Reporting April 2018 rent changes: advice for landlords
The DWP have written to advise housing associations with tenants claiming Universal Credit (UC) where annual April 2018 rent changes are applicable.
The DWP have written to advise housing associations with tenants claiming Universal Credit (UC) where annual April 2018 rent changes are applicable.
For UC Live Service Tenants:
The DWP want to fully utilise a process whereby social landlords can voluntarily send in rent changes for their tenants who are claiming UC housing costs. In order to do this efficiently the DWP need social landlords to notify them of all rent changes by 30th March 2018.
A dedicated team will be ready to process all changes from 3 April 2018, providing social landlords with assurance that their tenants will receive the correct amount of housing costs in their payment of UC.
Schedules can be sent in now until the 30th March 2018 only. A dedicated DWP e-mail inbox has been made available during this period. Schedules received after this period will not be actioned.
Changes should be e-mailed to: SOCIALRENTED.SECTORSCAN@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK
If possible, the schedules should only include tenants who are UC live service claimants. UC full service has no facility to process schedules of rent changes for their claimants.
If you cannot distinguish between full and live service claimants you can enter all the UC claimants on the schedule. However housing costs changes for full service claimants will not be actioned.
The DWP’s preference is for the schedules to be in a MS Excel format and must include the following information:
- Claimant NI Number,
- Claimant name,
- Claimant address and postcode,
- Landlord name,
- Number of Rent Free weeks,
- Rent new amount,
- Eligible service charges total new amount,
- The date the rent changed,
- Rent payment frequency.
The subject field of the email must first contain the region followed by the name of the organisation, e.g. North East (Gemini Housing Association) or Scotland (Taurus Housing Association) or Wales (Pisces Local Authority).
For UC Full Service tenants
In UC full service claimants are responsible for reporting their rent changes using their online account. However, they cannot report rent changes until the change happens.
Guidance will be updated with the April 2018 advice to landlords on: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-and-rented-housing--