Ukraine Permission Extension (UPE) scheme
The government has extended thank you payments for eligible hosts for the 18 months guests are covered by the UPE visa. To ensure this is affordable within government budgets, all thank you payments will be paid at a flat rate of £350 per month.
Essex County Council has taken the decision to increase these payments by an extra £200 per month for sponsors who have hosted for over six months. Sponsors are only eligible while the guest is staying at their property. Payments are only available to sponsors of UPE visa holders who were on the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
Sponsors are not eligible to apply for thank you payments on UPE for hosting a close family member. This applies even if you are currently receiving payments under Homes for Ukraine. You can find the definition of close family members on the tell us when your guests have arrived page.
Guests can apply for UPE 28 days before their Homes for Ukraine visa expires. Visit gov.uk for more information about the UPE scheme.
How to apply for payments
Once your guest has applied for UPE please ask them to email H4U@essex.gov.uk confirming the date they applied. We will not be able to release payments without this confirmation.
To ensure there is no gap between your HfU payments and your UPE payments you should submit a ‘thank you’ payment application once they have applied. Please note you will need to re-apply even if you are currently receiving payments under HfU.
To submit a ‘thank you’ payment for UPE you will be asked to confirm that:
- your guests are not close family members
- you will not be charging guests rent
If you are unable to make these declarations, contact H4U@essex.gov.uk.
Use our form to apply for the payment.
To keep receiving payments
Once your guest has received their UPE visa outcome they must send their visa share code to H4U@essex.gov.uk to ensure your payments continue. If this is not received your payments may stop.
UKVI is advising that UPE visa outcome decisions should take around 8 weeks.
You must tell us if your guest/s move out.
DBS and home checks
Home visit outcomes will transfer over from the HfU scheme so no new visits will take place.
If your household DBS checks are over 3 years old you will be asked to complete these again.
For more information please see the DBS and home checks section of this guide.