Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

associations increasing by 50% between 2002
and 2007, 107 the shift towards a more specialist
approach in recent years could be largely
a reflection of associations’ increasing scale
of operations .
Thirty associations reported their predominant
approach to arrears management as a “combination”
of generic and specialist approaches . This
sometimes reflected different models across an
association’s stock . For example, an early stock
transfer association, which had subsequently evolved
into a major regional landlord operated a specialist
approach for the large body of property in its original
“home local authority”, whilst a generic model was
implemented for scattered stock elsewhere .
Perhaps more commonly, a “combination” model
involved generic staff taking responsibility for the
management of low-level arrears, with responsibility
being handed to a specialist staff member or team
when debt crossed a given threshold – eg £300 .
The threshold for such handovers also sometimes
reflected the point at which legal action would be
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considered or initiated . It is possible that some
associations operating a model of this kind could
have described it as “mainly specialist” .
The implication of a strong trend towards functional
specialisation was confirmed by the survey in that
more than a third of associations reported having
introduced such changes over the previous three
years . The trend was especially marked among the
largest organisations where two thirds had made
such changes (see Table 5 .3) .
Some associations which had recently adopted a
more functionally specialist approach to arrears
management reported that an aspect of this involved
the establishment of a specialist welfare benefits
advice post within the organisation . While most
associations reported sourcing welfare benefits
advice via referrals to external agencies (see Table
5 .4), almost half (46%) employed their own specialist
staff for this purpose . Again the growing average size
of associations over the past few years may have
enabled many to achieve the “critical mass” required
to facilitate the creation of such posts .
107 Pawson, H . & Sosenko, F . (2008) Sector Restructuring; Housing Corporation Sector Study 61; http://www .housingcorp .gov .uk/server/
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