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Originally Posted by RichardCoulter
What was done by Labour in 2008 to increase more payments direct to claimants? 
Under HB the claimant had the choice of who the money went to, under UC it's paid to the claimant regardless (unless they are over 8 weeks in arrears). The old system was better as claimants with finely tuned budgets or who have difficulties budgeting for whatever reason, could have their rent paid directly to the landlord to prevent arrears building up.
Under HB there has always been provision to make a 'payment on account' for private and housing association tenants whilst the claim is properly assessed. |
Parliamentary Briefing Paper May 2013
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The Labour Government piloted a new flat-rate Local Housing Allowance (LHA) based on area and family size in 9 local authorities from November 2003 (later rising to 18 authorities). Alongside this flat-rate allowance the Government required these pathfinder authorities to only pay HB direct to private landlords in certain limited cases. It had increasingly become the norm for landlords to require tenants claiming Housing Benefit (HB) to agree to the benefit being paid direct to them as a condition of granting a tenancy.
Subsequently the LHA was introduced for all new HB claimants in the deregulated private rented sector from 7 April 2008 – except in certain exceptional cases this benefit is paid direct to claimants. This move away from paying HB direct to landlords is controversial – a key concern of landlords is that it has resulted in increased rent arrears. Direct payments to claimants will continue when the Universal Credit is phased in (phasing is expected to begin in October 2013).
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Being £10/week adrift might be a budgeting issue, but £100+/week isn't. They are all too often repeat offenders "stealing" the money instead. Otherwise people would quickly realise they have to do something about, but they don't.
HB was being paid direct to many claimants long before 2008 or 2003.
Shelter report Dec 2004
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It takes, on average, 33 working days to process a new Housing
Benefit claim. The worst-performing authorities take more than
100 working days, leading to rent arrears and evictions.
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In the nine original Pathfinder areas for the LHA scheme, 90 per cent of tenants now have Housing Benefit paid direct to them, compared
with 50 per cent before the scheme started.
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Even before any introduction of LHA, 50% had HB paid direct to them.