Mr Prisk: DCLG and the DWP are working closely with a group
of social landlords on the direct payment demonstration projects, which are
testing the impact of the payment of housing benefit direct to tenants. A key
aim of the demonstration projects is to explore how we can best protect social
landlords, and tenants themselves, from the risk of increases in rent arrears.
We intend to use the evidence gathered from the projects to inform the design
of universal credit, including the safeguards to be put in place to protect the
financial position of social landlords and prevent tenants from falling into
significant debt. My Department and the DWP are also co-funding a learning
network to capture the lessons from the demonstration projects, and encourage
the sharing of best practice and information, to help social landlords prepare
for direct payment. We have also worked
with the Chartered Institute for Housing on guidance for social landlords to
prepare for the introduction of the social sector size criteria. More generally, we would expect social
landlords to work with their tenants to minimise the risk of rent arrears as
far as possible.
