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1123636

	registered interest
	date	29/04/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit: Housing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of new claimants for universal credit received two weeks’ run-on housing benefit while waiting for their first payment (a) in the last six months and (b) in the last month for which information is available.
	tabling member constituency	Airdrie and Shotts
	tabling member printed	Neil Gray
	uin	248698
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/05/2019 answer text <p>The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. However, since it was introduced in April 2018, all Housing Benefit claimants, whose Housing Benefit award was ended because of a new claim to Universal Credit, have been awarded the two-week Transition to Universal Credit Housing Payment.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 07/05/2019 11:36:53 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4365 label Biography information for Neil Gray

1123637

	registered interest
	date	29/04/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit: Housing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the proportion of claimants of universal credit who have a deduction for housing rent arrears in the first month of their claim in the last month for which data is available.
	tabling member constituency	Airdrie and Shotts
	tabling member printed	Neil Gray
	uin	248699
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/05/2019 answer text <p>The Government recognises the importance of safeguarding the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt. Universal Credit already has procedures and regulations in place to protect claimants from excessive deductions. Last resort deductions can be applied to protect vulnerable claimants from eviction and/or having their gas, electricity and water cut off, by providing a last resort repayment method for arrears of these essential services. If a claimant is in financial difficulty as a result of the level of deductions being made, they can contact the Department to request that a reduction in their deductions be considered.</p><p> </p><p>The latest available data is for eligible claims to UC Full Service that are due a payment in December 2018. Of those claims with a payment in December 2018 relating to the first month of their claim, 2% have a deduction to repay rent arrears. This equates to 3,000 claims.</p><p> </p><p>Notes</p><ul><li>Rent arrears deductions are defined as arrears of rent and/or service charges relating to a rented property</li><li>Figures for rent arrears deduction include only those claims with a non-zero rent arrears deduction.</li><li>Figures rounded to nearest 1,000.</li></ul> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 07/05/2019 11:49:27 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4365 label Biography information for Neil Gray

1110190

	registered interest
	date	08/04/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit: Housing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of tenants that will experience a financial shortfall as a result of 2019-20 being a 53-week rent year and universal Credit being a 52 week rent year.
	tabling member constituency	Wentworth and Dearne
	tabling member printed	John Healey
	uin	242021
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/04/2019 answer text <p>Neither tenants or landlords lose a week’s rent in a 53 weekly rent payment year as has been alleged; no year contains 53 weeks. The problem is alignment between weekly and monthly cycles. Each month the UC housing element is a constant figure but claimants with weekly tenancy agreements will be required to make either four or five rent payments within this period. If the claimant always pays their rent on time, in five payment months they are effectively making payment for part of the following month. That month will always be a four rent payment month, so the combination of the advance payment and the ‘overpayment’ of housing support during that month will get the claimant back on track</p><p> </p><p>Where a landlord charges rent weekly on a Monday, because of the way the calendar falls every 5 or 6 years, they will seek 53 rent payments in a year, with the 53rd payment in part covering the tenancy for the first few days of the following year. The effect of this is that, over the course of the next housing association rental year, a tenant’s UC payments will accurately reflect their liability, irrespective of the 53 payment weeks.</p><p> </p><p>There is a separate issue with respect to the way the calculation in the Universal Credit regulations converts a weekly liability into a monthly allowance. The conversion is achieved by multiplying the weekly rent by 52 and then dividing by 12. This effectively means one day’s rent a year (two days in a leap years) are not covered by UC. We are currently considering whether this formulation around weekly rents, and potentially other weekly amounts in the UC calculation, should be amended.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 11/04/2019 15:59:06 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	400 label Biography information for John Healey

1121462

	registered interest
	date	11/04/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit: Housing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she had made of the effect of the roll out of universal credit on levels of rent arrears in the London borough of Croydon.
	tabling member constituency	Croydon North
	tabling member printed	Mr Steve Reed
	uin	244110
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/04/2019 answer text <p>We have not made an assessment of this nature, as it is wrong to attribute any change in rent arrears solely to Universal Credit. The initial analytical work we have carried out with a single housing provider suggests that many tenants are arriving on Universal Credit with pre-existing rent arrears, that their arrears tend to increase prior to making a claim for Universal Credit, and that Universal Credit actually appears to be helping to clear arrears over time. We are currently extending this analysis to include a number of housing providers. It will be published when completed. Furthermore, according to latest figures (November 2018) only about 8% of social rented households were on Universal Credit; therefore it is difficult to see how a national trend can be attributed to Universal Credit.</p><p> </p><p>We have responded to concerns in this area by putting a number of safeguards in place - 100% advances repayable over 12 months, increasing to 16 months in October 2021; a two-week Transition to Universal Credit Housing Payment; a new Help to Claim service; and Managed Payment to Landlord Arrangements, which allow for payments direct to the landlord if the tenant is likely to have difficulty in managing their rent payments, is unlikely to pay their rent or is in rent arrears equivalent to eight weeks.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 24/04/2019 10:17:09 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	4268 label Biography information for Steve Reed

1110573

	registered interest
	date	09/04/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit: Housing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that universal credit adequately supports social housing tenants paying rent weekly to meet their obligations in relation to the 53 week year.
	tabling member constituency	East Ham
	tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
	uin	242667
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/04/2019 answer text <p>No year contains 53 weeks. This perceived issue of their being 53 weeks in a year arises where a landlord charges rent weekly on a Monday and, because of the way the calendar falls every 5 or 6 years, seeks 53 rent payments in a year, with the 53rd payment in part covering the tenancy for the first few days of the following year.</p><p>Universal Credit payments are designed to mirror the world of work, with monthly payments reflecting the way many working people are paid. This model of monthly payments allows claimants to take responsibility for budgeting their own income and helps prepare them for getting back to work. The Money and Pension Service can provide debt advice and money guidance to claimants if they need support managing their monthly Universal Credit payments.</p><p>We are aware of a separate issue with respect to the way the calculation in the Universal Credit regulations converts a weekly liability into a monthly allowance. The conversion is achieved by multiplying the weekly rent by 52 and then dividing by 12. This effectively means one day’s rent a year (two days in a leap years) are not covered by UC. We are currently considering whether this formulation around weekly rents, and potentially other weekly amounts in the UC calculation, should be amended.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 15/04/2019 14:48:11 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms