Universal Credit Causes Homelessness
Wednesday 26th March 2025
Background-
The ballooning, and seemingly out of control, cost of the benefits system is much in the news, and we have the odd situation that a Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer is trying desperately to find ways to curb the excess spending.
Universal Credit was originally conceived by the right wing think tank - Centre for Social Justice -with implementation set in train in 2013 by its main proponent Iain Duncan-Smith (IDS) when he was Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
The idea was to amalgamate six types of benefits into one fair payment, intended to encourage people into work plus give the recipients more control of their own finances and lives.
Through the belligerent resistance and sheer incompetence of the civil servants in charge, the project is still only half implemented - with the current completion target being 2028. Just the15 years!
Costs of implementation have spiraled but more importantly, the underlying payment of the benefits themselves has snowballed.
Poor old IDS and his well-off mates had their hearts in the right place but were completely unable to conceive that benefit recipients (aided and abetted by an army of left wing ‘support’ groups like Citizens Advice Bureau and Shelter) would game the system. Positively seeking ways to exploit and embed the perverse incentives into this new system.
Now-
In the old days, Housing Benefit was paid directly from the local authority to the landlord. It was a pain in the whatnot because the rent always came in arrears and in four weekly lumps rather than monthly, but at least the landlord did receive the full rent.
Under Universal Credit, it is considered demeaning for the beneficiary to be cut out of the equation, so the default position is for the Housing Benefit element to be paid to the recipient, who in turn pays the landlord.
The sensible recipients opt for the landlord to be paid directly by the local authority, but most do not.
You can see where this is going!
The pressures of life on a very low income means that those tenants who receive the benefit themselves often deprioritised paying their rent and fall into arrears.
The Court system is sclerotic and housing benefits officers across the country advise tenants not to leave before a Court Order.
The line being that the tenant would be deemed by the system to have made themselves homeless if they left a property before a Court Order, and having made themselves homeless they would not qualify for housing support in future. Funnily enough, with Universal Credit tenants falling into arrears and refusing to leave, landlords have become (very) reluctant to rent to those on housing benefits.
So much so that the Government has felt the need to make it illegal for landlords to discriminate against tenants on housing benefit.
Fat chance of that working.
A landlord with three or four tenants offering to rent their property still has the right to choose which tenant to accept, and only a complete Muppet would accept the one on benefits.
The net effect of all the above is that landlords do not rent to those on benefits if they can possibly avoid it.
More and more families on Universal Credit end up in emergency accommodation. A tragedy for those particular families and ludicrously expensive for the hapless taxpayer.
Those individuals who are really on the edge, and who used to live in hostels, end up being shoved out onto the streets.
Homeless and Hopeless.
Simple Solution-
Revert to the old system of the local authority making guaranteed regular, Housing Benefit payments direct to landlords - preferably in advance.
This may take some ‘choice’ from the recipients but it is better they have a proper home. It is hardly ‘Nanny State’ to make sure the taxpayers’ money is spent wisely.
We must surely ‘choose’ a solution which keeps people from a wretched life on the streets of London.
Until next time…….
PB
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