Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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 66 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/ show/nav .001010001005
Table 5.3 – Recent changes in organisational structure of rent arrears management service Changes in past 3 years >10,000 dwellings 5,000-10,000 dwellings 1,000-4,999 dwellings All HAs No significant change No 6 21 70 97 % 22 .2% 35 .0% 51 .1% 43 .3% More generic No 2 4 8 14 % 7 .4% 6 .7% 5 .8% 6 .3% More specialist No 18 21 42 81 % 66 .7% 35 .0% 30 .7% 36 .2% Other change No 1 14 17 32 % 3 .7% 23 .3% 12 .4% 14 .3% Total No 27 60 137 224 % 100 .0% 100 .0% 100 .0% 100 .0% Source: Online survey Table 5.4 – Provision of welfare benefits advice Transfer Non-transfer All HAs Welfare benefits advice provided by No 90 69 159 rent arrears staff % 73 .8% 67 .0% 70 .7% Welfare benefits advice provided by No 66 38 104 inhouse specialist WB staff % 54 .1% 36 .9% 46 .2% Welfare benefits advice provided via No 110 90 200 referral to external agency % 90 .2% 87 .4% 88 .9% Total No 122 103 225 % 100 .0% 100 .0% 100 .0% Source: Online survey Note: Because respondents could opt for two of more approaches, figures do not sum to column totals . Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector 67
Page 1 and 2:
Rent arrears management practices i
Page 3 and 4:
Contents Executive summary . . . .
Page 5 and 6:
Executive summary Introduction This
Page 7 and 8:
Key underlying factors were said to
Page 9 and 10:
could, in part, reflect the growing
Page 11 and 12:
overpayments and suspensions were p
Page 13 and 14:
Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Backgrou
Page 15 and 16:
arrears management and related aspe
Page 17 and 18: “… there may occasionally be ci
Page 19 and 20: under Article 8 of the Convention,
Page 21 and 22: y HAs . 37 The Circular informed as
Page 23 and 24: Pre-action protocol for possession
Page 25 and 26: The purpose of these interviews was
Page 27 and 28: Table 1.1 - Case Study HAs Organisa
Page 29 and 30: Chapter 2 Rent arrears management p
Page 31 and 32: Pawson et al’s study found that 9
Page 33 and 34: 2.3 Rent arrears management practic
Page 35 and 36: this with any certainty . 69 Howeve
Page 37 and 38: authority can also lead to a lack o
Page 39 and 40: 2.5 The use of Ground 8 Although th
Page 41 and 42: In the Hunter et al study, 97 which
Page 43 and 44: some comment on the effect of the P
Page 45 and 46: • Ground 8 provided certainty to
Page 47 and 48: There was a difference of opinion a
Page 49 and 50: 3.3 The use of Ground 8 Whereas ans
Page 51 and 52: do so early enough, or at all . Cla
Page 53 and 54: Chapter 4 Rent collection and arrea
Page 55 and 56: 4.3 Housing Benefit service perform
Page 57 and 58: Table 4.3 - Housing association evi
Page 59 and 60: As shown in Figure 4 .1, CORE data
Page 61 and 62: were collected for landlords with l
Page 63 and 64: Most associations report initiating
Page 65 and 66: 5.2 Organisation of rent arrears ma
Page 67: Table 5.2 - Primary structure of ar
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 and 118: Table A1.1 - Evicted households by
Page 119 and 120:
uncontactable as a result) . Where
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
show all

Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?