Ending your hosting arrangements, and helping your guest with their next steps: Homes for Ukraine
Source: gov.uk (2025-01-21)

Information about what to do if you need to end your hosting arrangements for any reason.

Your sponsorship arrangement might end for many different reasons.

Before your guest arrives

If you want to withdraw your offer of sponsorship before your guest arrives in the UK, but after their visa is issued, you should contact the guest to tell them.

You must also always tell your local council as soon as possible.

If your living arrangements aren’t working out

If your sponsorship ends because you are not getting on with your guest, or you are worried it is about to end because of this, contact your local council.

There are different ways your local council could help you. For example, they may offer you:
- advice (for example how to communicate with your guest)
- emergency housing
- to rematch you with a new guest
If you cannot reach a resolution, you should tell your local council as soon as possible. They can help to find a new placement for your guest, and if you still want to sponsor, they may be able to rematch you with a new guest, if that’s appropriate.

You want to stop hosting before 6 months

If you are unable to continue your sponsorship arrangement beyond 6 months for any reason, you should try to give your guests as much notice as you can, ideally two months’ notice.

You must also tell your local council 2 months before a sponsorship arrangement ends, so that they can end the thank you payments you receive for hosting, when your guest has left.

When you have sponsored for 6 months

This guidance is in addition to the information and guidance provided by your local council.

We encourage you to talk to your guest 4 months after their arrival in the UK, about the options for their next steps, including:
- continuing sponsorship
- finding your guest a new host (rematching)
- renting private accommodation
- contacting your local council for alternative accommodation
Whatever you decide to do at the 6-month point, tell your local council 2 months before. It will make it easier for them to offer support if your guest is moving on or to continue make the thank you payments if you continue to host. You should continue to keep the council informed, especially if anything changes after this point. You can search for your local council (https://www.gov.uk/find-local-council).

Continuing sponsorship

If you are able to continue sponsoring for longer than 6 months that is brilliant. We ask everyone who is hosting guests to continue to do so until their guests are ready to move on, where that is possible.

If you continue to host, you continue to be eligible to receive thank you payments.

Until 1 April 2025, sponsors/hosts are eligible to receive thank you payments of £350 per household during the first 12 months of a guest’s arrival in the UK, this increases to £500 a month once guests have been in the UK for 12 months.

From 1 April 2025, sponsors/hosts will be eligible to receive £350 a month per household, irrespective of how long guests have been in the UK.

If a guest is in a sponsorship arrangement when granted permission under the Ukraine Permission Extension (UPE) scheme, their sponsor/host will be asked to reapply if they wish to continue to receive a monthly thank you payment. Eligible sponsors/hosts of those previously on Homes for Ukraine visas will be able to claim thank you payments of £350 a month for the 18 months that guests are covered by the UPE visa. See further guidance on the Ukraine Permission Extension scheme (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/homes-for-ukraine-ukraine-permission-extension-scheme-guidance-for-sponsors).

If you arrange to host a guest without the agreement of the local council then you won’t be able to claim the thank you payment, because this will be outside of the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

However, we understand that not everyone can continue to offer accommodation after 6 months and guests might want to find their own accommodation. Where that is the case, we encourage you to work with your guests to develop a plan for how they will move on.

As of 1 October 2024, close family members (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/homes-for-ukraine-sponsor-guides) of Homes for Ukraine visa holders are not eligible to start claiming thank you payments for hosting them. This applies to both new arrivals and those who are already in the UK and move in with a close family member, as well as new thank you payment claims under UPE.

However, we understand that not everyone can continue to offer accommodation after 6 months and guests might want to find their own accommodation. Where that is the case, we encourage you to work with your guests to develop a plan for how they will move on.