# Hackney Council in London unable to pay housing benefit after cyber attack (Sky News, 17 Oct 2020) * **Hackney Council unable to pay housing benefit after cyber attack** * By Alexander Martin. Published in Sky News on 17 October 2020 * * **Summary**: * Thousands of private renters in Hackney could face eviction and potentially homelessness as **the council says it is unable to make housing benefit payments due to a cyber attack earlier this week**. * The council was hit on Tuesday 13 October by what Mayor Philip Glanville described as a "serious cyber attack" which continues to leave many of its services and IT systems unavailable. * In an update regarding the incident published late on Friday 16 October, the council warned it was unable to make some payments, including discretionary housing payments, certain supplier payments, and housing benefit. * **Keywords**: London, England, UK, social housing, financial help, cyber crime --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://housing-base.journalismarena.eu/social-and-public-housing/media-stories/hackney-council-in-london-unable-to-pay-housing-benefit-after-cyber-attack-sky-news-17-oct-2020.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.