Universal credit payments

Hi thank you in advance.
Can you tell me if you know that when I claim Universal Credit is my rent paid directly to me or goes to my council?
Thank you.

This may be a bit left-field. However I feel worth mentioning. in my experience of being on the receiving end [ie landlord] of an APA - Alternative Payment Arrangement, UC are a complete nightmare for paying. They refused to pay on the correct date or to supply payment info. They would not answer any enquiry as I was not the claimant, even queries about the money they were supposed to be paying me, in a sense nothing to do with the tenant. They gave me a false phone number "for landlord enquiries" to get me off the line. I had to keep bothering the poor busy council supported housing people to try and sort it out, as they had slightly more, but still not full, access to UC. So in short, if you get housing help and can manage your money OK it will be better for your relationship with your landlord to pay yourself. If you need the support of an APA, just be aware your landlord needs to be happy with a possible poor level of service. Some may be used to it, but I wasn't!