Download Impact of UC, KHOG March 2016

HOUSING
The Possible Impact of UC on a
Housing Landlords Income
Dominic Norwell
&
Myra Dicken
HOUSING
The Possible Impact of UC on a
Housing Landlords Income
Housing Benefit (The Current Position)
• Is paid fortnightly in arrears
(four weekly in arrears if paid directly to landlord)
• Can be paid prior to occupation if new
property is awaiting adaptations.
• Can be backdated for working age with
good cause up to six months
(for pension aged claimants three months automatically)
• Can be paid on 2 properties *
(if tenant moves into new property and contractual
obligation remains).
HOUSING
The Possible Impact of UC on a
Housing Landlords Income
Universal Credit
• The first week of any new claim is forfeited
• First payment due 1 month and 1 week after
date of claim.
• Will not be paid on 2 properties even if there
is a contractual obligation.
• There are exceptions (dv)
• In some circumstances backdates will be
considered: only for 1 month
• (failure tech, disability or health issues)
HOUSING
The Possible Impact of UC on a
Housing Landlords Income
Universal Credit Possible Impact in
Monetary Terms
The claimant will have difficulty making up
payment of rent for the 1 week UC is not paid at
the start of a claim
£100
The rent account for any new claimant will be
roughly 7 weeks in arrears before payment
£700
The landlord will not be aware of the UC claim
unless informed by the tenant, we have to rely
on tenants informing us.
HOUSING
The Possible Impact of UC on a
Housing Landlords Income
Any tenant transferring between landlords with
a contractual obligation of 4 weeks notice will
incur arrears on the former property
£400*
This challenge forms the basis of our
presentation to open the floor up to discuss
how we as partners can minimise the risk
presented to us by the potential for most
tenants moving between landlords not being
eligible for dual property rent payments.
HOUSING
Reduce the Notice period
– Clearly every social landlord has the discretion to reduce the
notice period on a property
– This has normally in our experience only been in exceptional
circumstances
– Quite often new tenants get “the call” on a Friday saying the
tenancy starts the following Monday
– Comparison to the private sector
– Do Homechoice need to introduce an agreement for notice
periods to be more flexible
– Or do we need to be more realistic in terms of the
comparison to the private sector ?
HOUSING
The Possible Impact of UC on a
Housing Landlords Income
Universal Credit Impact in Monetary Terms
• Universal Credit in its current form will only affect working
age claimants.
• Currently the HRA receives approximately 69% of rental
income via Housing Benefit of which 44% is in respect of
working age tenants and 25% of which is in respect of state
pension age tenants
• £5,681,763 and £3,310,736 respectively for 2016/17
budgeted income.
44% or around 1200 tenants x £800
per tenant the impact Could be
£960’000