Extra Support for One in Four Tenants under Government Benefit Plans

One in four residents will need additional support from their landlord to help pay their rent once housing benefit is paid directly to tenants, according to an organisation involved in the government's demonstration pilot.  Ian Simpson, director of community housing at Bron Afon Community Housing, one of the organisations involved in the pilot, told delegates at the CIH conference that rent collection levels had dropped to 95% at the organisation despite tripling the amount of contact made with tenants.  Simpson said housing associations will need to increase the support offered to tenants, but cautioned that this may not be financially viable. Read more on the Guardian website.

Direct Payment Demonstration Projects - Latest Findings

The DWP has published its latest report into the Universal Credit demonstration projects testing the payment of housing benefit direct to social housing tenants.  Among comments made by housing providers taking part in the projects were;

"Our experience shows that some of the triggers for arrears are: delays in payment, lifestyle changes, change of household and the impacts of welfare reform.” (Oxford City Council and Green Square)

"Having trialled the 12-week arrears level, we believe that 12 weeks has proved to be too long a timeline to trigger switchback, as it enables the rent arrears debt to escalate to a level which can become unmanageable, and difficult for the customer to recover from, particularly where other debts exist.”

(Shropshire Council, Bromford Group, Sanctuary and the Wrekin Housing Trust)

“The rent collection process demands considerably more effort for a lower rate of return.  Staffing levels are well above those for “business as usual” (Bron Afon Community Housing, Charter Housing and Torfaen County Borough Council)

Download a copy of the report from the DWP website.

Rent Arrears Soar in Pilot Benefit Scheme

Rent arrears among tenants on a Direct Payment Demonstration Project have seen a big increase.  One area is predicting a £14m loss if the new system is implemented for all its tenants. Figures obtained by BBC News show that arrears among tenants of Wakefield and District Housing in West Yorkshire have increased from an average of 2% to 11% on the pilot projects. Bron Afon community housing in south Wales said it had seen a 50% increase in arrears, while pilot projects in Edinburgh, Oxford and Southwark are showing around 30% increases in arrears.   Southwark Council predicts it will incur £14m in arrears if direct payment is introduced to all their tenants. Read more on the BBC website.

Welfare Reform: The Bedroom Tax, 'A Policy That Has No Logic'

Exactly how disruptive, wretched and illogical is the so-called "spare bedroom tax", and precisely how much chaos will it inflict on some of the UK's poorest families when it crashes into their lives in April?  To gain a feeling of how this policy is likely to play out Duncan Forbes, the chief executive of Bron Afon Community Housing in south Wales, and 60 of his staff visited tenants in early December to talk to them about the changes, and how they intended to cope. The staff were disturbed by what they found; Forbes collected some of their accounts and published them on Bron Afon's blog.  Read the real stories from tenants in Torfaen who will be affected by the ‘bedroom tax’ on the Bron Afon blog.