Benefits Tenants

[CrazyTypeOfIndifference]

SoI caught a bit of this on C4 +1. It's mainly about the state some of the houses are in when the tenants are evicted.

So far I've seen the lady who owed £5k and part of the kitchen ceiling had fallen in due to a leak, and the couple where the mum is disabled and they're talking about getting a skip in to clear the house.

Is it just me thinking that the state of the houses isn't that bad? Especially the lady with the fallen-in ceiling.

I mean, yes, they're a grubby. But in the fallen-in-ceiling womans house, there was no junk or clutter, all the surfaces in the kitchen looked clean enough, but the landlord was wringing his hands in despair and the camera was doing close ups of mud on the floor and dust on the windowsills. Not like there's shit everywhere or anything. A couple of hours with some flash and a hoover would have put it right from what I saw (to a basic standard anyway)

The second house was full of 'stuff' and the kitchen did look pretty rank...but again, take a bit of flash to it, box up the junk and scrub the floors, you could probably have it looking decentish in an hour or two.

So AIBU to think they're making a bit of a meal out of the state of a couple of the houses?

Why is HB paid to the tennants and not the LL?

Good question.

Many private landlords will not take a direct payment fro the council. It means that the tenant is liable and if a HB payment is late or delayed the tenant has to make up the shortfall.

HB is paid 4 weeks in arrears and not monthly, most private landlords charge rent monthly as that is how mortgages are paid. Again the tenant has to make up the difference between 4 weeks rent and a 31 day month. Eventually they should receive an extra payment after 12 months.

The rules changed so that landlords can only take a direct payment if you are in arrears or a social landlord.

Once PIP comes in there will be no option to pay landlords directly.

Many private landlords will not take a direct payment fro the council. It means that the tenant is liable and if a HB payment is late or delayed the tenant has to make up the shortfall.

HB is paid 4 weeks in arrears and not monthly, most private landlords charge rent monthly as that is how mortgages are paid. Again the tenant has to make up the difference between 4 weeks rent and a 31 day month. Eventually they should receive an extra payment after 12 months.

I can't understand this. Certainly the risk of a council paying late is less than that of a tenant paying late? Wouldn't it make far more sense for the LL to collect one month's rent at the beginning of the tenancy (to make up for it being paid in arrears) and a periodic adjustment for 4-weekly vs monthly calculations? Or, to align rental periods with the council?

They stand to mitigate a huge risk.

Certainly the risk of a council paying late is less than that of a tenant paying late?

If only boots, if only........

What sort of issues might you encounter with the council paying late? Don't they approve you and then it's all carried out via an automation payment interface from there?

The problem is that the automatic payment interface is actioned by muppets humans.

The initial problem that you might encounter is the time taken from your first application to actually receiving some money- at the moment, our council is doing pretty well- within 4 weeks- but I remember the bad old days in Hackney when it was taking people six months to get their first payments.

Actually, that's not the initial problem, the initial problem is making sure the council doesn't lose your housing benefit application form when you hand it in. I used to be a housing support worker- DP still is- and the drill is always, always, always to ask for a receipt when you hand your form in, otherwise they're quite capable of claiming they never got it. Of course, it doesn't say anywhere that you have to ask for a receipt, that's just something you have to know.(Always send all postal correspondence recorded delivery, for the same reasons).

Then, you have the dreaded "change of circumstances". Every time your income changes, you have to let them know. Which is fine, except that that's another opportunity for human error interaction with the automatic payment interface. I've just had to call them up to report a change in income- when they finally get round to sending me the forms and I send them back (by recorded delivery, natch) I'll be checking very carefully to make sure my payments continue as normal.

A friend has just had everything stopped. Everything. Trying to pick apart his problem, I think it's because his DS has just turned 5 and started school- I think that might mean a switch from IS to JSA, but it sounds like the DWP might just have informed HB that he's no longer receiving IS. Which shouldn't mean a stop in HB, but it's been stopped anyway.

A PP referred to HB claimants "knowing the system inside out" as if it was some kind of cunning crime. No. It's a necessity. Because, if you don't have a good knowledge of the system you can end up being royally shafted. Besides, even as an ex housing support worker, I can't say that I "know the system inside out". Because it changes every 5 minutes. And I have to say that, in my experience, the actual HB workers at the council don't "know the system inside out". In fact, frequently, given the amount of misinformation they dish out, I'd say that they don't know it as well as I do.

ahem...rant over

stubbornstains - I think starting-up delays are to be expected in the public sector, sadly. I can also imagine that a "change of circumstances" would cause a problem because I would imagine someone has to approve it.

But, I'm surprised that "changes of circumstance" would be frequent enough to offset the benefit of LL's being paid directly from the council. It seems like that would maybe happen once a year (?), and even if they're screwing up at a rate of 50% this translates into a payment interruption of once every two years.

Boots, I have three words for you: "zero hours contracts".

Most private LLs aren't particularly understanding about "payment interruptions", even once every 2 years. Neither are they likely to want to spend hours and hours on the phone sorting out your HB for you...even if they were allowed access to your personal information.

In most cases, it's far better if it goes to the tenant- at least then you have the opportunity to know if it's gone tits up ASAP and borrow the money from your gran to pay the rent (as my friend has just had to do).

I think the problem is that you're coming from a mindset which sees the majority of HB tenants as feckless and likely to pay the offie rather than the LL. The majority would do anything to keep a roof over their heads- it's just that when they get a "payment interruption" they're screwed.

Of course, there are some feckless HB tenants. DP looks after a hostel full of them. And their rent is all paid direct to the hostel. For the moment. Soon that won't be able to happen. And all the hostels will receive precious little rental income, and will probably go to the wall .

Not certain why you think I find HB tenants "feckless". I would rather receive rent from the council than any tenant because as I said before, once it's up and running I'm being paid by an automated payment interface.

Most private LLs aren't particularly understanding about "payment interruptions", even once every 2 years

I would be delighted to lock in an arrangement where I had an average of 23 out of 24 rental payments made. That's got to be higher than average amongst either HB or unsubsidized tenants across the board.

written to be honest I didn't think about it at the time. I know better now.