Universal Credits rent arrears might be avoided

As the Governments big reform, the Universal Credit cracks off in parts of Manchester, landlords might be relieved to hear some new directives in the trial scheme.

The RLA have reported that on a circular sent by the DWP states, “Landlords can refer rent arrears cases to Universal Credit; those which are under 2 months rent will trigger Universal Credit to contact the claimant to discuss their non payment as part of the Personal Budgeting Support process, where as those with over 2 months arrears will be switched to direct rent payment automatically and relevant budgeting support activity arranged subsequently.”

This appears to signify that  two months of arrears will automatically trigger a with to payments direct to the landlord. This sounds like some kind of recognition of common sense and the reality of the situation, taking over from politicised dogma. Thank goodness.

Landlords fear of housing benefit payments been mismanaged by tenants resulting in rent arrears might well be avoided. But this policy has not been confirmed and still might not be there for the national launch. We can all just hope the Government has woken up to the potential disaster of millions in rental arrears that could result from these new reforms, as highlighted by the experiment of direct payments in Southwark.

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