the welfare reform

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the welfare reform

Tags: landlord tenant rent welfare reform referencing insurance

31/10/2011
4:15 pm

dannyw

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id be interested to hear from fellow landlords on their views about the new welfare reform bill changes, i.e social tenants no longer having the choice to have their housing benefit paid directly to their landlords.

lord freud quote:
‘it will cause distress and concern among the tenants themselves. I hope
that the minister can provide a level of reassurance at this stage in
the legislation’s development that we will be able to restore confidence
to tenants and landlords.’

what about the distress and concern amongst landlords?
without us there would be no private housing available to social housing tenants!

i believe the government should introduce some kind of voucher scheme or something, instead of actual cash; so the social tenant can’t just run off with the rent cheque and leave the landlord in the lurch…

02/11/2011
4:26 pm

Damien

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This universal credit idea is good and bad I think, obviously it should cut back on a lot of costs involved in running the welfare system, and it seems it will cut back on fraud a great deal.

The tenants who do everything by the book, and are responsible will have nothing to worry about, nor will their landlord.

BUT, the fraudster and/or tenant who finds it difficult to understand simple financial transactions or is poorly advised/educated are the ones that are going to find themselves faced with eviction. The whole time yet another landlord who gets penalised financially because of the 'system'.

With everything though, it will become the norm and people will adjust.

04/11/2011
8:39 am

Bill

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I have a number of tenants in receipt of LHA who have told me they'd rather have the council pay me direct in case they fail to manage their
finances effectively Ludicrously, I , with the tenant's consent, advise the council that they are 8 weeks in arrears (even though they're not) and the LHA
is then paid directly to me. These tenants responsibly decide this. It's not terribly different to the setting up of a direct debit to pay your important bills.

Tenants should be given the option to have their LHA paid directly to the landlord. That treats them with respect and enables them to make
an informed choice.

I'm all in favour of the Welfare Reform. If the Universal Credit always means that you're better off working a sense of reason and coherent logic
will develop which can only be good for all of us. To be rid of "it's not worth my while working, I'm better off on the ''soshe'' " will be the start
of a new dawn where hope and dreams and prosperity can flourish . . . Calm down Bill

04/11/2011
4:52 pm

PaulBarrett

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Don't think you people understand the full impact of the Universal Credit.

My understanding is the claimant receives 1 amount for nearly everything and then doles out to the releveant intended recipients the relevant monies.

Do you seriously imagine that being given a vast wodge of money to apportion the claimant is going to do so!?

You can forget receiving rent; it will have been spent on drink and drugs etc.

Also claimants will start looking for the cheapest rathole they can find as they will be responsible for paying the rent.

Up till now that hasn't been the case as it determined what they should be paid based on their domestic circumstances et.

I don't really know however how this UC will work in practice as far a housing benefit is concerned but I think the warning bells should be sounding for landlords with LHA claimants.

I would welcome input from anyone who has an understanding or or more exact appreciation as to how this UC is going to work as far as landlords are concerned.

05/11/2011
5:43 pm

mary latham

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Universal credit will be one "purse" of money given to claimants to cover all of their expenses. It will be capped at a maximum amount and is, therefore, unlikely to amount in total to the same as their total benefits under the presents systems.

This raises several issues for landlords

Direct payment will not exisits since LHA will stop and DWP will adminster the payments
Tenants who may have poor financial management skills will be expected to prioritise their financial commitments
It is not clear what a landlord can do if rent falls into 8 weeks arrears - other than serve S8 notice at which point rent may continue to be withheld rather than paid directly to us as happens now. Safeguarding policies will need to be revisited to deal with this but I know of no local authority who has done this so far
It is also unclear who a landlord will contact to establish whether a claim is in fact in payment

I am working with all the West Midlands authorties to ensure that we have a plan B.

Credit unions are one good opition and I am having meetings with all of them to establish exactly what they will do for landlords

Payments made via a guarantor is anther option and again we will work out the details of how this might work

Time is short and so are details but we will find solutions and put them in the public arena.

This site will, in my opinion, become an even better friend to landlords and good tenants when universal credit hits us and tenants are faced with suspicious landlords

06/11/2011
11:27 pm

PaulBarrett

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I think this information from Mary is extremely worrying for LHA landlords.

Fortunately I am not one of them.

I WILL NOT take on a tenant or guarantor who fails a RGI policy check.

I would suggest that landlords with LHA claimants need to source non-LHA claimants and evict LHA claimants.

You need to advise these LHA tenants that it is nothing personal; just the system and that you as the landlord are protecting your interests.

The ramifications for landlords taking into account the useless county court system are enormous.

Unless you can cover the shortfall in rent received which you need in full to service the mortgage you will find your properties repossessed.

I would suggest that you now start trying to obtain RGI policies on your LHA tenants and those that cannot meet the requirements or a guarantor you take steps to remove them.

Remember all those landlords renting out to tenants a 1 bed property who are under 35.

Their benefit WILL reduce to the HMO rate .

Nowhere near enough to pay the mortgage you would have on the property.

These changes to the UC will be the biggest upset to social housing for years and landlords need to start considering protection measures NOW!

These are the issues that WILL dircetly affect the viability of certain landlord properties to the extent that landlords might wish to sell those properties.

1/ All properties with hidden gas boiler flues MUST have remedial works carried out on them by 1.1.13 or the gas installation WILL have to be signed off as unsafe.

