Agenda item

Report to follow.

The committee considered an update, which it had requested at its November committee meeting, on the impact of Universal Credit (UC) on rent collection and the steps being taken to mitigate this. This was presented by the Director of Housing, Health and Environmental Services, who informed the committee of the following:

·         Universal Credit was paid in arrears and required active management by recipients.

·         Landlords were not entitled to know if a tenant was a recipient of Universal Credit.

·         Of the Council’s 2000 tenants, only 370 received Universal Credit. Despite this, an impact of Universal Credit on rent arrears had been seen.

·         Tenants having difficulty managing their Universal Credit, could have their rent paid directly to their landlord to prevent them from falling into further rent arrears.

·         Four new members of staff were in post to help with the impact of Universal Credit. These posts were funded by South Cambridgeshire District Council. A Vulnerable Work Coach was also in post, which was jointly funded by the Department for Work and Pensions and South Cambridgeshire District Council. This role was to help support vulnerable tenants.

·         The Council was handling the challenge of Universal Credit as best as it could.

·         Officers recognised that by giving more early help to tenants on Universal Credit, less support would be required later.

·         Extra work was being done by the Council to monitor Universal Credit claimants and identify any having difficulty with managing their money.

·         Although the number of rent arrears had not increased significantly, this was a significant percentage increase of 7.5% which needed to be monitored.

Members of the committee asked several questions, which the Director of Housing, Health and Environmental Services was unable to answer at the meeting. He would update the committee with the answers following the meeting. Questions were:

·         How many tenants on UC had the council subsequently evicted for arrears / non-payment of rents?

·         For how many residents did the Council receive direct rent payments?

·         Once a resident on direct rent payments recovered their rent arrears, did they stay on direct payments or did they go back on self-managing their Universal Credit payments?

·         When would the remaining Council tenants transfer to Universal Credit?

·         How did the Council’s collection performance compare to other Councils?

·         How many non-HRA tenants did the Council support with Universal Credit?

Scrutiny and Overview Committee members noted the challenges posed by Universal Credit, highlighting that Disability Cambridgeshire was seeing problems caused by UC for people with disabilities. Members asked whether the Council could do anything further to help support these people.

Committee members expressed concern regarding the five week delay in claimants receiving their Universal Credit payments, as claimants were likely to have limited or no cash reserves. Committee members queried whether the Council could lobby Central Government to not roll Universal Credit further. The Chief Executive pointed out that Universal Credit was a Government policy and they were aware of the problems being caused by it.

Committee members noted the update and thanked officers for their thorough approach to mitigating the risks of Universal Credit.