Benefits cap has hit 150,000 renters, DWP figures reveal

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Homeless charity Shelter is urging the Government to scrap the benefits cap for at least the duration of the pandemic after new DWP statistics revealed that more than 150,000 households have been hit by it – a 93% rise post-Covid. 

Of those households capped, 43% saw their benefits docked by £50 or more per week and 17% lost £100 or more per week.

Last week, ministers refused to budge on the issue, despite warnings from the Social Security Advisory Committee that people living in areas with high rental costs were losing out due to a lack of flexibility in the system.

Since it was introduced in 2013, the cap has limited how much any one household can receive in total benefits, including Universal Credit, Housing Benefit and Child Benefit.

Families with children and couples in London can receive a maximum of £1,916.17 a month while those living outside the capital can claim up to £1,666.67.

Homelessness

Critics like Shelter say it has contributed to rising homelessness and family debt. Explains chief executive Polly Neate: “It’s undermining the Government’s efforts to shore up our welfare safety net.

“Many embattled parents who were already struggling with low pay and have lost their job or had their hours cut because of Covid-19 are finding themselves capped – losing vital support at the worst possible time.”

The Government has already taken some steps to help tenants and benefit claimants; in March, the 500,000-strong surge in the number of Universal Credit applications persuaded it to raise its Local Housing Allowance rates by up to 20% in some areas.

And in June, it agreed to come up with a new way of paying up to 85,000 Universal Credit claimants, after the Court of Appeal ruled that the DWP’s failure to cater for ‘non-banking day salary shift’ was unlawful.

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Fancy that! Only 3.9% of landlords volunteer to tell HMRC about unpaid taxes

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An HMRC campaign to encourage landlords to voluntarily disclose any tax they owe on their rental properties has only managed to recoup a small percentage of its original target.

Announced in 2013, the let property campaign estimated that up to 1.5m landlords had underpaid or failed to pay up to £500m in tax between 2009 and 2010.

But, via a freedom of information request, chartered accountant Saffery Champness has discovered that since then only 58,779 people – 3.9% – have made voluntarily disclosures to HMRC, despite a recent increase.

The amount of tax yield recorded by HMRC from these disclosures is £163m, or just under a third of the expected haul.

There were 16,318 disclosures in 2018-19, an increase of 147% from the previous year, while this fell by 55% to only 7,362 disclosures in 2019-20.

Offer to pay

One of the campaign’s conditions is that once a taxpayer has informed HMRC of any previously undisclosed relevant income, gains, tax and duties, they have to make a formal offer to pay the full amount owed.

Saffery Champness partner Zena Hanks believes legislative changes may have unsettled landlords who were unsure of their new tax position.

She says: “The spike in the number of disclosures in 2018-19 may reflect the emerging threat of requirement to correct penalties, which began to be levied on undisclosed foreign property rental income as of 1st October 2018. It may also be a consequence of the property tax changes that have been introduced in recent years.”

Hanks adds: “The most common reason that was cited for disclosing to the campaign was taxpayer failure to notify HMRC of liabilities in the first place, which is likely a reflection of the fact that many of these landlords may have been unaware that they owed anything at all.”

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LATEST: Rents rising by 1.4% outside London as demand for new tenancies ‘remains strong’

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The economic challenges of the Covid crisis have yet to force down rents outside London, latest figures from the Homelet Rental Index covering July show.

The average rent for a new or renewed tenancy has increased by 1.4% to £808 when London’s sky-high rents are excluded, which are down by 3.2% year-on-year.

This drop is not surprising – many London landlords saw their younger tenants quit tenancies when they came up for renewal during lockdown as employers encouraged them to work from home and many consequently returned to their parents’ houses rather than carrying on paying rent.

But rents in some other parts of the UK have been increasing dramatically year-on-year including in the North West (+6.5%), Yorkshire & Humberside (+4.5%) and the South West (+2.5%).

“Demand for new tenancies is still strong, HomeLet received the same volume of property applications for tenant reference checks this month as the same month last year,” says Martin Totty, Chief Executive of Homelet.

“That coupled with the steadily increasing rents is positive for the sector, but there’s naturally caution around what could happen over the coming months.

“HomeLet’s tenant reference data is one of the few sources with access to large data sets underpinning robust regional trend data. It’ll be interesting to see what trends emerge, especially on the regional level and how these variations will affect both landlords and tenants across the country over the coming months.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – LATEST: Rents rising by 1.4% outside London as demand for new tenancies ‘remains strong’ | LandlordZONE.

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Properties selling for 95.8% of initial price expectation

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The latest data release from GetAgent.co.uk, has revealed how the property market in England and Wales has performed over the last year when it comes to the percentage of asking price being achieved.

GetAgent’s data shows that nationally

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Reforms to speed up the planning system and get the country building

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The Housing Secretary has announced an overhaul of the country’s outdated planning system designed to deliver the high-quality, sustainable homes communities need.

The changes will transform a system that has long been criticised for being too sluggish in providing housing for families

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Private rental sector enforcement needs ‘major reform’ says expert panel

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Enforcement of the private rental market in England is a patchwork of different approaches and needs a significant shake-up, a panel of experts has warned.

Their report, Improving Compliance with Private Rented Sector Legislation, finds that while many councils focus on trying to control bad behaviour by landlords through the courts, a more carrot-and-stick approach to compliance would be better.

Produced by the TDS Charitable Foundation and SafeDeposits Scotland Charitable Trust, the report reveals how many councils face increased demand for their services but diminishing resources, but that simply chasing rogue landlords down with prosecutions and huge fines should not be the only solution.

As we reported earlier this year, both prosecutions of landlords and fines have been escalating recently and, for example, research for LandlordZONE showed that fines totalling £4.5 million had been levied since the Mayor’s rogue database went live.

The TDS report also recommends that a national landlord database is established in England like the ones already in operation within Wales and Scotland, and that councils should get adequate funding.

It also highlights the need for new sentencing guidelines for the criminal courts and tribunals so that punishment is proportionate to the nature of the offence.

John Duff, chair of the SafeDeposits Scotland Charitable Trust, says: “This is a comprehensive piece of research which we hope will stimulate debate across the industry, and ultimately create solutions to the issues identified as we work to continually improve the sector.”

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How to find great commercial property deals

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My new video below explores how to find great commercial property deals to maximise new Permitted Development rights for residential conversion opportunities.

You can also join me on Sunday for a FREE 90 Minute online web class on ‘How To Re-purpose Defunct Commercial Buildings’

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