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Social landlords bolster benefit advice teams amid huge Universal Credit demand

Social landlords are bolstering their benefit advice teams amid a surge in tenants needing help with Universal Credit claims because of coronavirus.

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Picture: Getty
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Social landlords bolster benefit advice teams amid huge Universal Credit demand #ukhousing

Social landlords are bolstering their benefit advice teams amid a surge in tenants needing help with Universal Credit claims because of coronavirus #ukhousing

“In the past two weeks my team have gone from being a rent collection team to all our calls being about supporting residents,” says @EOwensCuro #ukhousing

Housing associations and councils have been taking steps to support tenants and shore up their incomes while adapting to staff being forced to work from home by the crisis.

Some 950,000 people applied for Universal Credit in the last two weeks of March – nearly 10 times the volume in a typical fortnight – as a result of tenants losing jobs or seeing income decrease due to the economic impact of COVID-19.

The enormous demand, coupled with face-to-face job centre appointments being suspended to facilitate social distancing, has put intense pressure on the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) phone lines, with queues hitting the tens of thousands.

Sue Ramsden, policy leader at the National Housing Federation, said: “Housing associations have been deploying extra staff to support the growing number of residents dealing with loss of income due to coronavirus, offering one-to-one support and helping residents apply for benefits.

“The sheer number of people applying for Universal Credit at this time is huge, with some employers laying people off rather than using the furlough scheme.

“People are struggling to complete their application and it is difficult for people to get through to the DWP on the phone.”


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Many housing associations are supporting residents to pay for bills and food or helping food banks to keep running during the lockdown, she added.

Bath-based Curo, which owns around 13,000 homes, has moved staff to its customer accounts and contact teams from teams whose work has slowed, such as lettings.

Emma Owens, head of customer account management at Curo, said: “In the past two weeks my team have gone from being a rent collection team to all our calls being about supporting residents.

“All the calls we are getting are about COVID-19 and the majority of those are people in a panic.

“We’ve got together a list of all the people we think are the most vulnerable and will call them to see how we can help.”

Wheatley Group, which owns around 90,000 homes in Scotland, has used video calls to help people with online claims and held conference calls with tenants and the DWP – including using translation services where needed.

Housing officers have also been contacting tenants to offer help.

A spokesperson for Wheatley said: “We’ve seen an increase in numbers of customers needing our support with Universal Credit, but our expert advisors are continuing to help people navigate the system as well as claim everything they’re entitled to.”

Brian Simpson, chief executive of Wirral-based Magenta Living, said it has asked staff who used to work in its income management team but had moved to other parts of the business to re-join temporarily with 400 worried tenants contacting the 13,000-home landlord in the past two weeks.

He added: “New Universal Credit claims usually average around 60 per month, however, in the previous fortnight Magenta Living has received 180 new claims.

“If new claims continue at this rate, Magenta Living recognises that it may struggle to keep fully on top of the support provided but staff are hopeful that this trend will settle down over the next week or two.”

Victoria Mills, cabinet member for finance, performance and Brexit at Southwark Council, said it expects another 2,000 tenants to claim Universal Credit in the next six months, adding £500,000 to arrears. The council has set up a helpline for worried tenants.

For its part, the DWP has moved around 10,000 staff to frontline roles and plans to recruit another 1,500.

Outbound calls for claimants unable to get through for an appointment have been set up in a bid to reduce waiting times, while the Universal Credit standard allowance has been raised by £20 a week.

A spokesperson for the DWP told Inside Housing that landlords can help by assisting tenants with their claims and dealing with rent verification requests urgently.

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