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Chancellor, Rishi Sunak announced, in his autumn budget, several changes, which should benefit tenants, particularly those who work in low paid jobs, and are claiming benefits. However, he resisted demands to restore the £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit, introduced in March 2020, as part of the…

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By far the majority of UC tenants’ hand over their “housing costs element” (HCE) to their landlord to avoid the risk of rent arrears and legal action. Concern exists however, in those cases, where the tenant doesn’t hand over the funds, intended to reduce or extinguish their rent…

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In May this year, one of my Housing Association clients contacted me, seeking assistance with three separate overpayment invoice demands, from DWP, collectively amounting to, circa £5000. Before contacting me, its Finance Manager decided to tackle the problem, by contacting DWP’s Debt Management team, who had sent the…

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The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman has just reported on a case of Housing Benefit (HB), where the complainant landlord lost rental income when the Council failed to pay HB to him, instead of the tenant, despite repeatedly requesting redirection due to the tenant owing more…

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Universal Credit – Upper-tier Tribunal – CSUC/280/2020 

In one of my earlier bulletins I discussed the implications of a Court of Appeal case, which found in favour of Danielle Johnson and 3 other single mothers, who had fallen foul of a Universal Credit rule…

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Last December, I agreed to represent an elderly lady in a dispute over Housing Benefit with one of the London Boroughs. Her claim was refused, essentially because she was renting from her son, and the Council was unwilling to accept the Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) agreement they had…

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You may already have seen this article  which appeared on BBC news the other day. It explains how in 2020-21, Fraud & Error in respect of DWP’s overall benefit payments amounted to £8.4billion, up from £4.6 Billion the year before. £6 Billion or 75% of the overall figure…

Details relating to the aforementioned act can be found here

Background

As well as introducing Universal Credit, the Welfare Reform Act 2012 makes amendments to jobseeker’s allowance, employment and support allowance, income support, tax credits, industrial injuries benefit, housing benefit and the social fund. It also provides…

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Most state benefit rates have changed from this month.

Some, like Universal Credit, have been increased by 0.5% (in line with inflation). Whereas, Pensioners enjoy a rise of 2.5% to their state Pension. To access the comprehensive list of benefit type changes, and the variable amounts that apply,…

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The Government, in its Spring 2021 budget, announced its intention to accelerate the introduction of advantageous changes to the under 35 exceptions, relating to the LHA rate, which will impact on both Local Housing Allowance and UC “housing costs” claimants.

The changes are focused on two groups: