Good morning Although I spend a large part of my time dealing with Housing Benefit and Universal Credit queries and disputes, occasionally, I assist clients challenge Council Tax demands. Invariably, I’m able to resolve disputes with the Council concerned, but, on occasions, need to pursue the issue to a Valuation…

Good morning DWP has just made a “backdated” award of £3000 in Universal Credit “Housing Costs” to a Housing Association client of mine, fully clearing off rent arrears, that had been accruing, since February 2018, when their tenant was wrongly advised, by DWP, to cancel his Universal Credit claim. DWP…

Good afternoon The Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) have just published its annual report for 2018/19. A large part of the report, not surprisingly, focuses on the final phase of Universal Credit’s Managed Migration exercise – and explains, in detail, the various exchanges it’s had, with both DWP and Parliament…

Good morning If your tenant claims Universal Credit, they will not be paid any money until 5 weeks after they submit their claim, and will be paid monthly thereafter. They can ask for an advance payment of Universal Credit if they’re in financial hardship while they wait for their first…

Good morning DWP has just issued its latest statistics on Universal Credit, covering, amongst other things, the numbers of claims and awards made so far, broken down, and including an analysis at regional and district level. The figures cover the period up to 11th July 2019 and can be found …

Good morning You’ll find below, an exchange I’ve had with Neil Couling, DWP’s Director General, relating to the way DWP is currently mishandling the Third-Party Deductions (TPDs) scheme, especially as it relates to rent arrears recovery and levels of deductions being applied to some tenant awards. I wrote to DWP…

Good afternoon More details from DWP’s guidance to landlords can be found here. Private landlords are landlords who usually own the property they are renting out. Private landlords can be: a company that owns a lot of properties a person or family that owns one or more properties Private landlords…

Good morning In today’s bulletin, we highlight the critical part played by specialist benefits staff, in helping tenants overcome the ever-increasing obstacles placed in their path, by DWP’s mishandling of claims, its seeming reluctance or inability to remedy errors, and, on occasions, downright intransigenence. West of Scotland Housing Association (WOSHA)…

Good afternoon My recent bulletin “Notifying DWP of a change in your tenants’ rental charge” has produced a response from DWP management. One of my Housing Association clients, wrote to their Partnership Manager, attaching a spreadsheet, with details of tenants who had failed to respond to DWP’s April 2019 “journal”…

Good morning In recent weeks, I’ve had a number of website clients, and private landlord posters on, for example, Property Tribes, raising examples of councils not making, the 2 week run-on of Housing Benefit (LHA) even though this should be paid automatically, when a tenant transitions from Housing Benefit to…