more responsibility to ensure the payments are made on time.

That was the warning sounded in the House yesterday as MPs passed The Housing Allowance Amendment Act 1993.

Housing Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness said under the Act tenants will be sent a housing allowance cheque made out to the landlord.

Instead of having the Housing Authority responsible for paying their rent, he said, tenants will be responsible for making sure the housing allowance cheque and their portion of the rent is paid to the landlord during the first seven days of the month.

Mr. Edness explained that the change was introduced to allow tenants to maintain their dignity and take "as much responsibility as possible in managing their affairs''.

He said it was also changed because "it has been a nightmare for the Housing Authority when they had to wait for (housing allowance) recipients' part of the rent to pay the (full) rent''.

Under the proposed law, if a housing allowance recipient does not pay his or her rent for two months, landlords must notify the Housing Authority and the Authority will be able to know whether the landlord has cashed the cheque, Mr.

Edness said.

Or if the cheque is not cashed, the landlord will be contacted to make sure the tenant is up to date on their rent payments.

"Action will be taken fairly quickly when we have a tenant withholding the Government allowance or his portion of the rent,'' Mr. Edness said, adding that the tenant will first be spoken to "in very strong terms'', and may have his or her allowance suspended.

He also noted that two negative resolutions put down at the last meeting of the House, allowed responsibility for housing allowance to be removed from the Housing Authority and given to the Ministry's new Financial Services Department.

Shadow Social Services and Housing Minister Mr. Nelson Bascome agreed that the amendment was "much needed''.

He noted that Bermuda was becoming a "welfare state''.

"This legislation shows we have to have certain pillars to assist those persons who can't afford to live in this country ,'' he said. "And the numbers are increasing.

"Members of this House each day are approached by someone, or someone who knows of someone, needing financial assistance to boost that pay cheque.'' Mr. Bascome also pointed out that there had been "some glitches'' in the two-year-old housing allowance system.

Noting that there has been a small increase in white-collar crime, he said: "I would hope that we are not opening the door to forging of cheques''.

Mr. Bascome also said under the old housing allowance payment system, some landlords and tenants were "left out in the cold''.

Tenants, with seasonable jobs, sometimes found themselves behind in rent payments because of the time that it took to process housing allowances, he said.

Mr. Bascome stressed that Government should be looking at "enhancing the lives of people'' so they do not have to rely on housing allowance.

Mr. Edness said he appreciated Mr. Bascome's support and his concerns.

He admitted that the housing allowance assessment system took about a month to thoroughly make sure the applicant qualified.

But he said if tenants find themselves falling behind in rent payments because of this, they should bring it to housing allowance administrators' attention.

However, Mr. Edness said, some tenants bring such a situation on themselves by waiting until the month that the rent is due to apply for assistance, instead of applying a month or more in advance.

He also admitted that there was "a small percentage of people who tried to beat the system by not paying their portion of rent'' or by giving false information.

But he urged people not to do this. Because, he said, "usually they will be caught out within two months and the allowance will stop''.

Noting that the proposed amendment was based on the assumption that tenants would "basically be honest'', Mr. Edness said: "We know that this is not always the case.

"But this puts the landlord's cheque in the recipient's (tenant's) hand and it's up to them to put the rest with that and give it to the landlord.

"If they try to forge that cheque, they are going to get into trouble and there's nothing that Government or anyone else can do about it.

"It is entirely up to that individual to make sure he (or she) does the right thing.'' Concerning Mr. Bascome's concern about the number of people requiring social assistance, Mr. Edness said people will need assistance as long as there is unemployment.