New Universal Credit research for the RLA

This week we published the findings of new Universal Credit research for the RLA.

The research, which can be read here, reveals that:

• 54% of those private landlords who have let to tenants on Universal Credit in the past 12 months have seen them fall into rent arrears
• Of these, 82% said that the arrears only began after a new claim for Universal Credit or after a tenant had been moved to the Credit from housing benefit.
• 68% of landlords said that there was a shortfall between the cost of rent and the amount paid in Universal Credit.
• It took landlords an average of almost 8.5 weeks for an Alternative Payment Arrangement to be arranged, meaning that landlords can be left with almost four months of rent arrears before they begin to receive the rent they are owed.

The RLA is calling on the Government to do more to prevent rent arrears occurring in the first place including:

• Giving all tenants from the start of a claim for Universal Credit the ability to choose to have the housing element paid directly to their landlord.
• Ending the five week waiting period to receive the first Universal Credit payment.
• Ending the Local Housing Allowance freeze to ensure it reflects the realities of private sector rents.

Blog Post from Residential Landlords Association

See details of our Guaranteed Rent Scheme here