Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of claimants who are in rent arrears at the time of their transition to universal credit.

Safeguards are in place for Universal Credit claimants, including Advances, budgeting support and Alternative Payment Arrangements and research shows that over time claimants successfully reduce their arrears.

For Housing Benefit claimants there are also safeguards in place such as paying Housing Benefit directly to the landlord if the tenant is likely to have difficulty in managing their rent payments, is unlikely to pay their rent or is in rent arrears equivalent to eight weeks.

Claimants already receiving Housing Benefit are paid an additional two weeks of Housing Benefit to support them and reduce the issue of rent arrears whilst they transition to monthly payments on Universal Credit. Our work coaches gauge claimants’ financial needs from their first interview and can refer them to more specialist support for debt advice if required. There are a range of tools available to help claimants budget including a Personal Planner, Budgeting Support guidance and the Money Manager tool from the Money Advice Service.

We do not routinely collect information on rent arrears as part of the claim process. However, there is research which shows more broadly that many people come onto Universal Credit with existing rent arrears. For example, in their report published on 11 July 2018, the National Federation of Arms-Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) of Social Housing providers found that of those Universal Credit households in rent arrears, 76 per cent had arrears prior to moving onto Universal Credit.

We know that arrears are usually temporary and the majority of claimants do succeed in paying their rent, managing their monthly payments and clearing their arrears over time.

We are currently carrying out further analysis of this issue with a number of housing providers, to investigate and understand the true level of rent arrears for their tenants, what is causing them and any impacts Universal Credit may be having. It will be published when completed.