Am I being harassed by my letting agent? I'd appreciate your opinion

Am I being crazy or do I have a serious problem with my letting agent?

I've lived in my home for over 10 years, the entire time I've been in receipt of housing benefit, which has covered my full rent and due to my health difficulties the council has always paid direct to the landlord.

Last year the letting agent changed, I contacted housing benefits and was told that the new landlord needed to contact them to make the switch because I wasn't getting a new tenancy agreement and that the switch could take up to 8 weeks.

I passed this information onto the letting agent, 2 weeks later I received a phone call, telling me my rent hasn't been paid, I explained again what HB had said and they needed to contact them.

2 weeks later another phone call, "no rent's been paid", they had contacted HB but hadn't heard anything back and demanded I call them. Which I did, to be told HB had replied to the letting agent. When I called the LA back, they had a look in their inbox and low and behold there was the email. I was then instructed to "Call HB every 2 weeks, you;ve got to keep on at them, because if you don't it'd take forever. Call the or they'll forget!".

I learnt nothing about the inner working of housing benefit claims but plenty about their brand of management style. I didn't hear anything for a time but it was just the quiet before the storm.

Then late November last year the flood gates opened, I received a phone call from the letting agent saying I'm in arrears. I have had this before because my rent is paid in arrears in 4 week installments, making 13 payments a year instead of 12 monthly payments. I explained this to the agent and they said okay and we left it at that, till the next week.

This time an email saying I'm in arrears, I replied and explained again, thinking they have it over the phone and in writing, job done. Wrong. Over the next 3 weeks 4 emails and phone calls all saying the same "Your in arrears, PAY NOW". No matter how many times I explained more would still arrive, this arrived on the 6th of January.

 [We are writing to you as rent due on the 25/12/2021 has not been received.

Perhaps this is an oversight on your behalf, but any further delay could become a very serious matter which may threaten your Tenancy.

Please arrange an immediate payment of £85.36 to settle the account or contact us to explain the reason for the delay. May we remind you that, under the terms of your Tenancy Agreement, rental payments should be made by Standing Order. Please check that you have this arrangement in place with your bank to ensure that future rental payments are made correctly.]

And I've received 2 more of these emails on the 11th and 16th of February.

I was starting to think that the reason for the constant harassment was to pressure me to change my payment arrangements because it didn't fit in with their system but things have gotten even darker, on the 20th of January I was sent a Section 13 Rent increase notice and today a "routine property inspection" for the 3rd of March.

Like many my home is my security, having my rent paid direct has saved me many times, when I'm unable to cope with my illness this is my safety net, my rent is paid. And I refuse to change that for these people and don't feel I should, but my mind is now drifting into thinking maybe it's more, maybe they want me out.

Am I being discriminated against because I receive benefits?

In the past, when I've looked online at properties to rent, it would always be my new agent that would make a point of saying "No benefits" or now they have "would suit professional" instead.

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading and I am sorry for rambling, this stuff has been running round my head all night and I'm hoping this might help me sleep a little easier.

Please leave your opinion, I'm very interested in anything you have to say