Change to housing Benefit

BigAunty

lukieboy96 wrote: »

I think it is going to cause a lot of problems, when it is rolled out in full.

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You are right. I have browsed some of the feedback from social housing landlords who are participating in the pilot and they are reporting higher arrears and that their tenants prefer the old way when their HB was paid directly to the landlord. Unfortunately I can't find the document now so can't provide a link.

Here is another link on this issue

"The report, Optimising welfare reform outcomes for social tenants, found 86% of social tenants believe “strongly” that it is better for Housing Benefit to be paid direct to the landlord so that they are secure in their home. At present, nine out of ten tenants opt for rent to be paid direct to their landlord, with 92% saying they would choose this option again, if given the choice. Some 35% of social tenants on housing benefit, rising to 50% of those who have missed rental payments, are not confident that they can keep up rental payments if they receive their rent direct. "

http://www.housing.org.uk/policy/welfare-reform/universal-credit/direct-payments-to-tenants/

I haven't been able to find any info on how the exemptions will work, how they will define which social housing tenants will be exempt from direct payments under UC. Hopefully another poster can advise.

BigAunty

lukieboy96 wrote: »

Just found letter I was sent and it does say 'weekly' rent. So I do not know why she said monthly on the phone. This should be resolved by the credit being passed from old address to new!

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When I asked about your rental period, I was referring to what your tenancy agreement says - what does this say? Something along the lines of £x rent is due on x date and thereafter.

The letter may refer to weekly rent to give you an idea of how much your rent is on a weekly basis but your tenancy agreement will tell you what your actual legal contractual rental period is, the rental cycle.

seven-day-weekend

BigAunty wrote: »

You are right. I have browsed some of the feedback from social housing landlords who are participating in the pilot and they are reporting higher arrears and that their tenants prefer the old way when their HB was paid directly to the landlord. Unfortunately I can't find the document now so can't provide a link.

Here is another link on this issue

"The report, Optimising welfare reform outcomes for social tenants, found 86% of social tenants believe “strongly” that it is better for Housing Benefit to be paid direct to the landlord so that they are secure in their home. At present, nine out of ten tenants opt for rent to be paid direct to their landlord, with 92% saying they would choose this option again, if given the choice. Some 35% of social tenants on housing benefit, rising to 50% of those who have missed rental payments, are not confident that they can keep up rental payments if they receive their rent direct. "

http://www.housing.org.uk/policy/welfare-reform/universal-credit/direct-payments-to-tenants/

I haven't been able to find any info on how the exemptions will work, how they will define which social housing tenants will be exempt from direct payments under UC. Hopefully another poster can advise.

But how much of this is due to the fact that they have never had to? The rest of us usually manage to pay our rent/mortgage out of our income, it doesn't go straight out of our wages to the landlord/bank. Nannying again (although I appreciate there are some people who for reasons beyond their control are unable to budget, most people could if they had to).

Simon7685

Not sure if this has already been mentioned or not, as I haven't had time to read the full thread.

Regards your HA advising you have to be a month in advance, check your tenancy agreement to see if it says that specifically in it. If it doesn't they cannot enforce it, so a possession order would likely fail. I have come accross this recently with a HA, they have a habit of trying to impose changes of agreement on tenants without varying the existing agreement and they cannot enforce it unless you have agreed to it and signed an ammendment.

Hope that helps.

BigAunty

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

But how much of this is due to the fact that they have never had to? The rest of us usually manage to pay our rent/mortgage out of our income, it doesn't go straight out of our wages to the landlord/bank. Nannying again (although I appreciate there are some people who for reasons beyond their control are unable to budget, most people could if they had to).

This is more a matter for discussion time rather than a specific answer to a specific benefit question, so apologies to the OP for bringing this thread slightly off topic.

In my research on this subject matter, I found out that around 14% of social housing tenants are believed not to even have bank accounts. It is going to be an enormous shift for a large minority of these tenants who may have never operated a bank account or direct debit before.

Perhaps some shun it because they come from a background where they've only worked in a cash only economy, because they've been hit with debt or bank charges before so have withdrawn from banking services or because in the past, banks were not obliged to offer even basic accounts to those with poor credit history so they've been excluded from banking.

Either way, it is going to be hard for many tenants who have not got the skills and experience to budget, pay simple bills, operate a bank account and so forth.

We are talking about a massive cultural shift here. How could it be expected that someone who has been cushioned since the start of their tenancies many years ago from these basic behaviours/attitudes/experiences can suddenly become adept and expert in them?

You may argue that it is nannying and that the individual should take responsibility for what you think is a quite simple matter to deal with but you can see from the OPs posts that they find the change difficult to deal with, the communication from the landlord confusing, don't understand how the new relationship work between tenant, council and landlord, is vulnerable.

Critics think that direct payments to social housing tenants is counterproductive and won't achieve its aim.

"Given the vulnerability of the population at whom the reforms are directed, considerable care needs to be taken in the design of the Universal Credit to ensure that it does not contribute to financial instability among low income households. Indeed, failure could damage broader welfare goals by triggering indebtedness and undermining an individual’s ability to remain within the labour market. More positively, if done well, these reforms could make big strides towards the Government’s stated aim of assisting households to better manage their finances"
More than 15% of local authority tenants and 13% of housing association tenants do not have a bank account - See more at: http://www.housing.org.uk/policy/welfare-reform/universal-credit/direct-payments-to-tenants/#sthash.iHWlaK1v.dpuf

lukieboy96

Thank you for people's replies. I have just read my tenancy agreement and it does say weekly in advance. So should be up to date once credit from old address is added.

Perhaps, someone would like to move thread to Discussion Forum.

BigAunty

lukieboy96 wrote: »

Perhaps, someone would like to move thread to Discussion Forum.

Apologies for combining a discussion on policy to give the context to your specific HB issue.

I don't recommend that this thread is ported to DT, even though it spans benefits and policy.

While this forum does receive trolling and unsympathetic posts which is contrary to this forum's policy, over in DT, it's no hold barred and you're just likely to get a kicking there.

I would guess that direct payments to social housing tenants are going to be seen as a good thing. You may not get a particularly balanced debate there.

If you are interested in a debate, I suggest you start a new post there enquiring how the posters on DT feel about future changes which will pay HB directly to social housing tenants and whether or not this is a good idea. Then stand back...

seven-day-weekend

BigAunty wrote: »

This is more a matter for discussion time rather than a specific answer to a specific benefit question, so apologies to the OP for bringing this thread slightly off topic.

I

Yes it is....sorry OP I don't normally hijack peoples' threads.