An influential group of 15 organisations across the UK has called on work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith to allow tenants to choose to have their benefits paid to landlords.
Their joint letter to Duncan Smith asks for tenants to have a say over whether the housing element of the new universal credit can be paid to landlords.
The Welfare Reform Bill says that the payment would automatically go to tenants, in the same way that Local Housing Allowance is now paid to housing benefit tenants in the private sector. An amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill is due to be debated soon.
The letter says: “In a recent survey carried out by the research consultancy Policis, working with the National Housing Federation, 93% of tenants in the social rented sector argued that it is better for housing benefit to be paid direct to landlords. In 2009, Shelter revealed that of those claimants who would choose payments to be made directly to their landlord, 95% were struggling to manage their finances.
“By denying tenants the opportunity to opt for payments to be made to their landlord, the government is failing to provide them with options to be able to make informed decisions about what is best for their own circumstances. This is not compatible with the Government’s objectives of personal responsibility and choice.”
Signatories to the letter include the Residential Landlords Association, National Landlords Association, Council of Mortgage Lenders, British Property Federation, Citizens Advice, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations.
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Comments
Industry Observer or his local authority obviously are not completely au fait with HB Reguations. Check out Reg 7.
Also why does it give one dignity to 'pay their own rent'? There is only one reason why a tenant wants to receive the rent money himself and that is to syphon it off. I do not need dignity to pay my taxes or Council Tax. The government will not include Council Tax in the Universal Credit, or direct payments to tenants of Social Registered Landlords because they know they need protecting.
As for private landlords taking advantage of the HB system, our rents did not increase for over ten years. When Local Housing Allowance came in, rents went up, due finally to the clarity of the Rent Office. Please note that Social Landlords are not subject to the Housing Benefit Regulations, they receive government subsidies and expect private landlords to house their unwanted tenants.
Whilst I applaud the Government trying to give Tenants dignity and be responsible for their own affairs they must also give them accountability if they fail to handle their own affairs. In my view this is a major fault in the system...if they take benefits for housing and use it for other means then I look on that as fraud...they should be treated accodingly.
If the government believed that tenents would reliably pay their rent to their landlords then they would be making tenents of council and housing associations do so. Tenents of Housing associations and councils still get rent paid direct to Landlord and will do so under the new bill. Clearly the government recognises the problem and is protecting its own back at the expense of private landlords.
Apart from the dignity argument IDS will have a very easy answer to this which is that if tenants are happy for their rent to be paid to Landlords then it doesn't really matter who pays it to the Landlord.
So why not pay the money to the tenant and let them have the dignity of paying their own rent.
I don't agree withthe argument but that would be the riposte. Sadly for all of us the Govt including IDS has far bigger fish than this to fry at the moment. Landlords have largely brought this problem on themselves over the years by abusing the HB systerm to maximise rents.
If unhapppy don't let to a HB tenant - unless the property is so unattractive that HB is the only market available. Even if paid direct the HB system is a nightmare and as soon as a tenant tells the HB office that they are moving to another property the HB on the current one stops - even though the payments will undoubtedly be in arrears because of how the system works.
Try getting the last payment out of the HB office that should be paid by them after the tenant has vacated.