Good morning, With effect from 3rd October 2016, DWP has introduced a new process, in all “Live” as opposed to “Full Service” areas, to verify details of rent liability, where the claimant fails to provide sufficient information when submitting their claim or, at a later date, when they move into…

Good morning, If you exmine the link http://www.universalcreditadvice.com/housing-associations/training/universal-credit-the-key-risks-to-direct-payments-rent-collection-arrears-control-debt-recovery-explained you’ll find details of the above course which we’re running in Edinburgh on 28th September and London on 4th October, 2016. Both events have already attracted sufficent interest to allow us to confirm they will definitely go ahead; mainly due to the high demand…

Good morning, In an earlier bulletin, I advised you that DWP had identified and lettered tenants likely to be adversely affected by the reduction in Benefits Cap thresholds. Letters were issued sometime between 24 May and 10 June, 2016. The letter didn’t specifically identify a starting date for the cap’s…

Good morning, My bulletin of 4th December http://universalcreditadvice.com/housing-associations/2015/12/universal-credit—digital-system-on-its-way advised of DWP’s plan to start the “Digital System” rollout implementation from May 2016. In the past few days, DWP has confirmed its digital system, will proceed, as planned, and will be rolled out, between May – July 2016 in 5 Job Centre…

Good afternoon, In an earlier bulletin, I alluded to a range of planned changes to Universal Credit & Housing Benefit which are primarily designed to save money, whilst supposedly aligning Housing Benefit rules with those applying to Universal Credit. The following statutory instrument: The Housing Benefit (Abolition of the Family Premium…

Good morning, My recent bulletin, highlighting problems with the Non-secure APA process http://universalcreditadvice.com/ha/2016/07/dwp-introduce-variation-to-non-secure-e-mail-procedure—high-importance has prompted many of our members to seek further advice on how best to: Query an APAs receipt and progress; and Make a formal complaint about DWP mishandling of an application or failure to adequately explain its…

Good morning, DWP has just published its latest stats on Universal Credit, covering the period from 29th April, 2013 (start date) and 7th Jul, 2016. The information is presented in a number of graphs and pie-charts which you can find here. I have extracted a number of the key points for…

Good morning, Our December 2015 bulletin http://universalcreditadvice.com/ha/2015/12/alternative-payment-arrangements—new-non-secure-e-mail-procedure—high-importance advised you of the DWP’s new e-mail facility. Designed to replace the original procedure, which required paper applications for APAs, sent by post, to the Mail Opening Unit (MOU) in Woverhampton, the electronic option was welcomed by Social and Private Landlords alike, as…

Good morning, The Northern Housing Consortium has just published the first of a series of reports – Impact of Universal Credit, Report 1– which, amongst other things, points to rent arrears having risen, on average, by 41.1% in respect of tenants claiming Universal Credit, in relation to the 38 organisations…

Good morning, When Universal Credit was first unveiled, one of its key objectives was to “make work pay”. In other words, claimants would be duly incentivised to work by being allowed to earn, a fixed sum, without their benefits being docked, £ for £. Initially, there was some truth to…