Landlords Do You Have Tenants Under the Risk of Eviction?

Wednesday 28 November, 2018 Written by Simon Collyer

The National Landlords Association have recently drawn our attention to these changes:

The DWP has announced landlord escalation routes for Universal Credit Live Service claimants at risk of eviction to go live on Monday 3 December.

1.1. Landlords with a tenant under an imminent threat of eviction should now call the National Universal Credit Live Service telephone line on 0800 328 9344 (this replaces 0345 600 0723). These calls will be escalated to the Housing Team who will make call the landlord to resolve the case. Landlords can continue to contact the Live Service Housing Team email inbox directly with any enquiries on

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2.2. The DWP claim the number of landlords calling the Live Service Landlord Escalation line to report a potential eviction has significantly reduced. Over time this line has received a large volume of inappropriate calls and so they have decided to close the line.

3.3. Landlords calling the existing Live Service Escalation Line will be directed to www.gov.uk/universalcredit to follow the correct escalation route. They will add a message prior to and following closure to signpost landlords to the new escalation routes.

4.4. There is no change to the Universal Credit Full Service process for landlords. In Universal Credit Full Service, landlords should initially engage with their tenant about the issue. The tenant has access to their own information via their online account, and can share the information with their landlord if they wish. The claimant can also ask through their journal, face to face or call the service centre and provide explicit consent to share their personal information with their landlord. If the landlord is unable to engage with their tenant, they can contact Universal Credit Full Service on 0800 328 5644 (this replaces 0345 600 4272).

Universal Credit Announcement: Landlord Escalation routes for live claimants

DWP has developed a new suite of landlord communication products including a top tips guide, new videos and a new section of the Understanding Universal Credit website for landlords.

These can be found at www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/landlords