Call for Delay in Universal Credit by the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations wants to delay the rollout of Universal Credit, while the Government deals with abolishing the bedroom tax.

They say while the bedroom tax remains, there’s a greater chance of tenants not receiving the right amount of money.

Devolved housing powers are allowing Scotland to abolish the tax, but that won’t happen fully until 2020.

Universal Credit’s currently planned to be fully implemented in July 2019.

Sally Thomas, SFHA Chief Executive, said:

“Dealing with Universal Credit and ‘bedroom tax’ mitigation has been a huge challenge for housing associations and co-operatives as well as their tenants. The problem stems from the split of responsibilities: calculation of liability for the ‘bedroom tax’ lies with the DWP and calculation of Discretionary Housing Payment entitlement to mitigate the ‘bedroom tax’ lies with local authorities. With Housing Benefit, this is not such a problem as responsibility for both parts lies with local authorities, and the process is practically seamless. 

“At present, there are still comparatively few tenants on Universal Credit but, even so, it is understood that local authorities are finding data sharing problematic, which makes the accurate assessment of entitlement to Discretionary Housing Payments a challenge, with a greater chance of tenants not receiving the right money and housing associations tied up in having to unravel incorrect assessments. Abolishing the ‘bedroom tax’ at source is essential, as it will bring the calculation of entitlement back under one roof – the DWP’s.

“There is also the issue of scale. Back in November 2017, there were under 22,000 households in social housing receiving Universal Credit housing costs. By comparison, there were 234,000 households in social housing receiving Housing Benefit. The vast majority of these households on Housing Benefit are expected to move over to Universal Credit in a managed migration between July 2019 and 2022. The switch from using Discretionary Housing Payments for mitigating the ‘bedroom tax’ to its full abolition needs to be completed beforehand. Without the switch, the managed migration could be extremely challenging; to try to make the switch in 2020, when in the middle of moving so many households over to the new system, is fraught with difficulty.

“The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Esther McVey MP is to appear before the Scottish Parliament Social Security Committee on 16 April, and I am sure the opportunity will be taken to raise these concerns.

Image: Scottish Housing Holyrood

ABC Note:

 
1. The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) was established in 1975 and has around 116 members providing affordable housing and wider community services across Scotland, as well as a further 200 commercial associates. The SFHA is owned and governed by its members and exists to lead, represent and support the work of housing associations and co-operatives throughout Scotland www.sfha.co.uk
2. The SFHA is the voice of housing associations and co-operatives in Scotland. SFHA members own and manage 80% of the 280,000+ housing association stock across Scotland. Together, housing associations and co-operatives provide housing for almost 500,000 people, which is one in every 11 households.
3. Over 11,000 staff are employed by SFHA members across Scotland. 
4.  Housing associations and co-operatives are not-for-profit bodies regulated by the Scottish Housing Regulator.