Universal credit chaos leaves tenants in tears

I write the following letter to UC claiming they want a bill calculating as they do not cover this part of the rent. Ludicrous! They say its a grey area. Most certainly not, it's documented in their very own policies.

Thecletter is used now as verification and clarity to remind the UCR at UC there is a process.

This has been a very cruel and accusatory process aimed at the very people who have nothing. Also people with Mental health, disabilities and low income. Utterly abhorrent to directly accuse people of dubious claims.

Landlord name, address, mobile, email)
(today date)
Dear Universal Credit,
Ref : (tenant name)
I am writing to Confirm (name) resides at (address) they rent 1 room in a licensed shared house ( Mandatory HMO)
On the (date) (name) was issued with a new AST for (address). The rent is £ pm and this includes all bills.
All the information needed is on page 1 and 2 of the tenancy and they rent a room in a shared house.

The Government’s guidance for private landlords (accessible here: href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-and-rented-housing--2/universal-credit-and-rented-housing-guide-for-landlords#service-charges-and-universal-credit" rel="nofollow">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-and-rented-housing--2/universal-credit-and-rented-housing-guide-for-landlords#service-charges-and-universal-credit) states:
In the private rented sector, a tenant’s total rent is usually made up of both rent and service charges, which are not separately identifiable.
DWP will not need to collect separate service charge information for HMO private rented sector tenants. This is because DWP will pay the lesser of the total rent or the appropriate Local Housing Allowance.
As a tenant (name) should therefore not need to supply anything other than the contractual rent amount. His contractual rent month is £ pm. This is documented on the tenancy.
If you need further information please call me on (mobile).
I request the rent continues to be paid directly to me via the UC47 APA landlord portal process.
I hope the above settles and confirms any outstanding queries to your satisfaction.
Kind Regards
(Landlord name)
Credit ref number :

(Landlord name, address, mobile, email)

(today date)
Dear Universal Credit,
Ref : (tenant name)

I am writing to Confirm (name) resides at (address) they rent 1 room in a licensed shared house ( Mandatory HMO)
On the (date) (name) was issued with a new AST for (address). The rent is £ pm and this includes all bills.

All the information needed is on page 1 and 2 of the tenancy and they rent a room in a shared house.

The Government’s guidance for private landlords (accessible here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-and-rented-housing--2/universal-credit-and-rented-housing-guide-for-landlords#service-charges-and-universal-credit) states:
In the private rented sector, a tenant’s total rent is usually made up of both rent and service charges, which are not separately identifiable.

DWP will not need to collect separate service charge information for HMO private rented sector tenants. This is because DWP will pay the lesser of the total rent or the appropriate Local Housing Allowance.

As a tenant (name) should therefore not need to supply anything other than the contractual rent amount. His contractual rent month is £ pm. This is documented on the tenancy.

If you need further information please call me on (mobile).

I request the rent continues to be paid directly to me via the UC47 APA landlord portal process.

I hope the above settles and confirms any outstanding queries to your satisfaction.

Kind Regards

(Landlord name)
Credit ref number :

They need to re introduce direct payments to landlords that cannot be cancelled or altered by the tenants.
That will end the housing crisis overnight.
Simple.

Morning Jacqueline

Your template is well crafted and should be copy & pasted by some of the contributors to this site. It sets out for DWP decision makers, the correct position of tenants in the private, charitable and voluntary sectors, who should not be asked to provide a breakdown of their rent or produce utility bills, like gas and electricity, when that remains the responsibility of their landlord. Their maximum rent eligibility is based simply on the LHA rate, nothing else.

This is yet another example of DWP’s staff being poorly trained, demanding validation unnecessarily, and oftentimes cancelling awards retrospectively when the information is not provided. If that occurs, don’t mess about; help your tenant submit a Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) request seeking a “revision” of the poor decision and a MR Notice in response. This should ensure the dispute is passed to a savvier DM and is more likely to secure the desired outcome, quickly.

Reply to the comment left by J C at 20/01/2024 - 08:28
Hi JC

If the current Alternative Payment Arrangement (APA) scheme was administered correctly most of the problems landlords complain about would disappear. Currently the scheme is administered inconsistently and, in many areas, is a lottery or shambles.

Landlords complete the online application, correctly identifying the appropriate Tier 1 factor e.g., 1.8 relating to rent arrears and can prove the 1 or 2 months’ are outstanding, yet receive a rejection with no explanation being afforded. DWP suggests to do so would breach data protection or confidentiality principles, yet its solicitors maintain there is no such impediments. A case of blatant misrepresentation by DWP’s hierarchy!

The scheme was designed to protect vulnerable tenants, identified in the Tier 1 factors, and their families, from facing repossession and eviction and the safeguarding of public funds. That’s not happening. Instead, we repeatedly see, APA requests being denied or existing APAs being stopped, because some delinquent tenants aware of how to play the system, access and misuse the funds. When that happens DWP claim, this is a simple tenant/landlord issue to be addressed through the court when the overriding objective of the APA scheme is to avoid this situation occurring.

The issues mentioned above, are well known to authorities, have been around for years, are well documented in landlord forums, but no one seems willing to make a serious attempt to challenge DW’s hierarchy, on what is gross maladministration, causing massive rental income loss to landlords and unnecessary legal actions being pursued through the court process.

Reply to the comment left by Jacque1ine at 20/01/2024 - 08:11
Great letter for others to copy.
It annoys me when they tell tenant that tenancy is no good, as not got Landlords address on. It's clearly there on page 4.
But UC deletes tenancy as they think no good and u have to start again. Whereas if they communicated with Landlord, save everyone a a lot of time and money

Reply to the comment left by J C at 20/01/2024 - 08:28
Save a lot of homeless wouldn't it. They won't listen though.

Reply to the comment left by Bill irvine at 20/01/2024 - 09:19
That's it Bill. We fill the online form in correctly only for DWP to send email saying Not accepting.
Yet we have no clue what done wrong as no communication

benefit fraud is happening on an industrial scale - unfortunately the decent honest tenants have to go through these checks to find the cheaters

Reply to the comment left by Roogy at 20/01/2024 - 10:51
And a lot of this fraud could be stopped if DWP communicated with Landlord.
I've had many tenants leave me and UC kept paying me cause I can't tell DWP to stop. Like HB days, she's left, stop paying me please.

Same with fictitious claiming for rent at houses where no rent is due. No checking with Landlord.