SFHA makes further submission to Work and Pensions Committee Universal Credit roll-out inquiry
Federation continues to highlight impact of Universal Credit.
The SFHA has made a further submission of evidence to the House of Commons’ Select Committee Inquiry into the Roll-out of Universal Credit. The submission follows on from the submission made in March and from evidence given in person to the committee in September.
The SFHA’s submission makes a number of recommendations:
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A pause to the accelerated roll-out of Universal Credit Full Service until the problems of delays in payment to claimants, some of whom are left without money way beyond the six weeks that are supposed to lapse before first payment, which in itself is unacceptable
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further enhancement of the landlord portal so that housing associations can see when deductions of managed payments to landlords have been taken from tenants which are due to be, but not yet paid to the landlord in a future payment schedule
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resolving the incompatibility issues between the CJSM secure email system used by many housing association and the IT system used by the DWP’s contactor for administering payments to third parties
SFHA Policy Advisor Jeremy Hewer said:
“It incredibly concerning that the UK Government is wilfully pressing ahead with the roll-out when a fifth of Universal Credit claimants are not getting their money in time, especially given the fact that the removal of gateway criteria will mean many of those claimants will have children to care for – who are the innocent victims of a system that at present is beset with operational shortcomings.
“The situation is made all the worse by landlords being left guessing whether the rent due is going to be paid as there is no easy way of knowing whether a Managed Payment to Landlord has been deducted from a claimant’s Universal Credit benefit, until it is actually paid to the landlords by the DWP, which may only happen weeks later. Without implicit consent, landlords cannot readily provide the support that have been used to giving, so there will be some tenancies that will be in jeopardy unnecessarily.”
The SFHA will be launching a new campaign on Universal Credit. Your organisation can help by completing the monthly survey. For further information on the survey, please email Janine McKenna jmckenna@sfha.co.uk.