In this section:

ARCH to meet DWP Minister 13/09/2018 Labelled as Development

ARCH and the NFA have been invited to meet Justin Tomlinson MP, Minister with responsibility for housing at the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) to discuss the findings of our latest welfare reform report.

 

Our report, published in July 2018, 'Carrying the debt - measuring the impact of welfare reform on tenants and landlords' tracked the impact of the Universal Credit roll-out on landlords and tenants.

 

Although pleased that the government has introduced a number of improvements to the Universal Credit (UC) system that we have called for in previous reports, including removing the seven-day waiting period, this latest research showed that the arrears situation has not changed significantly and issues highlighted previously have not been resolved.

 

  • Average rent arrears for households in receipt of UC (£520) were one and a half times higher than arrears in general (£328). Nearly three quarters of UC households were in rent arrears (74%) compared with 26% of all households.
  • The situation has not changed significantly since 2017 and many of the same problems remain. 
  • For those organisations tracked over time there has been a total increase in debt of 12% up to £43.6 million; 25% of this debt is from UC households even though they only make up 4% of total households.
  • The length of time it can take for tenants to clear rent arrears built up in the transition to UC, with the knock-on effects for both the tenants and landlord, is very concerning, with evidence that it can take up to 24 months to clear the debt.

 

The meeting with Justin Tomlinson at DWP will take place at the end of October and follows on from the meeting with Housing Minister Kit Malthouse MP, scheduled for earlier in the month. Both meetings reflect ARCH's growing reputation in the sector and across the government.

Like emailLink
ARCH Member Comments 0 people like this

Housemark