Universal Credit – Increasing rent arrears

by Dean Crofts on 18 October, 2018

More reports have surfaced, this time from the Residential Landlords Association, confirming Universal Credit is not fit for purpose!

Rent arrears among claimants are rising and this is no surprise considering Universal Credit is no longer meeting the requirements it was designed for.

Originally, we were told it was made to look like the world of work, where people get paid monthly therefore welfare payments would be paid monthly.

What the DWP and Tory government officials fail to realise is that when you start a tenancy, you are expected to pay your rent in advance – remember the deposit plus one months rent rule.

Universal Credit (and our previous legacy benefit system) pays housing costs in arrears. Therefore it does not meet the needs of a rent industry set up for payments in advance.

It creates debt, rent arrears and the prospect of eviction, leading to homelessness, rough sleeping and an increase in temporary accommodation costs met by yes, you – the taxpayer.

Combine this with the freezing of housing welfare costs over the last 3 years, the increasing rent increases in the private sector and you have a recipe for disaster that is Universal Credit.

A welfare system has to be a safety net in times of peoples lives to help them through periods of illness, periods of joblessness and to support those who cannot work and have caring needs to sustain lives many of us take for granted..

Let us start providing welfare that will give everyone that safety net.

Solutions could include:
1) paying the first Universal Credit payment within 7 days of a successful claim
2) let the claimant chose if they want their rent to go direct to their landlord
3) let us get rid of advance payments which will reduce debt and stop people being short for the first 12 months of any claim
4) let us support the most vulnerable in society and those that find it hard to work or cannot work
5) let us look at re-instating the work allowances – which were removed in 2015 – to make sure that people on low pay are supported into work and out of poverty.

Is Universal Credit the welfare system we want for the future?

At this point in time the answer is No unless the government wakes up and looks after those that need that safety net.

Remember one day it could be you that needs help!

Liberal Democrats will always make sure no-one is enslaved by poverty, no one is ignored or has to conform to an imposed state system of welfare that is not working.

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