Conservative Conference 2014: Housing Roundup

Catch up with the most important housing stories to emerge from the Conservative conference 2014 with our at-a-glance roundup.

·         100,000 discount new homes for first-time buyers

·         Working-age benefits would be frozen until 2017

·         Benefit cap to be cut to £23,000

·         Rent-to-buy fund announced

·         Housing benefit scrapped for 18- to 21-year-olds

·         Prepaid benefit cards to replace cash

Read details of all the above on the Guardian website.

Universal Credit: Housing Association Pilots Prepaid Card

HA Moat is piloting a prepaid card that will help its tenants pay their rent when they receive housing benefit direct under Universal Credit.  They have teamed up with the Western Union Company to trial the cards as part of a wider scheme to evaluate the role of prepaid cards in supporting automatic rent payments, which would meet many of the challenges housing providers will face when implementing Universal Credit. Western Union is currently providing tenants with MasterCard prepaid cards, which allow Moat to automatically draw money from the tenant’s card, preventing rent arrears and giving both tenants and the housing association a record that the rent has been paid. The cards have no credit facilities, so the tenants cannot spend more than the value on the card. Read more on 24dash.

Rent Cards Could Avoid Direct Payment Problems

Housing benefit could be put on pre-payment cards to ensure it is spent on rent, a think tank has suggested.  In a report on pre-payment cards, Demos argues putting housing benefit payments onto a card would allow limits to be placed on how the money is spent, ensuring landlords get their rent. Pre-payment cards are currently used by local authorities to manage personal budgets in areas such as social care. Demos’ report looks at how they use could be extended, particularly with the introduction of universal credit this autumn.  Download a copy of the report from the Demos website.