No landlord should discriminate against tenants because they are in receipt of benefits

Perhaps if all landlords had a link to local support services, then it's easier to nip things in the bud quickly and enable tenants who are struggling to sustain tenancies. This also helps avoid voids or repeated fast turnover of tenants. Talk to local authority..they have hpusing support in place😀

If the government even met a VERY SIMPLE AND BASIC request that all UC rent payments are made direct to the LL by default, then that would go some way into boosting LL confidence in taking on claimants. At the moment for LL's its 'wing and a prayer' to see if that happens from the offset.

I have had genuine UC47 direct payment requests rejected from the start of a claim despite the request ticking the Tier 1 AND 2 boxes AND it being stated very clearly in the TA that payment be made directly to the LL.

If the government paid the rent for ALL tenants they have decided are eligible to receive it direct to the LL, then there would be less reticence to take on benefit tenants. No risk to anyone!

Long term dss tenants and on benefits become unable to manage their finances and often get into the cycle of arrears by not passing on the rent to the landlord and are eventually evicted. This starts a bad chain of poor reference for the tenants, lack of faith in Landlords to take on DSS tenants and so on. There is a strong case for rents to be paid direct to the Landlords from the begining as a rule. The tenants on benefits can not last long if they have to cover the rent gap between the market rent and government capped rebnt benefit. This has the same effect as above, Both these problems are created by Government policy and the Policies need to change.

Reply to the comment left by DSR at 24/06/2021 - 09:37
Damn it DSR you stole my thunder.

Reply to the comment left by L M at 24/06/2021 - 09:35
That's how it used to be - direct payments. If this was coupled with adequate support to sustain a tenancy by local authority it would go a long way to boost landlord confidence!

Reply to the comment left by DSR at 24/06/2021 - 09:37And if they do pay landlord direct remove the facility whereby Council can reclaim rent back from landlord which they’ve paid out. Some landlords have had to pay thousands back through no fault of their own. Who’d want to let to benefits tenants if you may to give the rent back.

Reply to the comment left by David Price at 24/06/2021 - 10:08
hahahaha! I wish the government wouldn't effectively steal our rent due too! 😉

My dealings with UC recently which applies to all Landlords, please feel free to copy past tell the people why we aren't taking Benefit tenants any more.

UC Faults so far Apr2021

Date periods when tenant leaves u, one day before BAP, Landlord doesn't get paid for the whole 30 days. New Landlord gets 30 days rent for just one day accommodation. Or tenant pockets the whole 30 days when they already in arrears to old Landlord.
Surely DWP wouldn't be paying a Landlord rent due for a period the tenant isn't at the house when the tenant hasn't even moved in yet? That would be utter bonkers! That's why I think they must be confused in their reply cause a chimpanzee wouldn't even bring in them rules.
Or when a Landlord has bought a house, surely DWP wouldn't pay a new Landlord a full 30 days rent even though the new Landlord has only owned the house one day would they? And the old Landlord who legally owned the house for them 30 days, he won't get anything at all?

Landlord can't report what the correct rent is. So a tenant, often an aggrieved tenant living in a £695pm house can tell Universal Credit UC that the rent is £50pm and UC believe her and only pay the Landlord £50pm.
This happens often when the tenant is subject to the Benefit Cap, so to stop the tenant losing money out her income, she just tells UC a lower amount. So the tenant isn't being Benefit Capped at all, comes out Landlords money now.

Asking tenant if in arrears, they say No, and then paying them £1,000’s in Rent Housing Element HE. The only person that can u tell u truth on rent arrears is the Landlord.
Explicit consent was removed in Dec 2017. If Landlord says tenant is in arrears, I need direct payment now, no longer can u ask tenant unless tenant has 100% proof they have paid Landlord. Lots of DWP staff are just asking tenant & then not paying Landlord, even when 2 4 6 months of arrears have built up.

I’m getting more tenants on Universal Credit UC. Govt & DWP not listening at all. Fraudsters setting up claims in my tenants name & my tenants money gets stopped. My tenant rings up UC & UC says the Fraudster has to ring to sort it out-U cun’t make it up!

If you getting no rent in from a tenant & you can easily see what's wrong, UC won't talk to u & it takes 2 years for the complaints process to get back to u to say Ooh yes Mick, DWP should have paid you £625pm for 2 years = £15,000 but cause the tenant left last month, we not making DWP pay u anything.

Tenants in arrears who's Landlord is now finally receiving the rent, are putting on their journal Ooh I have new Landlord now. Here are the bank details. And they giving their mates bank details. And they now get the £700 rent in their bank, give their mate a tenner, tenant in arrears laughing all the way to the bank & Legitimate Landlord is again getting no rent in.
They are also sharing this information on Facebook & other UC tenants are now doing it. It is Fraud & DWP UC are doing nothing about it.
HB used to check Land Registry & also directly ask the Landlord for Rent proof & bank details. UC doesn't hence fraud is committed.

DWP MUST talk to the Landlord and ask the landlord what the rent is. Landlord knows this, tenants very often get confused with their rent with it being either weekly, 4 weekly, monthly, giving DWP wrong figures, inexperienced imbecile DWP with no common sense getting it wrong. I had several months ago a Job Centre worker put a tenants WHOLE monthly rent on a nice 2 bed house down as £72 pm. As that's what the tenant told her. Job centre worker din't question her. Tenant was telling her the monthly top up she currently pays. And this was for a woman with 2 kids in a nice 2 bed house. Gees to not say Are u sure your rent is that low?

UC asks tenant for tenancy. Tenant takes 10 year old tenancy in. UC say That's no good, needs to be within 12 months. No it ruddy doesn't. Novice Landlords are reluctantly typing new tenancy as they need to get paid & then they tied into all sorts of new anti-Landlord latest regs.
UC asks for this tenancy to proof rent, which proves nothing as it's an amount from 10 years ago which is different now due to inflation & the cost increasing attacks from Govt Councils. And tenants can print these tenancies theirself. Excluding the Landlord allows Fraud.

Old system, if tenant done a bunk, HB would write to tell Landlord & say we not paying u any more, tenant gone. That helps Landlord move on & not prolong losses any more. UC doesn't talk to Landlord, knows tenant has gone, ignores Landlord & Very important house completely, which we could get back quicker & house the next homeless tenant quicker. As it is, some of us/u daren't go in the house for 3 months for fear of illegal eviction. And next time we don't take UC.

Apr21
When Landlord had enough of bad tenant & sells, he can't tell UC when he's sold a house, so UC keep paying old Landlord the rent for a house he no longer owns. Tenant not complying, so we can't ask them. Old system you'd email HB & they would solve in 20 seconds.
Massive waste of Taxpayers money.
We need EMAIL COMMUNICATION.
Us Landlords hundreds of us up & down the country are receiving FREE money we not entitled to. And UC will eventually come after us for overpayment.

14Apr2021
When tenant passes away & leaves 56 year old son behind with Complex Mental Health Needs & problems, UC won't listen to Landlord about son needs help even if they have it on their system , this claimant is in serious need of help. They won't work with Landlord to see tenant, instead they ring Metropolitan Police who ring Nottinghamshire Police to go & see if he's ok & not topped himself. Totally ignoring the issue-How can we get his rent paid so he don't become homeless.
I have big log on this.

And stop the Council making tenants stay put until the bailiffs arrive.

The NRLA has got this badly wrong. Those who "discriminate against tenants in receipt of benefits" are doing no such thing. They are discriminating against policy administered by characteristically incompetent local authority officials. The potential tenants are casualties caught in the crossfire. Would anyone knowingly let to a potential tenant whose rent payment record was as bad as the average local authority official?