Posts with tag: Universal Credit

Landlords Calling for Overhaul in Universal Credit Payments

Published On: June 19, 2019 at 9:21 am

Author:

Categories: Landlord News

Tags:

The Scottish Landlords Association (SAL) is calling for the housing portion of Universal Credit (UC) benefits to be paid directly to landlords.

In its current form, UC is paid, in full, to tenants who must then pay landlords themselves. Whilst claimants do have the option to have the housing element sent directly to landlords, this is not the norm, with two thirds opting to make the payment manually.

The issue forms part of a wider criticism against Universal Credit, which has seen numerous campaign groups arguing that the rollout is making claimants worse off and discouraging landlords from letting to them.

Simon Graham, the director of SJ Lettings, based in Buxton, Derbyshire states: “In theory, universal credit is an empowering idea, encouraging people to learn to budget for themselves, but for the more vulnerable tenants, being given £600 at the start of the month and expecting them to make it last until the next month is just not realistic.”

By removing this middle step, both delays and uncertainty that landlords can experience when letting to tenants in receipt of housing benefits would be reduced.

The Social Security Committee of the Scottish Parliament agrees, stating that this change would ensure that all tenants would have equal access to rented accommodation, regardless of how they pay for it. Unfortunately, as of yet, The Scottish Government has not taken the opportunity to make any changes to the way UC is paid.

John Blackwood, chief executive of SAL said: “What we are proposing, and the committee report agrees with, is that the default position would be that the housing component of Universal Credit is paid directly to the landlord, private or social, but the tenant would still be able to opt-out if they wanted. This would reduce the risk to landlords of renting to those on Universal Credit and ensure those in receipt of benefits are treated fairly and equally as they deserve to be.

“The government is expected to formally respond to the Social Security Committee’s report over the summer and I hope they will reflect on their conclusions and join private and social landlords as well as charities and others who support this measure so together we can persuade the UK government of our case.”

New Online Landlord Universal Credit System to Allow Direct Rent Payments

Published On: June 10, 2019 at 8:03 am

Author:

Categories: Landlord News

Tags:

The pilot of a new online system allowing tenants in receipt of Universal Credit to pay rent directly to private rental sector (PRS) landlords has been successful. 

Started on 3rd October 2018, Caridon Landlord Solutions has been working alongside The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to bring out this new system. It will replace the two existing UC47 forms, cutting down processing time from in excess of three weeks to just two hours in some recorded cases.

DWP aims to officially launch this online system before the end of 2019, although a date has yet to be confirmed.

The current system requires landlords to download and fill out a form from GOV.UK, in order to apply for an Alternative Payment Arrangement (APA) to have the housing element of Universal Credit paid directly to them.

Caridon Landlord Solutions provides specialist advice on Universal Credit and Housing Benefit to private landlords, letting agencies and housing associations. It points out that the existing UC47 system has caused a whole host of problems, which have discouraged landlord from letting to tenants in receipt of Universal Credit. Subsequently, this has made it difficult for tenants to keep hold of homes they wish to remain living in.

Sherrelle Collman, Managing Director of Caridon Landlord Solutions, says: “This current system can be complicated as there are two types of UC47 forms. The first is the secure form, which can only be submitted by post or via email.  

“However, to submit by email, landlords must have a secure email address recognised by DWP, including gsi or gov.uk owing to the fact the form requests personal details such as a tenants’ National Insurance number and the landlord’s bank details. 

“This helps to ensure that all parties comply with data sharing regulations as set out under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The none secure form can still be submitted via email, however, the process can sometimes be slower as the claimant’s case manager has to contact the landlord to request bank details, because due to the non-secure data certain types of personal information cannot be submitted in this way.

“Caridon believes that the paper forms are taking weeks to be processed, sometimes getting lost along the way and all the while rent arrears are mounting up. We have been working closely with DWP, not only to get payments made directly to landlords where necessary, but also to speed up the process so that landlords have greater confidence in the system.” 

As well as providing support to landlords in the case of rent defaults, the UC47 is also used for historical debt collection, where a tenant has fallen into eight weeks or more of arrears and the landlord wants to apply for third party deductions. In these cases, DWP takes a small percentage of the claimant’s personal allowance and transfers it to the landlord towards the rent arrears.

Sherrelle adds: “We have been working with DWP to develop an agile online system, making suggestions for adjustments to ensure it is as user friendly and efficient as possible.  Landlords are now receiving confirmation of direct payments within 48 hours which is such an incredible improvement.”

Zoopla to Ban “No DSS” in Housing Adverts on its Sites

Published On: March 19, 2019 at 10:28 am

Author:

Categories: Property News

Tags: ,

Property portal Zoopla is banning the phrase “No DSS” in housing advertisements on its websites. Property owners and managing agents will be prohibited from using it in listings by a change in terms and conditions.

