The NRLA has called on the government to scrap the “unworkable” Universal Credit (UC) caveat in the Renters’ Rights Bill - that any arrears arising due to a delayed Universal Credit payment won’t count towards the arrears threshold.
The Bill introduces the caveat to Ground 8 (the mandatory arrears ground) that aims to provide greater protection for tenants receiving Universal Credit if there is a delay in receiving their payment through no fault of their own, meaning that landlords have no recourse if benefit payments are delayed.
Chief executive Ben Beadle (main image) argues: “Since landlords have no way of verifying whether a tenant receives Universal Credit, they will be unable to tell if rent is unpaid due to benefit delays.”
Giving evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee, he said private landlords weren’t afforded the same level of communication as social providers.
“There’s a lot of frustration from landlords about the operation of the UC system; often members are not so concerned about when they will get paid - a lot of members get overpaid, and there’s no way for them to go back and say ‘you’re overpaying me quite a lot of money I’d like to give it back to you’.”
Beadle told MPs that some sensible tweaks could be made by allowing them more communication on how the system was working. “If we trust tenants to receive UC and housing benefit payments themselves, we should trust them to allow direct payment to landlords and agents too, because that would solve some of the arrears issues that we see.”
Bill Irvine (pictured), of UC Advice & Advocacy, agrees that DWP needs to sort out some “fundamental issues” that mean landlords can face accruing many thousands of pounds worth of arrears while a tenant is moved from Housing Benefit to Universal Credit.
“It can take four to five months before the payment is made due to the extra scrutiny of claims, and landlords are tearing their hair out,” he tells LandlordZONE. “This needs to be looked at, particularly as some tenants are misusing money.”
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