2/ All properties that are let out MUST achieve an EPC rating of no less than E by 2018.

3/ In 2013 there will be the introduction of this UC the impact of which will be enormous to landlords.

4/ The social effects of all these costly and extensive requirements on landlords and tenants is massive.

Effectively there will be massive reduced rental property supply (Apparrently there are 682000 rental properties that DO NOT meet the 2018 EPC E rating requirement presently); what about ALL the properties that have not had the hidden gas flue situation resolved.

This on the basis that if you as a landlord allow the boiler to be used on 1.1.13 without the remedial works being carried out and 'something' happens you could find yourself on a manslaughter charge and possibly end up in prison, and I am not joking, this is serious stuff.

Supposedly there is going to be this 'Green Deal' where the landlord is loaned the finance to carry out the works and then the tenant is charged higher bills for those improvements!

Now I can see that every application for those 682000 properties that presently do not meet the E EPC standard creates a nice little data base for HMRC!!!?

07/11/2011
10:17 am

Paul Routledge

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mary latham said:

Universal credit will be one "purse" of money given to claimants to cover all of their expenses. It will be capped at a maximum amount and is, therefore, unlikely to amount in total to the same as their total benefits under the presents systems.

This raises several issues for landlords

Direct payment will not exisits since LHA will stop and DWP will adminster the payments

Tenants who may have poor financial management skills will be expected to prioritise their financial commitments

It is not clear what a landlord can do if rent falls into 8 weeks arrears - other than serve S8 notice at which point rent may continue to be withheld rather than paid directly to us as happens now. Safeguarding policies will need to be revisited to deal with this but I know of no local authority who has done this so far

It is also unclear who a landlord will contact to establish whether a claim is in fact in payment

I am working with all the West Midlands authorties to ensure that we have a plan B.

Credit unions are one good opition and I am having meetings with all of them to establish exactly what they will do for landlords

Payments made via a guarantor is anther option and again we will work out the details of how this might work

Time is short and so are details but we will find solutions and put them in the public arena.

This site will, in my opinion, become an even better friend to landlords and good tenants when universal credit hits us and tenants are faced with suspicious landlords

Hi Mary,

I still

mary latham said:

Universal credit will be one "purse" of money given to claimants to cover all of their expenses. It will be capped at a maximum amount and is, therefore, unlikely to amount in total to the same as their total benefits under the presents systems.

This raises several issues for landlords

Direct payment will not exisits since LHA will stop and DWP will adminster the payments

Tenants who may have poor financial management skills will be expected to prioritise their financial commitments

It is not clear what a landlord can do if rent falls into 8 weeks arrears - other than serve S8 notice at which point rent may continue to be withheld rather than paid directly to us as happens now. Safeguarding policies will need to be revisited to deal with this but I know of no local authority who has done this so far

It is also unclear who a landlord will contact to establish whether a claim is in fact in payment

I am working with all the West Midlands authorties to ensure that we have a plan B.

Credit unions are one good opition and I am having meetings with all of them to establish exactly what they will do for landlords

Payments made via a guarantor is anther option and again we will work out the details of how this might work

Time is short and so are details but we will find solutions and put them in the public arena.

This site will, in my opinion, become an even better friend to landlords and good tenants when universal credit hits us and tenants are faced with suspicious landlords

Hi Mary,

I still get confused as to why we need to pay anyone direct. Surely if we don’t provide people with the money it doesn’t matter their rent still gets paid for them.

Surely payments direct to tenants only goes to adding to any risk of the rent cash getting used to support a debouched lifestyle, a lifestyle which I might add, does bring immense grief and hardship to family members of those who do squander the rent.

I do not support the argument because we are all equa, Were not.

I support a system whereby we help people who have fallen into hardship by assisting them in supporting their housing, food, clothing, warmth etc.: I do not support a system where we pay people a cash wage each month to distribute how they feel fit.

I think they entire welfare ethos in this country needs to be welfare is welfare and not a wage which can be drawn upon because you don’t want or think you should work.

I have a single mother who has never worked a day in her life (apart from a conception) and goes away on holiday twice a year, when my 4 working kids are all working up to 10 hours a day just to pay the ever increasing bills and keep a roof over their heads.

If that system is right - stop the world I want to get off.

Paul

07/11/2011
10:23 am

Paul Routledge

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Hi Mary,

I still get confused as to why we need to pay anyone direct. Surely if we don’t provide people with the money it doesn’t matter their rent still gets paid for them.

Surely payments direct to tenants only goes to adding to any risk of the rent cash getting used to support a debouched lifestyle, a lifestyle which I might add, does bring immense grief and hardship to family members of those who do squander the rent.

I do not support the argument because we are all equa, Were not.

I support a system whereby we help people who have fallen into hardship by assisting them in supporting their housing, food, clothing, warmth etc.: I do not support a system where we pay people a cash wage each month to distribute how they feel fit.

I think they entire welfare ethos in this country needs to be welfare is welfare and not a wage which can be drawn upon because you don’t want or think you should work.

I have a single mother who has never worked a day in her life (apart from a conception) and goes away on holiday twice a year, when my 4 working kids are all working up to 10 hours a day just to pay the ever increasing bills and keep a roof over their heads.

If that system is right - stop the world I want to get off.

Paul

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