Losses Due To Housing Benefit Fraud and Errors Rising

Iain Duncan Smith’s department has failed to tackle escalating losses due to fraud and error in the housing benefit system, according to a report by parliament’s spending watchdog. The DWP overpaid claimants with £1.4bn of taxpayers’ money from 2013 to 2014, the public accounts committee has said. The MPs also found that civil servants had “done nothing” to tackle underpayment, which has put thousands of claimants into hardship, they said. Ministers and senior civil servants were pointedly criticised in the report’s conclusions for failing to come up with a strategy to tackle the problem. Read more on the Guardian website.

Direct Payment Projects Warn Of Creeping Arrears

The creeping of arrears in the Government’s direct payment demonstration projects is further evidence landlords will need to provide a range of payment options for tenants and systems that can quickly recover outstanding rent.  The findings from the first four months of the direct payment demonstration projects will be unsurprising to most - 8% of rent uncollected, a creeping of underpayments and a lack of understanding about financial products.  Download a copy of the Direct Payment Demonstration Project: Payment figures report from the DWP website.