Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

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5.3 Interaction with Housing Benefit services The administration of HB services is a critical factor influencing the effectiveness of rent arrears management . The accumulation of arrears can, in some cases, result from delays in HB service decision-making and HB “overpayment recovery” can result in a tenant’s account being suddenly plunged heavily into the red . Effective joint working between HB teams and social landlords is therefore at a premium . 70 More than two thirds of HAs (68%) have negotiated Service Level Agreements (SLAs) on HB Services with the local authority in which they have the largest presence (see Table 5 .7) . Just over half of such SLAs contain a provision for “fasttracking” HB claims in relation to cases subject to legal action for rent arrears . The reported incidence of HB SLAs was somewhat higher among transfer landlords than among traditional associations . This may be a reflection of the typically more concentrated stockholdings of the former . Table 5.7 – Housing Benefit Service Level Agreements between housing associations and local authorities Transfer Non-transfer Total SLA with fast-track provision for No 49 38 87 cases subject to legal action % 40 .2% 36 .9% 38 .7% SLA without fast-track provision No 41 25 66 % 33 .6% 24 .3% 29 .3% No SLA No 32 40 72 % 26 .2% 38 .8% 32 .0% Total No 122 103 225 % 100 .0% 100 .0% 100 .0% Source: Online survey
Within the transfer landlord cohort there is also some regional contrast, with the incidence of SLAs being considerably higher in the central and northern regions (83%) than in London and the south (62%) . It is possible that this reflects a tradition of more effective HB administration in the latter regions – such that associations have not seen the necessity to establish SLAs . Whether or not prompted by the PAP, the vast majority of responding associations (88%) reported that staff were required to check a tenant’s HB status before issuing a Notice Seeking Possession . However, in preparing to issue a claim in court, only 42% routinely sought an HB service certificate to confirm that no benefit enquiries were outstanding . The 2004 ODPM 109 research identified HA frustration with what was seen as “inefficient” HB services . For some associations pressurising HB staff to prioritise resolution of a particular claim could involve initiating legal action against the tenant (in the belief that this would lead to speed up the process) . Here, therefore, in instigating action against a tenant, the association’s main objective was to send a signal to the local authority . As shown in Table 5 .8, more than a quarter of associations indicated that they sometimes initiated legal action in a bid to speed up the processing of HB claims . However, this was much more common among traditional HAs than among transfer landlords (see Table 5 .8) . It was also much more common in London than elsewhere . Among associations regulated from London, 41% reported that issuing NSPs in these circumstances was an occasional practice . 109 Pawson, H ., Flint, J ., Scott, S ., Atkinson, R ., Bannister, J ., McKenzie, C . and Mills, C ., (2004), The Use of Possession Actions and Evictions by Social Landlords, London: ODPM http://www .communities .gov .uk/publications/housing/203568 Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector 71
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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,
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 and 68: Table 5.2 - Primary structure of ar
Page 69 and 70: Table 5.3 - Recent changes in organ
Page 71: Table 5.6 - Staff training provisio
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
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Annex 2 Case study HA selection Our
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Annex 3 Profile of case study housi
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However, after a review across its
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as developing joint working with th
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Annex 4 Case study topic guides HA
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19. What has been your recent exper
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12. How are your tenants helped wit
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9. If RSLs rely on Ground 8, what i
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4 Tenant employment circumstances (
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10 Value (£) of arrears at defined
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