Direct payment of housing benefits to landlords rather than tenants will be allowed – but only in Northern Ireland.
Landlords are now calling for the move by the Department for Work and Pensions to be copied in the rest of the UK.
Following discussions with the UK minister Lord Freud, Northern Ireland’s social security minister Nelson McCausland confirmed the policy in a statement to members of the Assembly.
He said: “This is an important change as it will help to avoid rent arrears, with all the implications that can have for claimants and their families.”
Currently Local Housing Allowance is paid direct to tenants, and it is proposed that the new Universal Credit will also go direct to tenants.
However, private landlords say they risk having the rent not passed on to them, while a number of studies have shown that tenants themselves would prefer the rent money to be paid to their landlords.
Ministers at the DWP have argued that payments to tenants will promote financial responsibility.
Chris Town, vice-chairman of the Residential Landlords Association, said that the Northern Ireland move should be copied elsewhere.
He said: “With 9.1% of all rent in the private rental sector being in arrears, this is a situation which is simply not sustainable for either tenant or landlord.
“Both parties in the Coalition before the general election pledged to introduce direct payments to landlords. Organisations working with tenants including Shelter, Citizens Advice and the Money Advice Trust all support tenants having the choice to have their rent paid directly to landlords.
“The Government should get out of the way and trust tenants to know what is best for them.
“If it’s good enough for Northern Ireland it should be good enough for the rest of the country.”
Comments
I have a tenant who has been with me for 14 years. At various times over the years he has been on HB - including now. I have been very lucky indeed - without fail he passes his HB over to me. Originally, of course, the payments came direct to me but when the rules changed the money went to him and he had to pass it on to me. I know how lucky I have been. He is a saint.
That said, I wouldn't dream of taking on HB tenants in my other properties now, unless the payments were direct. It's too much of an unknown quantity/risk with unpaid rent, damage, and eviction the result too many times.
If the government trusts these people to pay their rent, why don't they trust the rest of us and scrap PAYE and we can all be nice upright citizens and go to the bank every month and pay our taxes!!!
Without proper financial education combined with a sense of community responsibility, nothing will change; just the opportunity to mess up!
It's akin to saying let us provide access to self-assessed borrowing without credit checks, as that will promote a sense of financial responsibility. It did, didn't it? Those that were desperate refrained from increasing their debt...
But then, if respected financial institutions couldn't distribute their money wisely what can we really expect from the "lesser financially experienced" DWP Ministers?
It's abundantly clear who else really needs to display a sense of financial and economic responsibility...
Just leave the education and development of people to the appropriate Department, please.
They dont teach financial responsibility at Eaton do they ? and boy can we see it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As a long term landlord who rents to tenants on HB I dread the coming of Universal Credit with the Housing Benefit being paid to tenants.
This government has no idea how how difficult it will be to get some tenants to pass this on to landlords.
We have mortgages to pay to keep a roof over our tenants heads, how are we expected to do this if the rent is not coming in. Just try to explain that to a mortgage company.
With higher gas and electric bills, and food prices rising, the rent which is the most important thing to be paid, will be the last thing to be paid, and unfortunately evictions will be high because of this utterly stupid ill thought out policy.
This Government and our MPs are totally out of touch with what is going on in this country.
as a new ish landlord i am now even more unlikely to rent to those on h.benefits as the risks are now even higher. as usual more ledgislation not being thought through. where are they going to go when we all say no?
I totally agree to this. I have been renting my 2bed since last 7 years and unfortunately every time I find HB tenant single mum with kid and most of them on their last month flee without notice and unpaid rent and the local council do nothing about it - every year I have a hole in my pocket - it is very annoying - but the reason I go with them is HB rent is higher than private. Intial 3-4 years were good when their HB rent was coming into my account, but last few years has been a nightmare
I see someone has beaten me to it;
"Ministers at the DWP have argued that payments to tenants will promote financial responsibility."
Where's the evidence?
All government has done is force the potential for arrears onto tenants. That's irresponsible.
Then there are the tenants who wilfully don't pay the rent because they now have the choice. It's a lose lose lose situation as the tenant loses when they get evicted, the government/council have to rehouse them and the landlord makes a loss which hurts government in lower tax receipts.
Doesn't take a genius to work out.
"Ministers at the DWP have argued that payments to tenants will promote financial responsibility."
There is no financial responsibility, or dignity, in eviction