New Housing Benefit (UC) Guide for landlords…

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Universal Credit:

The government has
issued a new comprehensive guide to Universal Credit (UC) as it
applies to rented housing, specifically for landlords.

The guide provides private and social housing landlords with detailed information about how to deal with Universal Credit payments. It is designed give landlords an understanding of how they can help their tenants prepare for UC:

• how housing
  payments are calculated
• the move on to
  the single Universal Credit benefit payment system
• making payments
  of their rent to their landlord themselves

Given all the
controversy around UC, direct payments, and possible rent arrears, it
is in all landlords’ with benefit tenants best interests to ensure
that they understand the system and that the transition goes as
smoothly as possible.

Tenants receiving
benefits through the new Universal Credit system receive one single
payment, rolling-up up to six separate benefits into the one payment.
It is also central tenet of the UK Housing benefit system that
payments are made to the tenant in the first instance, making them
responsible citizens and for their own payments for rent and other
necessities.

Landlords who rent
to tenants in receipt of benefits will benefit from the guide because
sooner or later they will be involved with UC. Even those landlords
who don’t initially let to tenants on benefits can become involved
if one of their tenants needs to claim for one reason or another,
redundancy or job loss for example.

The guide explains
how to monitor the important trigger points, and how to deal with
problems which can arise with payments, interventions by the
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and recovery of rent arrears
if they should occur.

All Universal Credit
claimants have an online UC account to manage their claim, and they
should have access to a “work coach” should they find they are
struggling to make payments. They may just need help managing and
budgeting their finances, but the guide helps by explaining how
landlords can go about getting an Alternative Payment Arrangement
(APA) set-up. These are payments made direct to them, if all else
fails.

The most common
problem for landlords with UC is when tenants experience difficulties
managing their single monthly payment and making sure the rent
element is split-off, with any top-up if needed, and paid regularly
to their landlord.

Where the tenant
does get into difficulty paying their rent, the claimant, their Work
Coach, Case Manager or their landlord can then apply for the
Alternative Payment Arrangement and (APA) Managed Payment to Landlord
(MPTL) scheme, which will be considered by the Department for Work
and Pensions (DWP) on a case by case basis.

An APA can in some
circumstances apply from day 1, or at any point throughout the UC
claim for those claimants who are not yet in rent arrears but who may
benefit in other ways from an APA. An APA can also include, a more
frequent than monthly payment or a split payment of an award between
partners.

The amount of any
managed payment the landlord receives can vary from month to month
depending on the claimant’s UC award, usually up to a maximum value
of the eligible housing costs.

See the guide for full details here

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