Who Gets Your Housing Benefit ?

Own_My_Own

BigAunty wrote: »

Apparently, the vulnerable in social housing are going to be exempt.
.

It's going to take more than that if one test area is already showing a 5 ford in arrears. They can't all be vulnerable. That is if anyone deemed vulnerable was included in the trial.

sammyjammy

More information on the pilots here
http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/report_abstracts/rr_abstracts/rra_822.asp
More information on the housing benefit payments here
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/personal-budgeting-support-guidance.pdf

Credit-Crunched

More squandering of benefits money on fags, booze and nice swanky TV's whilst the private land lords end up paying a fortune to evict due to non payment of rent....

Own_My_Own

Credit-Crunched wrote: »

More squandering of benefits money on fags, booze and nice swanky TV's whilst the private land lords end up paying a fortune to evict due to non payment of rent....

As has already been stated on here twice, tenents of private landlords already get their HB paid to them not the landlord. This new scheme is for social tenants.

I am a private tenant and pay my rent on the first of every month. I have also never been in arrears.

Viberduo

At my old place, it was paid to landlord which I disliked as this was same LL who never did repairs and Due to the flaw in the system as rent was due in advance but paid in arrears the LL could easily show rent was past arrears and despite days later the account actually being paid up they didnt change back.

My current flat is through a charity and credit union so I prefer it this way since I know LL cant mess me around.

Caused me problems now I have moved since he actually owes me money as I was unable to get it changed back.

The problem here is not that most housing benefit claimants are bad its that the benefit system is full of people who just want a free ride and they outnumber the genuine claimants, I at most when I was getting paid direct paid a day or so late due to having to cash cheque, then pay money into account, then transfer it to agency so if you were busy a day I didnt want to rush about, sometimes I even paid it early if it came early.

I had one landlord illegally evict me for late rent after he was the one who rang council saying he hadnt seen me for a few weeks so guessed I moved out which made council suspend benefits but he still expected me to pay.

Point is some landlords are bad, and just expect tenant to do everything eve if its the landlords fault payment is late i.e not giving out tenancy agreements, and some tenants just want a free ride.

ILW

Own_My_Own wrote: »

It's going to take more than that if one test area is already showing a 5 ford in arrears. They can't all be vulnerable. That is if anyone deemed vulnerable was included in the trial.

I would suggest the term "vulnerable" is getting rather overused lately. If someone decides to spend the rent money given to them on fags and bingo, that is just irresponsible and they deserve to be evicted.

Own_My_Own

ILW wrote: »

I would suggest the term "vulnerable" is getting rather overused lately. If someone decides to spend the rent money given to them on fags and bingo, that is just irresponsible and they deserve to be evicted.

Oh I am in no doubt that it has. The problem I can see arising is people not paying their rent, the council trying to evict them only to find there is some human right clause that stops them.
As in the council was some way at fault for giving them the money in the first place, and they would not be in this situation had the council left things as they were.

BigAunty

Own_My_Own wrote: »

It's going to take more than that if one test area is already showing a 5 ford in arrears. They can't all be vulnerable. That is if anyone deemed vulnerable was included in the trial.

Sorry, do you mean a five fold increase in arrears?

I haven't studied the results of the pilot so don't know the stats at all.

However, some arrears will be the result of vulnerabilities of the tenants who don't have the mental capacity to do the paperwork or basic budgeting and hopefully the pilots will help refine the process to identify these tenants and put the support in place for the future national launch.

Other arrears could possibly come as the result of attitudes and behaviours of the tenants who shun accepting responsibility for the simple domestic tasks associated with basic bill payments that most private tenants and homeowners can manage. Over time, these matters might improve when the culture around personal budgets becomes more entrenched and passivity discouraged.

BigAunty

Own_My_Own wrote: »

Oh I am in no doubt that it has. The problem I can see arising is people not paying their rent, the council trying to evict them only to find there is some human right clause that stops them.
As in the council was some way at fault for giving them the money in the first place, and they would not be in this situation had the council left things as they were.

Yes, in fact there was a test case on a Human Rights basis by a council tenant who lost possession of her social housing for significant rent arrears when she was entitled to HB but for some reason, never applied for it properly.

The court found in the tenant's favour and told off the social housing landlord for not doing enough to help her with her HB claim and instructed them to give her another tenancy. She's now paying off her 3.5k rent arrears at £5 a week! Unless my maths is bad (which is possible) I think this will take her a decade plus to pay back.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1360046/New-ECHR-ruling-lead-thousands-tenants-refusing-pay-rent.html

http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/human-rights-ruling-halts-eviction/6513846.article

I think this means that social housing landlords have to bend over backwards to help them with HB claims because they can't get possession of properties when there are huge rent arrears.

mazza111

I can agree that I think it will be shambolic for some people. We've already had one lass (iirc she had mild learning difficulties) had a letter through about it and finding it rather scary, she posted on here for advice.

Council and HA properties, the HB usually goes straight to the landlord. This is all about to change when UC comes in.