Private landlords across the country are refusing to let their properties to Universal Credit claimants, letting agents have revealed.
Research carried out by the website Politics.co.uk involved speaking to 100 agents in different parts of the country where the benefit has been rolled out.
A total of 69% said they had no landlords currently on their books who would accept tenants on Universal Credit.
Of the 31% of agents whose landlords would accept Universal Credit applicants, 11% said the tenant would need a guarantor.
The Politics.co.uk research appears to be backed up by a poll of its members by the National Landlords Association, which said that just two in ten landlords would be willing to let to tenants on Universal Credit.
Both sets of research come as Theresa May was yesterday pressed during Prime Minister’s Questions to pause the further roll-out of Universal Credit.
Labour MP Laura Pidcock asked whether the roll-out was “a matter of gross incompetence or calculated cruelty”.
May defended the system, saying it was improving, but Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “The fundamental problems of Universal Credit remain: the six-week wait, rising indebtedness, rent arrears and evictions.”
Yesterday Richard Lambert, chief executive of the NLA, said: “Underlying all the problems with Universal Credit is the freeze on housing benefit rates, which means that the housing element of Universal Credit is simply insufficient for many tenants to be able to cover their rent.
“The decline in social housing means that some of the most vulnerable in society can only turn to the private rented sector. We have long called for the freeze to be scrapped as it creates a barrier that prevents claimants from securing the housing they need.
“If the Government is serious about helping, then it needs to press pause on the roll-out of Universal Credit and fix its underlying problems.
“Otherwise more and more people will find themselves homeless as the proportion of landlords who consider themselves able to house those who need it most will keep on falling.”
You can hardly blame landlords really – why should they have to wait a MINIMUM of 6 weeks before getting paid ?
Nobody else accepts waiting 6 weeks for their income.
In my experience with Leeds City Council – it’s been 8 weeks and even upto 12 weeks to get paid.
Housing benefit needs to be paid direct to the landlord right from the outset and this will prevent tenants having difficulty paying their rents and falling behind from day 1.
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When Local Housing Allowance was introduced 10 years back, it was more attractive for a landlord to rent to DSS tenants, because the LHA rates for certain ‘low end’ houses, were higher than the market rent.
Don’t be fooled by the headline ‘higher yield’ though. Delays in payment, lost rent due to benefit suspensions or benefits being stopped altogether meant that you had to budget for a significant % of your annual rent being lost.
Add to that rent delays, more admin and repairs, given the heavier demands of typically bigger households, LHA and now Universal Credit does not stack up.
My local landlord’s association (Calderdale) is having meetings with MP’s to raise these concerns, but I live in the real world.
It no longer makes sense for me to let out to UC clients due to the economics and I stopped doing so two years ago.
I do fully support the principles behind UC – they simply need to re-think the payment schedule to avoid penalising landlords. The unintended consequence of this will be a massive rise in homelessness and councils spending millions on emergency re-housing.
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I have 11 out of ten landlords who won’t accept UC……..
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Its a case of the Tories not backing down in fear of losing more credibility following the their latest act of crushing the PRS and squeezing the living life out of landlords with more tax.
May the streets be paved with homeless, Derrrr Ian Drunken Smith….
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The government are creating far too many problems for landlords and as a consequence many have had enough and are selling portfolios. This in turn is leading to a rental housing shortage which means more demand for each rental. With such great demand why on earth would a landlord chose to go with a UC tenant? I know the government are trying to create more homes for first time buyers but pushing landlords to sell to fill this demand is simply moving the problem by creating a shortage of rentals. They need to go back to the drawing board!
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