Agenda item

The Director of Housing submits a quarterly progress report on Rent Arrears - July 2015 to September 2015.  

The Director of Housing submitted a quarterly progress report on Rent Arrears - July 2015 to September 2015.

It was noted that :-

a)         The cash amount owing as at 2nd October was £1,708m which was 8.8% lower than in the same quarter last year.

b)         The number of tenants in arrears was 4,883, which was 0.75% less than the same quarter last year.

c)         The number of tenants in more serious debt, (owing more than 7 weeks rent) was 1,492, some 27.7% lower than this quarter last year.

d)         For the current financial year from April ’14 to March ’15, c. £1.235m extra (based on latest estimates) rent will be collectable as a result of the “bedroom tax.”

e)         £163,541 was paid by Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP’s) for all Council tenants, of which £128,136 was for those affected by the Bedroom Tax, from April to September 2015.

f)          The arrears among those affected by the Bedroom Tax had decreased by about £20k since 6th April 2014.

g)         There were 28 evictions carried out for non-payment of rent from 6th October to 2 October 2015, compared to 51 in the same period last year.

Members were pleased to see the number of evictions was down on the previous report.

Following Members questions it was reported that:-

a)         If families were evicted they were entitled under legislation to request the local authority to determine if there was duty to provide accommodation.  In cases involving children there was a requirement to provide temporary accommodation until the application was investigated and determined.  However, evidence suggested that many families that were evicted did not approach the Council to be housed after being evicted.

b)         Staff were being proactive in profiling tenants and were contacting single tenants to advise that they may be affected by changes in their circumstances under Universal Credit.

c)         The introduction of mandatory direct debits or credit union arrangements for new tenants from February 2016 may mitigate some of the risks for rent arrears under the new universal credit system.

d)         Officers had visited other local authorities with a profile similar to Leicester to learn examples of good practice.  This identified the relationship between council’s and the Department of Works and Pensions (DWP) as a potential weakness.  Consequently officers had contacted the DWP to devise protocols for sharing information where tenants’ arrears were increasing.  There is a 7 week delay period for new claimants.  The Council were hoping to participate in a pilot Trusted Partner Scheme whereby the tenant can get paid earlier so the Council can get the rent payments before the tenant goes into arrears.    

e)         Universal Credit claimants received their first claim payment within 6-8 weeks of making their claim.  Future payments were then paid on the monthly anniversary of their first payment.  Universal Credit was paid monthly in arrears based upon an assessment in the last week of the monthly period.  This meant that if a tenancy was cancelled in the first three weeks of the assessment period, when the assessment was carried out in the fourth week, the DWP would not pay for the three weeks the claimant was a council tenant.  Conversely, if the tenancy started in the last week of the assessment period the DWP would pay 4 weeks of payments.

AGREED:

That the Commission welcomes the reduction in rent arrears and expressed gratitude to the staff for their efforts in achieving this.  The Commission also recognised the challenges to be faced in the year ahead arising from the changes arising from the introduction of the Universal Credit payments.