Social Development Minister Paula Bennett says the Government is investigating paying accommodation supplements directly to landlords on a voluntary basis.
Ms Bennett says there are cases where landlords are unfairly hiking rents and providing sub-standard housing to low income families.
But she says some landlords view low income families as a risk and one way of addressing that could be to pay accommodation supplements directly to them.
Labour says the housing payment system needs an overhaul because landlords are using the supplement to take advantage of beneficiaries and low income families.