Information for hosts

If you are thinking about hosting guests, there are a few things to consider. The government web page is a great place to start and you can read about the process of becoming a host.

Once you've made your decision to host, you'll need to register with the Homes for Ukraine scheme. That can be done by checking the property suitability guide

When you have sponsored for six months your thoughts may turn to what happens next?

You can read the information provided by the Homes for Ukraine scheme and the choices available to you. Not everyone will extend a guests stay or feel that hosting is something that can be offered long term.

Guides for sponsors are regularly updated and include eligibility criteria, applying as a sponsor, advice on making your guests welcome in the UK, as well as helping your guests with the next steps. 

There is advice here on meeting your guests and helping them to settle in.

If you're planning to host guests under the age of 18 years old without a legal guardian you must adhere to this guidance.

Setting up ’thank you’ payments to hosts  

To help us get support to guests as soon as possible please remember to notify us once your guest has arrived by contacting your designated delivery officer or email: HomesforUkraine@nottscc.gov.uk 

Once you have confirmed their arrival, we'll send a request for your bank details through a secure Nottinghamshire County Council email address.  

The email will provide you with a safe link to provide your bank details. It is important that you respond to this as soon as possible so we can arrange your payments. 

Please do not provide your bank details through any other route.

You will also need to make sure that you complete the declaration form after your guest has arrived.  

You will be unable to claim a ‘thank you payment’ until this form has been completed alongside all other required checks. 

Your main 'thank you payment' will only be paid on your first month if you have hosted for 16 days or more. It will be paid on your last month if the combined total of days between your first and last month's hosting is 16 days or more. 

When your guest’s Homes for Ukraine is expiring and they have applied for Ukraine Permission Extension (UPE) visa, please complete this form to claim the extension of ‘thank you’ payments. The council will contact you 28 days before your guests’ HFU expiry to notify you of this requirement. This payment is optional. If you do not wish to claim it, you do not need to fill in the form.

Understanding ‘thank you’ payments for hosts  

As per the Homes for Ukraine: Ukraine Permission Extension scheme - guidance for sponsors (GOV.UK) published on 21 January 2025, all thank you payments will be paid at a flat rate of £350 per month, per property with effect from Wednesday 1 April 2025.

This includes thank you payments to hosts where the guest is on the Homes for Ukraine (HFU) scheme or Ukrainian Permission Extension (UPE) scheme.  

To recognise the commitment and dedication of our hosts, Nottinghamshire County Council has chosen to uplift the £350 payment made by the Government between Wednesday 1 April 2026 and 31 March 2027. This is a discretionary increase to the existing ‘thank you payment’ and includes two parts: 

• If your guest has been in the UK 12 months or longer, your £350 payment will be uplifted to £500 per month. The £500 uplift will take effect in the payment month 1 year from guest arrival date.
• You will receive an extra £75 per person, per month 'Cost of Living' payment. The 'Cost of Living' payment is paid regardless of days spent hosting in the first or last month.

This discretionary increase is only in effect until 31 March 2027. 

The government has announced that when a guest reaches the end of their UPE visa, thank you payments will cease entirely for hosts. The date of your payment cessation is dependent on your guests' visa. The council will be contacting all hosts at least three months prior to this date to notify them of payments ending and to discuss the next steps. 

We appreciate that thank you payments, including the uplifts described above, can be confusing to understand. To help, we have prepared some questions and answers based on theoretical host/guest scenarios. Please see 'Host Payment Q and A' below. 

As always, if you have any questions about your host payment please contact homesforukaine@nottscc.gov.uk

Requirement of guest(s) absence notifications

You must let the county council know of any changes in your hosting arrangements. This includes any guest absences longer than 28 days from your property, as this will affect your 'Cost of Living Payment'. If you do not let the council know of these changes you may be overpaid. Any overpayments will need to be returned. All hosts must let us know of any guest absences by emailing homesforukraine@nottscc.gov.uk 

It is your duty as a host to understand your guests' occupancy of your property and report any changes accordingly. 

Please note that the host declaration form overrides the Government's statement that 'If you are sponsoring multiple guests, you must only notify your council of their absence if all guests are absent for more than four consecutive weeks'. By completing our host declaration form you are agreeing to let the council know of any guest absences longer than 28 days, not just instances of all guest absences. 

As more people reach six and even 12 months of hosting, there are still people arriving in the UK and new sponsors who are about to start hosting.

We believe that by exchanging experiences we can support one another and those who are about to start this journey. Here are some thoughts from current sponsors about what they have learned from hosting:

• ‘Hosting will work best if you are fairly relaxed about things, enjoy having a houseful of people, and also have enough space for some privacy for you and the family you are hosting’.

• ‘We have enjoyed learning about our guests lives and introducing them to British culture, events and places to visit. We provided them with an 'about us' information sheet at the beginning, including some basic house rules, but in fact we have all adapted very easily to living together.’

