Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

Table 5.2 – Primary structure of arrears management service –
breakdown by HA size
>10,000
dwellings
may receive insufficient priority where it is one of a
range of housing management tasks – especially
where other aspects of the housing officer role (eg
tackling anti-social behaviour) will often command
greater urgency .
As stated by survey respondents, the recent
adoption of more specialist approaches was seen
as a logical response to the technical complexity
involved in helping tenants manage their arrears
and/or in processing possession cases in court .
For one respondent such changes were linked
5,000-10,000
dwellings
1,000-4,999
dwellings All HAs
Generic No 4 13 44 61
% 14 .8% 21 .7% 32 .1% 27 .2%
Specialist No 17 39 75 131
% 63 .0% 65 .0% 54 .7% 58 .5%
Combination No 5 7 18 30
% 18 .5% 11 .7% 13 .1% 13 .4%
Other No 1 1 0 2
% 3 .7% 1 .7% .0% .9%
Total No 27 60 137 224
% 100 .0% 100 .0% 100 .0% 100 .0%
Source: Online survey
with a “greater emphasis on financial inclusion/
arrears prevention rather than a traditional recovery
approach” . Another referred to a “cultural shift
from income recovery to financial inclusion and
payment advice .”
As shown in Table 5 .2, there was a clear
relationship between association size and arrears
management structure, with generic models being
twice as prevalent in the “medium” size category
(1-5,000 dwellings) as in the largest category .
Indeed, with the average stockholding of English
Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector 65