Rules concerning the £350 gift payments to lead sponsors as follows...

• Only the named lead sponsor is eligible for the £350 payment per month
• Lead sponsors can receive the £350 gift payments for up to 12 months
• Lead sponsors are only eligible for monthly payments for as long as the guest remains living in their accommodation
• 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 can only be issued to those lead sponsors where it is confirmed that they have passed the necessary property and safeguarding checks. All five set checks in the government’s Foundry system must have been completed before we begin the process of issuing the sponsor payment
• Lead sponsors are not eligible for the £350 monthly payment if they're charging the guest rent
• We'll begin making gift payments to lead sponsors once the guest has been living in the sponsor’s accommodation for at least half of a month
• Where guests move out before the full 12-month period, the sponsor is eligible to claim the monthly payment if the guest has lived in their accommodation for at least half of the month of departure
• Fraud checks will be conducted in line with our anti-fraud processes. An in-person check will be carried out after six months

The following five tests have to be completed on all hosts prior to payment being made:

• The accommodation exists and can be used as residential accommodation (this will have been done by the property team when you had your inspection)
• The accommodation has been visited and it appears suitable for the proposed guests (this will have been done by the property team when you had your inspection)
• Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks have been initiated (the DBS team can confirm your DBS check has been started)
• The guest(s) has/have arrived in the accommodation (Amanda Jones and her colleagues at Shropshire Supports Refugees have been assisting with this)
• Safeguarding checks have been undertaken, including visiting the guests in their accommodation, and it can be confirmed that there are no serious concerns