Universal Credit: Lowestoft

Debate between Ruth George and Peter Aldous

Tuesday 27th June 2017 Commons Chamber

[Peter Aldous]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention, and I agree with him. He talks about a dedicated helpline and, yes, that may be one way forward. I would also suggest that there needs to be front of house support and assistance in the jobcentres themselves.

Delays in the paying of universal credit have led to rent arrears building up and, as I mentioned, the situation is being compounded by the fact that the housing element has often not been included in the first payment. The feedback from the DWP nationally is that the timing of payments is improving and that if a tenant has a reasonable expectation of receiving their housing cost as part of the universal credit payment, the landlord should not take action to gain possession of a property and thus the tenant should not face the risk of eviction. In real life, it needs to be borne in mind that that approach is easier said than done and that the landlords have many costs and commitments themselves. Landlords are often in a position to reluctantly have to issue eviction notices as a last resort, but it should be pointed out that many landlords own only one or two properties and that the rents that they receive are a vital part of their income—often retirement income.

Delays in the payment of the housing element are triggering a downward spiral of events: arrears leading to evictions, leading to an increase in homelessness, putting added pressure on local authorities and housing associations to house those who are evicted. In due course, there will be a reduction in the supply of housing as landlords decide not to let to universal credit claimants.

[Ruth George (High Peak) (Lab)]

I thoroughly commend what the hon. Gentleman has been doing to support people on universal credit in his constituency and the enormous amount of work and effort that has gone into that. As someone who has been working for the shop workers’ union for 20 years, I have considerable experience, particularly from the past 12 months, of members who have been transferred on to universal credit and are suffering incredible difficulties and hardships, as the hon. Gentleman says.

The hon. Gentleman calls for councils to have their debt underwritten by the Government, but the situation is also a severe problem for housing associations where many universal credit recipients live, and many associations are suffering. I hope that he will allow me to support such cases being made to the Government before the scheme is rolled out any further.

[Peter Aldous]

I am most grateful to the hon. Lady for that intervention. I will come to address the concerns that housing associations have mentioned to me. Her point is interesting in that jobcentres have in the past dealt with people who are not in work to get into employment, but now they are also dealing with people who are already in work, which is a major game change for jobcentres to deal with.

There is a concern that universal credit, the objective of which is to bring people closer to the workplace and to prepare them for work, may actually be doing the opposite. People need a secure and stable home life to be able to prepare and plan for regular work. That cannot happen if they are sleeping on the streets, sofa surfing or living in a hostel. Housing associations also face problems and are taking on more staff to liaise with tenants at an early stage to prevent rent arrears from increasing and to limit the serving of eviction notices. That is an added cost that they can ill afford, and they would prefer to be spending time and money on repairs and on building much-needed new homes.

The alternative payment arrangements are in place to help prevent such problems from arising, but in many cases they are not working properly and the process is taking too long. By the time decisions have been made to put in place such an arrangement, the landlords have invariably obtained court orders for possession. It is important to identify at an early stage where it is appropriate to make direct payments to landlords, and the jobcentre in Lowestoft has put in place arrangements to do that. Consideration should be given to changing the system of universal credit staff only communicating about an account with a tenant’s explicit consent. The feedback that I am receiving from both social and private landlords is that a change to allow the landlord to open communications and make a request for an alternative payment would be welcome and positive.

Although I understand that the Government wish to empower tenants to manage their own money, there is an argument that such empowerment involves choice. Tenants should therefore be able to decide whether to have the rent paid directly or for it to pass through their own hands. Again, the feedback I am receiving is that many tenants would prefer their rent to be paid direct.

There is a need for full and proactive engagement with private landlords. That did not happen initially, but the situation is now improving and a local meeting between the DWP, Waveney District Council and private landlords is scheduled for 17 July to explore how best to address the problems. Hopefully my suggestions on alternative payments will be on the table for discussion.

The roll-out in Lowestoft has not gone well, but there are signs of improvement and examples of good practice have emerged, which I suggest should be replicated as universal credit is rolled out in other areas. Lowestoft jobcentre has a vulnerable persons officer, and I propose that additional attention and support is given to those with mental health challenges. The jobcentre works closely with the citizens advice bureau, which provides a money advice service in the jobcentre. There is an officer who liaises with the national universal credit team in the building of the model, and there are good working relationships not only with Waveney District Council and Anglia Revenues Partnership but with MyGo, the new youth employment service promoted by Suffolk County Council. Such joint and collaborative working is very much the way forward and must be promoted and properly resourced.

Consideration should be given to the following. First, the Government should respond to the Public Accounts Committee’s most recent report on the impact of the changes and delays to the universal credit programme on operational costs, staff and claimants. They should also update the Committee on how staff are being enabled to engage in testing and learning processes and to feed back concerns. I appreciate that the general election purdah period has delayed that feedback, but it is important if the universal credit model is to be improved as the roll-out accelerates.

Secondly, there needs to be an initial assessment as to whether universal credit is achieving its objectives of better preparing people for the workplace, making it easier to move in and out of work and improving incentives to work. Thirdly, with the roll-out scheduled to move into more rural areas, work is needed to ensure that both digital services and broadband connectivity are resilient enough to cope and that the system takes account of claimants’ use of the public transport system, which may in places be far from ideal.

Finally, there needs to be more transparency and closer working with all the partner organisations involved in the roll-out. There is a lot of heavy lifting involved, and jobcentre staff cannot do this all on their own if we are to ensure that universal credit customers receive the fair and efficient service that they are entitled to expect and that, up to now, has unfortunately let down a lot of people, placing some in very difficult and desperate situations.