Should they be allowed to get away with it, is it legal?

We applied for rent rebate January 25th and were told all our details should be in by February 25th, only to be told that the system was shut down february 13th to be updated and would be up and running by March 13th. I was then told,after investigation, that it would be working a week earlier, it did for half an hour and took, guess what till the 13th to be fully operational. All the time they insisted that once the sytem was working properly any monies owed would be paid within 2 days or so.I paid Februarys rent money which left us living like poupers for 4 weeks but was confident that all would be ok for March's rent to be paid. I rang them yesterday to be told no payments would be sent out untill after April 16th. That means I will be 2 months behind with my rent and as I rent from a private landlord it puts a lot of added stress on me as my husband has been off work sick since last October,we have two teenage children, who have been great but it is all a long nightmare.Legal?