The impact of the direct payment of housing benefit: evidence from Great Britain

Abstract

In recent years, a number of welfare reforms have been introduced in the UK by Conservative-led governments. The most high profile of these is Universal Credit (UC), which is currently being rolled out across the country. A key feature of UC is a change in the way the income-related housing allowance for social housing tenants (Housing Benefit) is administered, as under UC, it is paid directly to tenants (direct payment), who are responsible for paying their rent. This represents a step change for them as for more than 30 years landlord payment has been the norm in the UK. There has been little research into direct payment. This paper seeks to address this gap in knowledge by presenting the key findings of an initiative designed to trial direct payment. It finds that many tenants experienced difficulties on direct payment. Reflecting this, landlords' arrears rose markedly.

The affordability of “affordable” housing in England: conditionality and exclusion in a context of welfare reform

“…Other organizations also highlighted the limited use of assessments, arguing that 'we think there's quite a weak link between a credit check and someone having a good record of paying their rent' (HA10R1). This may relate to the unpredictable nature of arrears, which Hickman et al (2017) noted often arose from unexpected events. As one participant stated, 'if you've got a tool that can tell me when someone's going to lose their job, then that's great, but you haven't got it' (HA9R2).…”

“…First, the research extends contemporary affordability debates beyond homeownership and private renting, to social housing. This article considers affordability concerns as a driver of organizational practice, adding to research that more typically focuses on household financial impacts and approaches to budgeting (Hickman et al, 2017;Moffatt et al, 2016). Second, the research explores the interaction of welfare and housing reforms, arguing that the combined impact of welfare reform, limited security of tenure, and the diversification of social housing, has greater significance than each measure alone.…”

Direct payment of Housing Benefit: responsibilisation at what cost to landlords?

“…In this context, a self-managing tenant understands that they are entangled in widespread ties, dependencies and duties to others (Trnka & Trundle, 2014) and is able to enact their responsibility to pay their rent to their landlord. Other authors have used the same evidence base to consider the wider impacts and experiences of direct payment on tenants and landlord (Hickman, Kemp, Reeve, & Wilson, 2017;Department for Work and Pensions, 2014a).…”

Understanding social housing tenants' rent payment behaviour: evidence from Great Britain

“…However, this did not happen. One of the key findings of the evaluation of the DPDPs was that only eight per cent of those tenants who remained on DP for the 18 month duration of the programme did so every month (Hickman et al, 2017).…”