Zoopla will also remove any “No DSS” references in listings and remove the “No DSS” fields in its own cloud-based software products.

The move comes after the Government called for immediate change to “No DSS” in housing adverts earlier this month. The Housing and Homelessness Minister, Heather Wheeler MP, said that she would be meeting with industry stakeholders to bring pressure on them for a voluntary outlaw of the practice.

Housing charity Shelter has been challenging “No DSS” housing adverts, as well as naming and shaming agents that it believes veto prospective tenants if they are in receipt of benefits.

Zoopla announced that its ban will be fully in place next month.

The portal’s Managing Director, Charlie Bryant, says: “We fully support the recommendations of the NLA [National Landlords Association] and the RLA [Residential Landlords Association], which oppose blanket bans against tenants in receipt of housing-related benefits, and are pleased to be taking action which clarifies this position.

“All tenants who are looking to rent a property deserve the chance to be fully assessed for their suitability, and matched to a home that suits both their and the landlord’s circumstances.”

He adds: “We proactively sought the views of our largest lettings-focused agents to ensure the above measures were undertaken on a collaborative basis and received significant support in respect of our proposed additional measures.”

Chris Town, the Vice Chair of the RLA, responds to the news: “We welcome today’s announcement from Zoopla, which comes after extensive campaigning by the RLA. Landlords should not refuse someone solely because they are on benefits, and should consider prospective tenants on a case-by-case basis. But, with growing numbers of benefit claimants now reliant on the private rented sector, we need to do more to give tenants and landlords greater confidence in the benefits system.

“This means building on positive changes already made by the Government by giving all tenants the right to choose if they want to have the housing element of Universal Credit paid directly to their landlord; working with bank lenders to remove mortgage terms that prevent landlords renting to benefit claimants, as NatWest has already done; and ending the Local Housing Allowance freeze, which has meant benefits bear little resemblance to rents.”

He concludes: “We look forward to working constructively with the Government to address these issues.”

No More No DSS in Housing Adverts?

Published On: March 7, 2019 at 11:01 am

Author:

Categories: Law News

Tags: ,

By Joanne Young, a Legal Director in the Property Litigation Team at leading law firm Ashfords LLP

On 1st March 2019, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced a number of measures aimed at further tackling homelessness, including funding to help potential new tenants with rental/first month rent payments. However, it was a different measure that dominated the headlines and could prove more controversial than intended.

The Government has set its sights on tackling landlords and letting agents who (in its words) “potentially discriminate” against tenants who are on benefits. The Government says just under 890,000 of the 4.5m private renting tenants are in receipt of benefit – a figure the Government is seemingly keen to increase. The proposal is that Government will meet with representatives from across the lettings spectrum to discuss “clamping down” on “blanket ban” adverts – with the potential of having a complete ban on no DSS adverts in the future.

No More No DSS in Housing Adverts?

The ideology that lies behind the proposal is hard to argue against. The rise of street homelessness is apparent in every town in the country – and hidden homelessness and sofa surfing has also increased. The far from smooth implementation of Universal Credit has been well publicised. Trying to encourage private landlords to accept tenants who are in receipt of benefits and give those individuals an opportunity to obtain a place they can call home is an entirely admirable aim. 

However, I cannot but help to sound a note of caution. I have attended numerous landlord events over the years where entirely well meaning and enthusiastic representatives from the Department for Work and Pensions try to sell the benefits system to private landlords. It is a tough gig! Many private landlords in England are small-scale; their lettings portfolio may only comprise one or two properties.  Letting is not their business and they do not have the time, resources, or, frankly, the inclination to spend time chasing tenants (or the benefits agencies) about unpaid rent. They want tenants who will pay rent in full and on time, with no risk that the rent they receive could be clawed back from them in some circumstances. They want tenants who seemingly have the financial means to be pursued in the event damage is caused to their property. Rightly or wrongly, this does therefore lead many private landlords to prefer tenants who will not be relying on benefits to pay the rent. 

For these reasons, I am of the view that the Government may therefore be wasting its well-meaning time in this venture. Even if there were a complete ban on landlords and their agents excluding benefit recipients when advertising for properties, I suspect that, once the potential tenant’s financial situation was made known, many landlords would refuse to proceed with the letting. All that a ban would do, therefore, is simply waste the time of both parties in cases where a landlord would not consider a let to a benefit recipient.  Only a complete ban on landlords being able to refuse tenants on benefits would tackle this problem – but, given many small scale private landlords are already leaving the market, such a ban would almost certainly see a larger exodus.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out.

Government Calls for an End to No DSS Housing Adverts

Published On: March 4, 2019 at 9:58 am

Author:

Categories: Law News

Tags: ,,

The Housing Minister has called for an end to housing adverts that potentially discriminate against potential tenants in receipt of housing benefit.

