News

Earlier this year, Caridon Landlord Solutions joined other industry experts in responding to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee’s inquiry into the economics of Universal Credit. Following this, a series of recommendations for an overhaul of Universal Credit have now been handed to the Department for Work and Pensions by the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee.

Under a landmark court case heard in York County Court on 1 July, a tenant challenged a letting agent for rejecting her application for a privately rented property on the basis of her being in receipt of housing benefit, and won her case.

This week, Secretary of State Thérèse Coffey took questions from the Economic Affairs Committee on the economics of Universal Credit. As part of this she told MPs that she does not want to see a return to the widespread use of direct rent payments to landlords with tenants in receipt of housing benefit, despite praising the new online Alternative Payment Arrangement system which makes setting up direct payments much quicker.

Today (13th May 2020) The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched a new online system to allow rent payments, from tenants in receipt of Universal Credit, to be paid directly to Private Rented Sector (PRS) landlords. The new system for arranging these Alternative Payment Arrangements replaces the two existing UC47 forms cutting the processing time down from in excess of three weeks to just two hours in some cases.

We understand that amidst these uncertain times, there is an enormous amount of new information being released every day. One of the things we are hearing is that, because every individual’s circumstances are different, landlords are finding it difficult to cut through all of the information in order to access what is relevant to them.

As The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) grapples with nearly one million new claimants applying for Universal Credit following the outbreak of COVID-19, Caridon Landlord Solutions, part of Caridon Group, says landlords should educate themselves on the Universal Credit system now so that they can support their tenants and both mitigate the risk of rental arrears.