housing benefits for private renters are falling short of the levels needed, leaving many homeless people stuck in a desperate situation and putting yet more people at risk of homelessness. Northern Ireland In Northern Ireland, tenants must apply to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive regardless of whether they rent from a private landlord, from the NIHE itself, or from a housing association. Pre-tenancy determinations Before the introduction of the Local Housing Allowance the only way of finding out whether the benefit for the property would be restricted would have been to obtain a Pre Tenancy Determination. These had to be requested through the local authority and The Rent Service decision was treated by the Local Authority in the same way as any other referral to the Rent Service. Requests needed to be made by a prospective tenant and the landlord of the property. If the circumstances of the individual claimant were broadly the same as that of the prospective tenant who made the request for the PTD the decision remained valid for a year. Delays in processing leading to "No-DSS" Many larger councils suffered from delays in processing Housing Benefit claims. Delays of up to a year were reported. Delays and rent restrictions were so endemic in the system that it became common to see classified advertisements for lettings stating No DSS (the then-Department of Social Security, now called the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)). It usually meant that the landlord was not willing to consider letting to a tenant who would be dependent on housing benefit to pay the rent. Performance of councils has improved after millions of pounds in public money were poured in to support the worst-performing councils. The DWP requires councils to process claims within an average of thirty days from receipt to payment. Changes in the circumstances of claimants must be decided on within a target of twelve days. After a review of performance indicators, the DWP combined these targets into one indicator – the right time indicator. Very few councils are now reporting backlogs, although the recession has seen an increase in case-load which has resulted in the Government granting Local Authorities an additional £45 million for 2009/10 in order to ensure continued good performance. In practice, lettings agencies will usually obtain credit references on prospective tenants and, once the tenants have moved in, they are ambivalent as to whether tenants claim housing