Good morning In one of my recent posts I explained, how one of my Housing Association clients, with some assistance from me, secured payment from DWP, for its mistake of paying Universal Credit’s “Housing Costs” to a “friend” of the tenant, only for him to misuse the money, putting the tenant…

Good morning The following link https://www.lgo.org.uk/decisions/benefits-and-tax/housing-benefit-and-council-tax-benefit/17-012-147#point2 relates to a Local Government Ombudsman decision, relating to Housing Benefit (LHA), and the failure of Liverpool City Council to fulfil its earlier decision, to redirect payments to the Landlord, rather than the tenant, by naming the landlord “payee”. The decision to do so, was…

Good morning DWP has just published, through what is known as a “Commencement Order”, a list of the areas in GB which will transition to “Full Service” delivery, between February to April 2018. You may already be aware of an approximate date from your local authority, but, I would recommend…

Good morning In a few of my earlier bulletins, I refer to the process of making formal complaints to the DWP and have highlighted cases where landlord clients have followed my advice, only to be effectively ignored by DWP. On Wednesday, last week, I received a referral from one of…

Good afternoon DWP has just recently published its DRAFT Universal Credit (Managed Migration) Regulations 2018, the full details of which can be found here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2018/9780111174265/contents The Government’s proposals, explained in the associated “Explanatory Note”, are quite varied & detailed, so, for the purposes of this note, I’ll focus mainly on…

Good morning DWP has just published a guidance note explaining, how and when it will be willing to share & exchange information with, “tenant representatives”, amongst others. The guidance is welcome, as the question of “explicit consent”, introduced February 2017, has been causing landlords (social & private) and tenant representatives…

Good morning When tenants make a claim for Universal Credit, it’s a condition of entitlement, they must agree a “Claimant Commitment” (CC). Some claimants, including those with severe disabilites, child care and/or caring responsibilites or earning above a prescribed threshhold, can be excused from making a commitment. More details on…

Good morning Over the past few weeks, I’ve had a number of referrals from Housing Association clients, concerned about tenants, who have recently been invited to claim Universal Credit, in Full Service areas, due to a change in their circumstances, only to have their applications refused. Why? DWP “closed” their…

Good morning In recent weeks, I’ve been asked to support two of my Housing Association clients, in Universal Credit related disputes, where DWP was either refusing to make payment of the “housing costs element” (HCE) or only paying a proportion of the contractual figure. Working together, we were able to…

Good morning In my one of my last bulletins – “Challenging & Appealing poor decisions” http://universalcreditadvice.com/housing-associations/2018/04/universal-credit—challenging-appealing-poor-decisions I referred to the fact, I had discovered, through the casework queries, I receive from clients, DWP was wrongly applying deductions to Universal Credit awards through, what DWP refers to as “Housing Costs Contributions”, which under…