The Work & Pensions Select Committee has published its Fifth Report – Local Housing Allowance – on 22 March 2010 on its examination of LHA. Members should be able to access this at a cost of circa £15 on the UK Parliament’s website. Look for Select Committee Reports – http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmworpen.htm
I’ve only has a cursory read so far but as far as I can see there’s nothing remarkable in any of its findings or recommendations. Direct payments will continue to be paid to tenants although the Committee did acknowledge that the system needs to be improved and urges the DWP and Councils to work harder with landlords and tenants to make the scheme’s administration simpler and more universally applied.
Here’s 3 paragraphs which might be of most interest to members of LandlordZONE.
LHA Direct – First payment to Landlord
72. In terms of the first payment of LHA paid in arrears, Mr Irvine of the Scottish Landlords Association suggested it would increase landlords’ confidence if “the [first] Cheque could be made payable to the landlord, given to the tenant. If that was to happen, it would reduce a lot of the arrears that currently happen. For some reason, this does not happen”.
72 The Minister told us that “in Leeds the first benefit cheque is made out to the landlord, but given to the tenant and that means that their systems work much better than in places where the first cheque is also made out to the tenant, but again that is a question of the local authorities’ administrative capacity”.73
Committee Recommendation
73. The fact that the first LHA payment is paid in arrears makes it difficult for some to manage their finances and has been the subject of concern to some landlords. We recommend that it should be standard practice for local authorities to give the first cheque to the tenants, payable to the landlord. We believe this will give the tenant time to get used to the new scheme and provide the landlord with some confidence in receiving the payment.
Committee’s – 8 Weeks Rule Recommendation
104. The evidence on the eight week safeguard rule suggests that it is not fully
understood and that implementation varies across local authorities. We strongly believe that it is the Department’s responsibility to ensure that local authorities understand the rules and implement them correctly. The rules need not change if eight weeks arrears remains the upper limit for when payments must go to the landlord and include the first payment, which is usually paid in arrears. However, local authorities should liaise with landlords and financial advice services to identify those clients at an early stage who are likely to run into arrears and put safeguards in place.
Full Conclusions & Recommendations here:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmworpen/235/23511.htm
Article provided by Bill Irving of www.hbadvice.co.uk
