Advice for hosts of Ukrainian refugees

Becoming a host

To become a host, you must be:

• over the age of 18
• able to offer a spare room or home for at least 6 months

If you want to sponsor someone applying for a visa, you must be one of the following on the date of your guest’s visa application:

• a British citizen
• an Irish citizen
• settled in the UK (known as having ‘indefinite leave to remain’)

Ukrainian guests in the UK can sponsor their children to come to the UK on the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Find out more about the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Host thank you payments

What you can get

In Islington, hosts are entitled to monthly payments of £350 to support them with the extra costs that can come with hosting. This figure is the same regardless of how many people you are hosting.

After hosting for 6 months, these monthly payments increase to £550 a month.

Who is eligible

You are eligible for payments if your guest is staying in the UK on either the Homes for Ukraine scheme or on the Ukraine Permission Extension. 

You will not be eligible for payments if you are in a close family relationship with somebody you are hosting.

When to tell us about changes

You must tell us if:

• your guest is away from the hosting arrangement for 28 days or more. We will need to pause thank you payments until your guest returns.
• your guest applies for a different visa. If your guest applies for a different visa, we will stop the thank you payments. If they remain in the UK on the Ukraine Permission Extension after their Homes for Ukraine visa expires, you will need to reapply for host thank you payments. 

If you are overpaid as a result of not informing us, you will need to return the overpaid funds to us.

How to receive payment

Payments will begin once all relevant safety checks have been included – these include a property inspection, completed DBS checks on all adults in the sponsor’s home, and a welcome visit conducted by a member of Islington Council’s Refugee and Migrant service.

Payments are made in arrears.

If your guest stays in the UK on the Ukraine Permission Extension

If your guest remains in the UK on the Ukraine Permission Extension after their Homes for Ukraine visa expires, you will need to reapply for host thank you payments, which will continue to be paid at the rate of £550 a month if your application is successful. The Refugee and Migrant service will get in touch with you about how you can apply for further payments.

To be eligible for continued thank you payments, you must prove that you and your guest(s) are not in a close family relationship.

Upon the expiry of a guest’s permission to stay in the UK under the Ukraine Permission Extension, there will be no further host thank you payments.

Ending your hosting arrangement

Check our advice on ending your hosting arrangement.

Helping your guests to settle in

For your guests, Islington may seem unfamiliar and difficult to navigate. Here's how to help them settle into their new surroundings.

• Show your guests them around your local area. Remember this area will be unfamiliar to them and things that may seem obvious to you may not necessarily be obvious to your guests. You could start by ensuring that your guests know where essential places such as supermarkets, shops, GP practices, and hospitals are.
• You may also wish to show them places they can visit in their free time, such as parks, cafes, and museums.
• You can learn a few key phrases in Ukrainian. You can use Google Translate to learn certain words and phrases and apps such as Duolingo to learn the language more generally. 
• Keep an eye out for community events for Ukrainian refugees. These will be advertised in the monthly bulletins that go out to guests and hosts on the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
• Help your guests set up a bank account or apply for Universal Credit.
• Help your guests sign up to a GP.

Visits and safeguarding checks

The government has set out requirements for visits and checks to take place for sponsors and refugees who have arrived on the Homes for Ukraine Scheme. Visits will not take place for those who have arrived by the Ukraine Family Scheme.

Property inspections

Property inspections will be arranged by our property services team to review the basic safety and suitability of your property. You will receive a text outlining the date and time of our visit - please reply to this text should you need to re-arrange the appointment.

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks

You will receive an email from our Human Resources (HR) department to start the DBS check. Please follow the information in the email. If you have more questions, please contact HR by emailing recruitment@islington.gov.uk or by calling 020 7527 2155.

Welcome visits

We will schedule home soon after your guests arrive, to meet both guests and hosts. Different teams from the council will visit, including the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF), Refugee and Migrant Service, and Early Help when there are children within the sponsored group.

The council will try to complete this visit within two weeks. Please note that this is a statutory check that we need to complete and we ask that sponsors and guests make sure they are available for this visit.

Further support for both sponsors and guests will be provided by the NRPF and Refugee and Migrant service along with other council services, to provide help in areas such as benefits, employment, education and wellbeing.

Pets 

There are rabies quarantine restrictions in place for pets from Ukraine. Find information about bringing pets to the UK from Ukraine.

These organisations may be useful if any pets need assistance.

• Streetvet provide free veterinary care for pets of homeless people. They may be able to care for the pets of refugees or signpost to other services.
• BlueCross and the PDSA are charities which provide free or reduced cost veterinary care for people with low incomes. Please see their websites for details of who is eligible for their services.
• Battersea Dogs and Cats Home take on animals which the owners would like to surrender for re-homing.