The Minister for Housing and Homelessness, Heather Wheeler MP, said that she would be meeting with industry representatives as part of her approach to ending no DSS adverts.

Along with other Government ministers, Wheeler will be meeting with landlord associations, tenant groups, mortgage providers and property websites to clamp down on blanket exclusions in housing adverts, with a view to stopping them altogether.

Out of 4.5m households living in private rental housing, 889,000 receive housing benefit to help them pay the rent. 

However, recent figures show that around half of landlords would not be willing to let to tenants on housing benefit, which rules out thousands of vulnerable people and families.

The announcement came on the same day that NatWest confirmed that it was removing all restrictions on landlords letting to tenants who are in receipt of housing benefit.

John Stewart, the Policy Manager for the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), responds to the news: “Landlords should not refuse someone solely because they are on benefits, and should consider prospective tenants on a case-by-case basis. But, with growing numbers of benefit claimants now reliant on the private rented sector, we need to do more to give tenants and landlords greater confidence in the benefits system.

“This means giving all tenants the right to choose if they want to have the housing element of Universal Credit paid directly to their landlord, working with bank lenders to remove mortgage terms that prevent landlords renting to benefit claimants and ending the Local Housing Allowance freeze, which has meant benefits bear little resemblance to rents.”

RLA research has found that the average amount owed by Universal Credit tenants in rent arrears has increased by half, from just over £1,600 in 2017 to almost £2,400 in 2018.

Government Calls for an End to No DSS Housing Adverts

Around two thirds of the largest buy-to-let mortgage lenders do not permit landlords to let property to tenants in receipt of housing benefit.

A study by Manchester Metropolitan University, for the RLA, has found that 53% of landlords reported that the gap between Local Housing Allowance and local market rents was more than £50 per month. Almost 25% said that the gap was over £100 a month.

Support for homelessness

Wheeler also confirmed that more than £19.5m will be shared among 54 projects in England to help thousands of people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless to secure their own homes.

Councils will use the funding boost to help vulnerable people secure their own tenancy through support, such as paying deposits or putting down the first month’s rent.

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) believes that this will give them an opportunity to make a home in a property that they may otherwise not have been able to access. The funding forms part of the £100m Rough Sleeping Strategy.

Working with landlords

Wheeler said: “This funding will make a huge difference in opening up the private rented sector to people who need it and give them the chance to rebuild their lives.

“I will also be meeting key stakeholders to tackle the practice of no DSS, to underline the need for immediate change.”

Justin Tomlinson MP, the Minister for Family Support, Housing and Child Maintenance, added: “Everyone should have the same opportunity when looking for a home, regardless of whether they are in receipt of benefits.

“With Universal Credit, payments can be paid directly to the landlord, and we continue to listen to feedback and work with landlords to improve the system.”

He continued: “Landlords can already receive rent from tenants on housing benefit and Universal Credit – meaning payments can be paid directly into their accounts.

“This helps strengthen the choices and opportunities available for those on benefits to secure the homes they and their families need.”

Give Benefit Tenants a Choice, the RLA Urges

Published On: February 21, 2019 at 10:59 am

Author:

Categories: Tenant News

Tags: ,,

The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) is urging the Government to give benefit tenants a choice when it comes to Universal Creditpayments and private rents.

Chris Town, the Vice Chair of the organisation, spoke out after the Prime Minister, Theresa May, made comments on the difficulties faced by benefit tenants.

On a day when three Conservative MPs resigned from the party, May confirmed that the Government is looking at ways to address the problems faced by benefit claimants living in private rental housing. 

Town responded: “With ever growing numbers of benefit claimants now reliant on the private rented sector for a place to live, we need to do much more to give tenants and landlords greater confidence in the benefits system.

“This means a package of measures that should include giving all tenants the right to decide what is best for them, by enabling them to choose to have the housing element of Universal Credit paid directly to their landlord, as well as working with bank lenders to address the problem of mortgage terms that prevent landlords renting to benefit claimants.” 

Earlier this month, the RLA insisted that further reforms to the Universal Credit system are needed, as more benefit tenants fall into rent arrears. 

Yesterday (20thFebruary 2019), Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen wrote a joint letter to May to confirm their departure from the Conservative Party.

The Prime Minister was “saddened” by the resignations, but added that the party would “always offer…decent, moderate and patriotic politics”.

The three MPs criticised the Government’s “disastrous handling” of Brexit and said that it had undone “all the efforts to modernise” the Conservatives.

The pro-remain trip will join the new Independent Group, which is made up of eight Labour MPs, who resigned from their party over its handling of Brexit and anti-Semitism, saying that it represented “the centre ground of British politics”.