Ending your hosting arrangements, and helping your guest with their next steps: Homes for Ukraine
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.
Continuing sponsorship
If you are able to continue sponsoring for longer than 6 months that is brilliant. We ask everyone who is hosting guests, particularly those coming up to their fourth month of sponsoring, to continue hosting their guests until they are ready to move on, where that is possible.
If you continue to host, you are eligible to receive thank you payments.
You will receive £350 a month during the first 12 months of your guests’ stay. This increases to £500 once your guest has been in the UK for 12 months for the duration of a guest’s Homes for Ukraine visa permission (which is up to 36 months and up to 18 months for guests on the new 18 month Homes for Ukraine visa (which came into effect on 19 February 2024).
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.
Updates to this page
Last updated 19 February 2024 + show all updates
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Guidance has been updated following changes to the Homes for Ukraine Immigration Rules on 19 February 2024.
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Updated to show that the thank you payment is now payable for up to 3 years after the guest arrives.
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First published.