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The government has changed the law to allow the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to share universal credit claimants’ personal data with social landlords, councils and charities.

On Friday, ministers laid down a controversial new statutory instrument to enable councils, housing associations, Citizens Advice bureaux, credit unions and charities to access information on universal credit claimants, so they can offer financial advice and support. 

Half of all homeless people first become homeless aged under 21, with the majority going through the experience again and again because they don’t get the help they need, new research has revealed.

Conducted by Cardiff University for homelessness charity Crisis, the study is the first ever profile of single homeless people across England, Wales and Scotland, showing the reasons people first become homeless and the horrific consequences for their lives. 

The Department for Work and Pensions has overturned a tribunal’s decision to exempt two brothers from the bedroom tax due to room size.

The landmark ruling is a blow to anyone hoping to challenge the bedroom tax solely by arguing that a room is too small to be considered a bedroom because of overcrowding definitions in the relevant Housing Acts in Scotland and England. 

The head of a prominent regional lettings agency says the new immigration act being trialled in the Midlands from today, and possibly nationwide next year, could lead to agents accidentally discriminating.

It will also mean landlords will rely increasingly on agents who may have to change procedures to cope with the additional workload. 

The proportion of private sector tenants evicted by their landlord or letting agent has fallen over the past year says the Residential Landlords Association.

According to the most recent English Housing Survey for 2012/13, just seven per cent of tenants who had moved in the last three years said that it was because they had been asked to leave by their landlord or agent. This compares with nine per cent in 2011/12. 

More than 120,000 families in England's private rented sector (PRS) have suffered health problems in the last year as a consequence of landlords failing to deal with poor conditions in their homes, new research has revealed.

Commissioned by housing charity Shelter and British Gas, the YouGov survey of over 4,500 PRS tenants found that almost half had lived in a property with damp (44%) or mould (48%) in the past year - issues that can cause health conditions such as asthma and eczema. 

Coastline Housing is planning its own pilot of universal credit in an attempt to assess the ‘real impact’ of the flagship benefit reform.

The 4,000-home south west association is set to become the first landlord to pay to test universal credit under more realistic conditions than the official pilot schemes run by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), in order to model the true cost of direct payment.

MPs will debate and vote on measures to change the bedroom tax as part of an ‘affordable homes bill’ today.

Liberal Democrat backbencher Andrew George has tabled a private members bill that would exempt people from the bedroom tax if they have not received a reasonable offer of alternative accommodation. It would also exempt disabled people whose home has been adapted. 

Labour MPs are set to support proposed legislation that would water down the bedroom tax.

In an article for the blog website LabourList yesterday, Rachel Reeves, shadow work and pensions secretary, confirmed that her party would vote for the private members bill, tabled by Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George. 

Iain Duncan Smith is to signal a further crackdown on welfare in a speech suggesting that changes to the benefit system have lowered unemployment.

The Conservative might promise to lower the benefit cap from £26,000 to nearer to £18,000 in its general election manifesto.