable enough to have their housing benefit paid directly to their landlords.

Local housing allowance, the revamped housing benefit for private rented housing, is paid directly to tenants unless they fulfil criteria of vulnerability set out by the government.

Research by homelessness charity Crisis has found a lack of clarity and transparency in councils’ decisions around the issue, with many applications for vulnerability refused with little explanation.

Landlords have reported they are being put at risk of repossession because vulnerable tenants are running up arrears.

Benefits minister Kitty Ussher told MPs last week that she was ‘concerned’ about variations in the way councils are interpreting the vulnerability guidelines.

She told Halifax MP Linda Riordan: ‘Like my honourable friend, I too have been concerned that some local authorities are implementing the regulations differently from some other local authorities, so we shall be reissuing the guidance.’

And while the government will not change its guidelines, it does plan to examine whether the wording could be clarified.

Meanwhile research agency BDRC this week published a survey of 507 private landlords asking what changes would encourage more of them to let to housing benefit claimants.

At the top of the list was for the government to stop paying benefits direct to tenants.

Ms Ussher also responded to MPs’ concerns about the recent revision of the rental areas used to calculate benefit levels, following complaints from some councils that the new expanded areas priced tenants out of more expensive neighbourhoods.

The minister said a quarter of the rental areas were being reviewed this year and 14 reviews would be published ‘quite soon’, with a further 18 in the next few months.