A mechanism to recover rent arrears is to be incorporated into the new Universal Credit system, by docking the benefit.
Landlords who are owed rent by tenants receiving benefit will be able to request direct payment once a certain level of rent arrears – as yet undecided – is reached.
Minister for Welfare Reform Lord Freud says the Universal Credit demonstration projects have helped to shape new thinking around direct payments to tenants.
The demonstration projects were set up to learn how we could best support landlords and tenants with the introduction of direct payment. That learning is regularly shared and I’m sure all members of the social housing community have views on what it is teaching us. Because the roll out of Universal Credit is progressive we have time to get this right.
The majority of the British public believe the government should be tackling the root causes of the country’s high housing benefit bill.
A survey by the Fabian Society asked people if they agreed with the statement: "The size of the housing benefit bill has risen because there are more people claiming due to unemployment, low wages and rents rising quickly. Instead of planning further cuts, the government should be focusing on solving these underlying problems. The government should do this even if it took a long time and meant tax rises or spending cuts elsewhere."
The Universal Credit direct payment demonstration projects will be extended for a further six months, Minister for Welfare Reform Lord Freud recently announced, as new findings from the projects are published.
The Department for Work and Pensions says the extension will help to further develop the support needed for social housing tenants moving onto Universal Credit. The projects will now run until the end of the year.
Six in ten landlords and agents are concerned about receiving rent if they accept housing benefit tenants.
A new survey of 500 landlords and agents by website Dssmove found that rent apart, most landlords and agents (75%) were happy to let to Local Housing Allowance tenants.
Newham Council has received license applications from 30,000 private landlords as part of its pioneering scheme to improve housing conditions in the borough.
Since January 1 this year, the council has carried out 750 enforcement visits, issued 1,200 warning letters, and handed out 50 cautions. Thirty prosecutions, at various stages of the legal process, have been pursued since the scheme started.
A property management company described by the local authority as a landlord has been fined following a fire in an outbuilding that left two people in hospital.
Ace Management, of Kings Avenue, Winchmore Hill, London, was ordered to pay £12,000 after admitting renting out a house in Melfort Road, Thornton Heath, without being licensed to do so.
Almost a quarter of buy-to-let landlords are planning to purchase at least one further property over the next 12 months.
According to a study by agents Allsop and market research firm BDRC Continental, 23% of landlords plan to grow their portfolios over the next year, and 61% are confident about the future for their businesses.
The Welsh Government has launched a consultation into reforming the private rented sector in Wales.
Proposals include ditching ASTs in favour of simplified, standard contracts. They would contained a ‘prohibited conduct’ term to deal with anti-social behaviour.
Housing benefit could be paid direct to private landlords in return for greater regulation of the sector, under proposals published by the Labour Party.
In a paper published today, Private rented housing: improving standards for all, the party sets out a range of ideas that could be implemented if it was in power.
A Worcester woman who falsely claimed over £20,000 in welfare support has been prosecuted.
Kirsty Uttley of Swallowfields, Lyppard-Kettleby received overpayments of £3,826.05 in income support, £4,394.15 in carer’s allowance and £12,358.98 in housing and council tax benefit.
The Welsh government's minister for tackling poverty has warned that the coalition's Universal Credit (UC) system has thrown a question mark over the state's ability to deliver support to most vulnerable people.
Huw Lewis told assembly members in the Senedd how UC will have a knock-on impact on Welsh government support such as free school meals.
Four families have launched a legal challenge against the government’s benefit cap on the grounds it is ‘discriminatory and unreasonable’.
The families have issued judicial review proceedings against the work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith today at London’s High Court.
The government's Work Programme (WP) has been slammed by the Works and Pensions Committee, which has concluded that it is "unlikely" to help the most disadvantaged long-term unemployed.
“The performance of the WP in its first 14 months was poor. There are signs that it is now improving significantly for mainstream jobseekers. However, it has proved much less successful to date in addressing the problems faced by jobseekers who face more serious obstacles to finding a job – people with disabilities, homeless people, and those with a history of drug or alcohol abuse," said Dame Anne Begg MP, the committee's chair.
One in four low-to-middle income households are spending more than 35 per cent of their income on housing, a report has found.
The study from the Resolution Foundation think tank has found 1.3 million low-income families across Britain are spending more than they can afford on housing.
Private rents across the UK have risen to their highest level since last November, according to the latest figures published today.
The LSL Buy-to-Let Property Index for April shows the average rent in England and Wales has risen by 0.2% since March to £736 per month. Continued growth leaves rents in April 3.9% higher than a year ago.
The Universal Credit direct payment demonstration projects will be extended for a further six months, Minister for Welfare Reform Lord Freud announced today, as new findings from the projects are published.
The Department for Work and Pensions says the extension will help to further develop the support needed for social housing tenants moving onto Universal Credit. The projects will now run until the end of the year.
Welfare reform minister Lord Freud has described a suicide linked to his controversial bedroom tax policy as a "desperately sad event".
Giving evidence to the House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee, which is investigating the impact of housing benefit reforms in Wales, Lord Freud extended his condolences to the family of Stephanie Bottrill, who left a note in which she blamed the government for her death.
The Residential Landlords Association is consulting with landlords over its own proposals for long-term tenancies.
The body has also entered discussions with mortgage lenders as to their concerns.
A grandmother who killed herself left a note in which she blamed the Government for her death.
Just days before she died Stephanie Bottrill, 53, from in Solihull in the West Midlands, told neighbours she simply could not afford to live any more.