Social housing rent gone up by £60 a month.

Kris35

Hi all. I have finally found my beautiful home and have been living in it for 18 months. It went up last year and is going up again this year. The letter I received from my housing Association says I can voice my disagreement with them or/and take it to tribunal. But I've read that HA's can increase their rent by (I think) 7.7 % this year which is what they have done. I sent them an email to say that I didn't agree and they have replied asking for more details and apologising for any inconvenience. On the one hand, I am so grateful to be living here, but on the other hand, it seems they will be taking the extra money from the gov. increase this year. My neighbour told me that whenever his pension goes up, so does his rent. I know prices are going up all over the place, so maybe I should just accept?

luvchocolate

I'm in the same boat but taking into account a good increase of our state pension...although I do pay a small amount of tax taken from a small work pension 
I'll still be a little better of after all the inflation rises. 
As long as I'm no worse off I'm happy 

Kris35

Yes, this is my feeling actually. I am just so thankful for my home, but I've been questioning myself as to whether I'm being too accepting.

HillStreetBlues

What benefits do you claim? (if any)

huckster

Private rents have gone up by more than 10% locally.  2 bed homes are typically around £1200 per month.

Depending on household circumstances, look into what help is available. Use an online benefits calculator.

Social rents through Housing Associations from what I have seen are much cheaper than private rents.  If you disagree with rent increase, you would need to explain why e.g. problems with the property.

Kris35

HillStreetBlues said:

What benefits do you claim? (if any)

Housing benefit and UC. The thing that doesn't sit quite right with me is, if the gov. weren't giving us this pay rise soon, would my HA have put my rent up quite so much? It seems to me they put it up whenever that happens. Maybe I'm wrong but if I'm not I do wonder if this is right.

Rubyroobs

Yes of course HA will know the LHA is going up in April so will take advantage of that, although of course no all HA tenants will be claiming Uc or Housing benefit. HA's tend to increase their rents and service charges annually anyway but whether they are going up more this year generally with the increase in LHA I don't know.

Newcad

Virtually ALL Social Housing rents will be going up 7.7% on 1st April. (A very, very, few may go up by less).
It is a cap on how much Social Rents can increase by and is normally calculated as the CPI + 1%.
(It was capped lower than CPI+1 last year because CPI was so high at that time).

If you are on Housing Benefit or UC Housing Element then it wouldn't normally* (see below) make any difference to you because those will pay the full rent in Social Housing anyway. (Subject to the underoccupancy charge AKA 'bedroom tax').

As you are in a Social Rental and claiming UC then your UC housing element will also go up to cover the 7.7% increase in rent.
You might even 'win' a week or two's worth of the increase, because although rent payable goes up on 1st April, your UC Housing Element will go up from the start of your AP in which the 1st April falls, which could be as much as 4 weeks before you actually have to start paying the increased rent.

*However this year is not normal and if your rent is due weekly, and you pay it monthly (say by Direct Debit) then there is a twist for the coming year that you should be aware of.

The coming year 1st April 2024-1st April 2025 will have 53 Mondays, which is the usual 'due day' for weekly social rents.
That means that when calculating how much your monthly payment (Direct Debit) for rent will need to be the calculation is: Weekly Rent x 53  payments due/ 12 months

However UC always calculate your Housing Element as: Weekly Rent x 52 weeks in a year / 12 months
(The DWP know about the 53 Mondays situation but will not budge from using 52 weeks in a year, at least they keep refusing to budge).

Which means that if your rent is due weekly then for this coming year the UC Housing Element that you'll get each month will be less than the amount you need to pay monthly towards that weekly rent, and you will have to make up the difference.
That could be a bigger problem for those who get their UC for rent paid directly to the Housing Association, if they don't top up then they will fall into arrears.

This only affects you if you get UC Housing Element and your Social Housing rent is due weekly.
It doesn't affect you if your rent is due monthly anyway.
Housing Benefit from the council is also not affected because that is paid 4-weekly rather than monthly.
(So pensioners should not be affected).

The Housing Associations are well aware of the problem and will work with their tenants to keep things on track and try to avoid rent arrears arising because of it.

(PS. This 53 rent due days in a year happens every 5,6, or 7 years. That changes depending on leap years).

KxMx

My local council has already alerted people about the 53 week year, they are expecting tenants to pay 1 weeks rent on 1 April to avoid arrears.
With advice to contact the Housing department if there will be difficulty paying. 

Newcad

Just a note on the above.

Someone always says/shouts that 'The DWP are stealing a weeks rent off you this year'.
(You'll probably see that in the press in the next week or so).

The answer is - Not quite, it's an ongoing undercalculation that you only notice every 5, 6,or 7 years.

They are not 'stealing' anything, something has to be there in the first place before you can steal it.
What is happening is that the way the UC weekly rents calculation is done means that it undercalculates the UC Housing Element for weekly rents every year - it undercalculates it by one day every year, and 2 days in leap years.
(It doesn't affect monthly rents, only weekly ones).

Those one day (2 in leap years) undercalculated don't get noticed each year, they only get noticed when there has been 7 of them which adds up to a week..
And then they'll go unoticed again until there has been another 7, and so on.

Could it be corrected? - Yes, there are a few different ways of correcting it. If they want to.
Will it be corrected? - I doubt it will anytime soon if ever, and I for one am not going to hold my breath.