Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

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Table A1.3 – Evicted households by ‘vulnerability’ status Ground 8 Ground 10/11 All Yes 13% 19% 16% No 87% 81% 84% Total 100% 100% 100% N= 52 53 105 By the reckoning of housing management staff, around one in six tenants in our evictions sample was a “vulnerable person” with the proportion being fairly similar for Ground 8 and other cases (see Table A1 .3) . Rather than defining this in any precise way, the question simply asked, “Could the tenant have been defined as a vulnerable person?” . The small number of “vulnerable” tenants evicted under Ground 8 included persons so-defined as a result of: domestic violence; epilepsy; a care leaver; old age . Contributory factors to arrears and support provided by landlord In more than a third of eviction cases in the sample, arrears had built up partly because of unpaid HB (see Table A1 .4) . In the vast majority of these cases, the problem was attributed by the landlord to the tenant’s failure to provide information requested by the local authority . Another fairly common reason was the instance of tenants prioritising the 116 repayment of other debts ahead of rent arrears . In many of the cases where participants indicated that “other” factors were involved the details provided were not particularly informative – eg “tenant left property”, “tenant failed to make payments” . As shown in Table A1 .5, at least 80% of tenants subject to eviction were provided with some form of help by the HA, most commonly through provision of welfare benefits advice . This left 20% of cases where no support was provided or the staff member completing the pro-forma did not specify the help given . Help in making HB claims was not always relevant because of the fact that some tenants were in sufficiently well-paid employment to make them ineligible (see Table A1 .2) . Also, many of those offered such help reportedly did not take it up (this is likely to include those tenants who were later deemed to have abandoned their homes and were
uncontactable as a result) . Where provided, such assistance often either took the form of technical advice, help in completing a claim, or making contact with a local HB team on a tenant’s behalf . Table A1.4 – Eviction cases: factors triggering build-up of arrears Ground 8 Ground 10/11 All HB administration - LA performance 2% 6% 4% HB administration - tenant failure to respond 37% 31% 34% Relationship breakdown 4% 0% 2% Loss of earnings triggered by med factors 2% 6% 4% Loss of earnings due to other reasons 10% 8% 9% Prioritisation of other debts ahead of arrears 27% 29% 28% Other 56% 61% 58% Table A1.5 – Support offered by housing associations to tenants subject to eviction Ground 8 Ground 10/11 All Welfare benefits advice 62% 53% 57% Social support 4% 8% 6% Other 27% 26% 27% Referral for debt counselling 27% 26% 27% Medical support 0% 4% 2% Some form of support 83% 77% 80% Total 100% 100% 100% N= 52 53 105 Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector 117
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Rent arrears management practices i
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Contents Executive summary . . . .
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Executive summary Introduction This
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Key underlying factors were said to
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could, in part, reflect the growing
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overpayments and suspensions were p
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Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Backgrou
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arrears management and related aspe
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“… there may occasionally be ci
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under Article 8 of the Convention,
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y HAs . 37 The Circular informed as
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Pre-action protocol for possession
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The purpose of these interviews was
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Table 1.1 - Case Study HAs Organisa
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Chapter 2 Rent arrears management p
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Pawson et al’s study found that 9
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2.3 Rent arrears management practic
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this with any certainty . 69 Howeve
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authority can also lead to a lack o
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2.5 The use of Ground 8 Although th
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In the Hunter et al study, 97 which
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some comment on the effect of the P
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• Ground 8 provided certainty to
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There was a difference of opinion a
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3.3 The use of Ground 8 Whereas ans
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do so early enough, or at all . Cla
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Chapter 4 Rent collection and arrea
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4.3 Housing Benefit service perform
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Table 4.3 - Housing association evi
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As shown in Figure 4 .1, CORE data
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were collected for landlords with l
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Most associations report initiating
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5.2 Organisation of rent arrears ma
Page 67 and 68: Table 5.2 - Primary structure of ar
Page 69 and 70: Table 5.3 - Recent changes in organ
Page 71 and 72: Table 5.6 - Staff training provisio
Page 73 and 74: Within the transfer landlord cohort
Page 75 and 76: • Where arrears were accrued befo
Page 77 and 78: Table 5.9 - Estimated percentage of
Page 79 and 80: elatively high response rate achiev
Page 81 and 82: The survey sought to collect statis
Page 83 and 84: Ground 8 actions typically accounte
Page 85 and 86: How is the scale of Ground 8 use ch
Page 87 and 88: already routinely exercising the ac
Page 89 and 90: Chapter 6 Case study evidence Chapt
Page 91 and 92: Annex 2 outlines our method, includ
Page 93 and 94: a couple of weeks to three months)
Page 95 and 96: to officers and policies . Officers
Page 97 and 98: RM put it, “caused uproar from te
Page 99 and 100: preferred form of the organisation
Page 101 and 102: tenant contacts are now recorded on
Page 103 and 104: as a result, would make an order un
Page 105 and 106: use - in these cases, it is viewed
Page 107 and 108: g) The tenant perspective In each c
Page 109 and 110: Ground 8 was generally to scrutinis
Page 111 and 112: Ground 8 was said to be used as a
Page 113 and 114: The key stakeholders regarded the P
Page 115 and 116: ule it would not be used where HB w
Page 117: Table A1.1 - Evicted households by
Page 121 and 122: Just under half of all cases in the
Page 123 and 124: Annex 2 Case study HA selection Our
Page 125 and 126: Annex 3 Profile of case study housi
Page 127 and 128: However, after a review across its
Page 129 and 130: as developing joint working with th
Page 131 and 132: Annex 4 Case study topic guides HA
Page 133 and 134: 19. What has been your recent exper
Page 135 and 136: 12. How are your tenants helped wit
Page 137 and 138: 9. If RSLs rely on Ground 8, what i
Page 139 and 140: 4 Tenant employment circumstances (
Page 141 and 142: 10 Value (£) of arrears at defined
Page 143 and 144: Our offices Maple House 149 Tottenh
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Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

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