Landlords face ‘scandalous situation’ as housing payment problems continue – expert

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A Universal Credit expert has warned that the “scandalous situation” of landlords trying to access housing payments is getting worse.

Bill Irvine at UC Advice & Advocacy claims the DWP is simply making up rules as it goes along, often explaining that it can’t speak to landlords directly when dealing with cases where tenants have refused consent for payments to be redirected.

“These rules are designed to frustrate and impede landlords looking to get their rightful entitlement,” he tells LandlordZONE.

“They’re basing the line they give about not sharing information on one meeting where a private organisation warned it would evict a tenant if it found out they were receiving benefits – which is illegal.

“The DWP now just repeat that and are misinforming landlords. They can share this information but are choosing not to.”

Deny redirection

Irvine is currently dealing with a case where a tenant accrued £9,000 in rent arrears and the landlord has applied many times to have the housing costs redirected. He discovered that the tenant has twice exercised her ‘option’ – supposedly based on UC regulations – to deny redirection.

“No such option is available, certainly not in the regulation that created the Alternative Payment Arrangement scheme,” he asserts.

Although the DWP often takes the tenant’s side, says Irvine, he has also been involved in a case where one tenant’s payments – a former refugee – were suspended despite the fact he’d provided exhaustive amounts of ID.

‘Confidentiality’

Irvine raised his case directly with DWP’s director general’s office, explaining that the tenant’s landlord was willing to rehouse him immediately. At first, the DWP would not share any information because of GDPR and ‘confidentiality’ reasons but finally restored the Universal Credit and wiped out 95% of the rent owed, which resulted in the tenant being offered a new tenancy.

Irvine adds: “I hope the courts will start challenging the DWP during eviction cases and apply more pressure but until that happens this situation will only get worse.”

LandlordZONE has contacted DWP for comment.

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