News from a Large Housing Association- here's some of the problems experienced by one of the organisations we have provided training for-
'We currently have 596 tenants on UC.
We have 3 local authorities paying UC DHP’s 3 different ways and none being able to send over a tenant reference. This is going to be a nightmare once all LA’s start paying DHP’s for UC. We have to guess who they are for as they haven’t got a process themselves!
Notifications are still going to all of our office addresses and not necessarily the office for the tenant, (for example tenants living in Liverpool have notifications sent to Cumbria).
In terms of APA’s, they are not the answer if the tenant is in employment. They stop without notice, and amounts vary according to hours the tenant works.'
Survey from the National Federation of ALMOS- 'At the time of the survey, respondents housed around 2,000 households already in receipt of UC. Of these a very high proportion, 89%, were in arrears and 34% were subject to an alternative payment arrangement (APA) – meaning that they had accrued at least eight weeks of arrears... problems...not receiving timely notification of tenants going on to UC (96%), claimants experiencing hardship while waiting for their first payment (95%), payments of UC being delayed (82%) and the housing element of UC being calculated incorrectly, or omitted entirely(82%).' Click here for the link.
Numbers of claimants on on UC- '155,000 people were on the Universal Credit caseload, as of 12th November 2015. Of these 33% were in employment and 67% were not in employment.' click here for the full statistics.
Universal Credit Digital Service Roll Out- The government has said-
'Universal credit is available now in three quarters of all jobcentres, and by April next year will be available nationally. Building on that, the digital service is already in a number of jobcentres, and I can announce that it is being extended to a further five jobcentres as early as next year—to Hounslow, Musselburgh, Purley, Thornton Heath and Great Yarmouth prior to May 2016, when the digital service will be rolled out nationally.'
HB Redundancies Caused by UC- The government has said '...we will work with them(councils) to manage the impact of these changes in a way which minimises the need for any redundancies. Where this does not prove possible, after the exercise of all reasonable efforts to redeploy people, the Department has given Local Authorities a commitment that we will meet their costs of any residual redundancies.'
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