Inside Housing have reported an announcement by Neil Couling, senior responsible owner for Universal Credit at the DWP – He wrote: 'One of the key things landlords have told us is that receiving your payment at the same time your tenant receives theirs, and being able to access a schedule of payments on the landlord portal, would greatly improve your ability to mange payments and reconcile UC housing costs. As a result, I’m pleased to let you know this week, we have started a small-scale test with a small group of social landlords to align the way that we pay managed payments to landlords with a claimant’s assess period. This means you will receive the housing cost element at the same time as your tenant receives their UC payment.'
As part of the changes, social landlords will also now receive a daily schedule of their tenants’ housing cost
payments through the government’s landlord portal.
The news has been welcomed by the National Housing Federation (NHF) and the Scottish Federation of Housing
Associations (SFHA).
Sue Ramsden, policy leader at the NHF, said: “This change is welcome news and a good example of social landlords
and DWP working together to find effective solutions. A new system of direct payments will make it much easier for
landlords to keep track of rent payments, saving them a great deal of time and resource. We look forward to the rollout
of the new system in early 2020.”
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