• ‘Understand that you will be (in most circumstances) not just providing sanctuary, you will be setting someone up with an entirely new life. So be prepared for many weeks of admin tasks from national insurance numbers, through to childcare advice, bank accounts and job searches. If you have a close family network, then asking them to take on specific tasks will help you.’

• ‘Look for help and guidance from local groups or organisations who've already been supporting Ukrainian guests. They can be very useful pointing new hosts towards local resources such as English language courses, job clubs and local council help’.

• ‘If you are hosting in a smaller town or village, be aware that your guest will likely need some help with transport, particularly opening bank accounts/claiming Universal Credit, getting to job interviews etc. If you have difficulty with this, but have friends/neighbours who admire you for hosting and tell you they wished they could do it, but don't have the space, maybe they can help out with occasional transport?’

New policy changes on sponsor “thank you” payments eligibility and unaccompanied minors have been released on the gov.uk website. The following updates came into effect on 1st October 2024: 

• for all new applications for thank you payments (both rematches and new arrivals), sponsors who are in (or form) a close family relationship with their guest will no longer be eligible for payment. This change applies to payment claims taking place from 1st October, irrespective of visa application dates. 

• a Ukrainian child already living in the UK with a close family member/s only, will not be treated as a Homes for Ukraine ‘sponsorship’ anymore, and hence the sponsor will not be eligible for thank you payments. 

Close family relationships include: a spouse, civil partner or unmarried partner; a parent; a parent-in-law; a son or daughter; a son- or daughter-in-law; a step-son or daughter; a sibling; a grandparent; or the spouse, civil partner or unmarried partner of any of these people. For unaccompanied minors, this also includes an aunt or uncle of the child. 

Sponsors are responsible for informing the local authority of their circumstances. Funding for councils: Homes for Ukraine - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Case 1

Question: We’re hosting a family of three people. Two of the guests have been with us for over three years and are now on UPE visas that expire in October 2026. Guest number three has joined us later and is currently on HFU visa which expires in March 2027. What is happening to our thank you payments?

Answer: You are currently receiving £725 in thank you payments that is calculated as £500 base payment +(£75 top up payments for three people). The central government is not planning to continue thank you payments under the UPE extension (further 24 months after the UPE), which means that from October 2026 your two original guests will be losing eligibility for thank you payments. Your payment after October 2026 will be £500 +£75 (for guest number three) = £575 a month. The county council has agreed to continue this support until 31 March 2027, so you are guaranteed to receive £575 until end of March 2027. 

Case 2

Question: With the upcoming drop in thank you payments and rising energy costs we will no longer be able to continue the hosting arrangement as it is now. We have a lovely relationship with our guests and want to support them, but it is just not financially viable. What housing options are there for us and our guests?

Answer: The guests can stay with you for as long as you are all happy with the arrangement. If your guests live in the same house with you, you may want to consider lodger agreement. (Lodgers - Shelter England) It is a legally binding document and will allow guests to claim housing element under the Universal Credit. If guests live in a self-contained property, you may want to consider an assured shorthold tenancy (assured shorthold tenancies (AST) - Shelter England). If guests want to start looking into securing independent housing, or if you provide them with a notice period, please get in touch with the team at: homesforukraine@nottscc.gov.uk. 

Case 3

Question: I have been hosting two guests on Homes for Ukraine since March 2025, one of them is going back to Ukraine in February 2026, will my thank you payments decrease?

Answer: Your thank you payment has been made up of the base payment of £350 plus cost of living top up from the council of £75 per person, totalling to £500 a month. As one of your guests is leaving, you will be losing one COL payment of £75 a month. However, as Nottinghamshire County Council has agreed to continue the uplift to base payments and cost of living top ups until March 2027, your thank you payment from March 2026 to March 2027 will become £575 a month: £500 (uplift for guests who stay in the UK over 12 months) plus £75 per one guest.

Case 4

Question: My guest's application to Humanitarian Protection has been successful, will this have any impact on my sponsorship arrangement?

Answer: Yes, Humanitarian Protection is a completely different visa type, same as Student visa, Skilled Worker visa, Spouse visa, etc. As soon as your guest changes the visa type, they are no longer on the Ukrainian visa scheme and sponsorship arrangement comes to an end, which means you will no longer be eligible for host payments.

Case 5

Question: I would like to sponsor my wife’s mother and my wife’s sister. Can I expect any thank you payments since they are family?

Answer:  According to the guidance, thank you payments to sponsors/hosts will only be issued where the guest and sponsor/host are not in a close family relationship. Guests who are already in the UK and move in with a close family member are classified as having left sponsorship under the Homes for Ukraine scheme rather than a rematch.

The definition of a close family member includes: a spouse, or civil or unmarried partner, a parent, a parent-in-law, a son or daughter, a son- or daughter-in-law, a stepson or daughter, a sibling, a grandparent; or the spouse, or civil or unmarried partner of any of these people. For unaccompanied minors, this also includes an aunt or uncle of the child (Paying sponsors/hosts: Homes for Ukraine - GOV.UK).

You won’t be eligible for thank you payments for your mother-in-law, but you will receive payment for your sister-in-law.