Get real, Teribus. If you don't pay the private landlord the housing benefit money you receive, you get evicted. It may pass through your hands but the landlord will make damn sure he gets all of it off you. He knows what you get, he thinks it's rightfully his and there are no controls on him. By far the biggest beneficiaries of our having a welfare state are the landlords, the loan sharks and the big companies who don't pay decent wages.