how does one get it paid direct to landlord? Tenant claims that this cannot be done.
Have you been asked to fill out a section of the form??
Haven't seen a rent allowance form in years but from what i can remember it's a whole A4 page.
Your details need to be on the form, the amount of rent, has a deposit been paid, is the house furnished/unfurnished ect....i'm sure there'll be asking for a blood sample next!
Anyway on this form there is a section regarding payment. You can either have a cheque posted to the landlord/tennent or you can have it lodged direct into your account and then your tennent will make up the rest to you each month.
Sounds a bit dodgy that your tennent is first of all lying to you, and second doesn't want the money to go directly to you.
In certain situation where the tennent doesn't want to disclose to the landlord that he/she is receiving rent allowance then the landlord section of the form isn't filled out, you just need to provide the agreement, but this wouldn't be the case as you already know about it.
There has to be some reason and i'd find out what theat reason is before you go any further.