Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

Chapter 7
Conclusions
This study was commissioned to rectify certain
gaps in knowledge about housing association
management of rent arrears, including processes
and practices around possession proceedings . Most
of the existing research had been conducted before
the interventions of good practice guidance, Housing
Corporation Circulars and regulation, as well as the
Rent Arrears Pre-action Protocol (PAP) . While this
research demonstrates that much has changed
over the past few years it is not entirely certain that
this has resulted directly from these interventions .
It is, however, clear that rent arrears management
practices are not static and ongoing changes can
be expected .
One significant shift, a continuation of a trend
identified in earlier studies, has been the increasing
focus on specialist management of rent arrears
within HAs – just 27% of respondents to our
survey continued to operate a mainly generic
model . Specialist approaches are predominant
among the largest HAs . The case studies indicated
that centralisation was a process through which
managerial interventions could be imposed on
housing officers to ensure greater uniformity of
practice as well as improved performance . As typically
construed by senior managers, this constitutes a
“more professional” approach to income collection .
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Additionally, there has been an increasing focus on
the provision of income maximisation and welfare
benefits advice to tenants either provided in-house
or through direct referrals to other agencies . The
case studies also demonstrated that value was seen
in this advice being provided as early as possible in
the tenancy cycle . One potential issue raised by our
survey was the comparative lack of internal training
on DSS deductions and mental health awareness,
which are key features in the PAP .
The service improvements noted above have
been complimented by a generally rising trend
of performance in the administration of Housing
Benefit (HB) . Nevertheless, more than a quarter of
responding HAs still found it necessary to initiate
legal action against tenants to pressurise local
authority HB administration to prioritise casework .
The case studies indicated that HB issues
also sometimes arose after the claim had been
successfully processed, for example as a result
of suspensions in its payment or the recovery of
overpayments . The other issue particularly raised by
the case studies was the need for “culture change”
amongst tenants in receipt of HB towards accepting
responsibility for their rent account .