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Do Your Tenants Receive Housing Benefit?
This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
If you rent a property to tenants on housing benefit, you may be aware of the new welfare system that sees six benefits rolled into one monthly payment.
This is called Universal Credit, and the scheme is being rolled out across the country. As well as combining housing benefit with other payments, landlords will no longer receive housing benefit directly. Instead, tenants will be responsible for paying their rent to their landlord.
Do Your Tenants Receive Housing Benefit?
Additionally, there is sometimes a long crossover period between the traditional welfare system and Universal Credit, which is seeing some claimants land in debt.
As a landlord, you should protect your investment by communicating with your tenants about any changes to their finances and consider rent guarantee insurance, which will ensure you still get paid if your tenant defaults on the rent.
Since January, we have been informing landlords of where Universal Credit is now live. You can find previous areas, and links to earlier roll outs, here: /more-housing-benefit-tenants-subject-to-universal-credit/
If you have rental properties in the following areas and your tenants are on housing benefit, be aware of the changes in place from today:
- CM13 3 and CM14 5 in Chelmsford.
- CR3 5, CR3 6, CR3 7, CR5 1, CR5 3, CR6 and CR8 5 of Croydon.
- DE74 in Derby.
- The E3 2, E3 3, E6, E7, E11 1, E11 2, E11 3, E12, E13, E15, E16, E18, E20 1, E20 1 and E20 2 parts of east London.
- G44 3, G46, G53 7, G76, G77 and G78 in Glasgow.
- GU1, GU2, GU3 1, GU3 2, GU4 8, GU5, GU6, GU7, GU8, GU9, GU10, GU12 6, GU26 and GU27 of Guildford.
- IG1, IG2, IG3, IG4, IG5, IG6, IG7, IG8, IG9, IG11 0, IG11 8 and IG11 9 in Ilford.
- KA1, KA2, KA3, KA4, KA5, KA6 6, KA6 7, KA13 7, KA16, KA17, KA18 and KA19 7 in Kilmarnock.
- KT4 7, KT17, KT18, KT19, KT20, KT21, KT22 2, KT22 7, KT22 8, KT22 9, KT23 and KT24 of Kingston upon Thames.
- LE12 5, LE12 6, LE14 3 in Leicester.
- NG1, NG2, NG3, NG4, NG5 1, NG5 2, NG5 3, NG5 4, NG5 5, NG5 6, NG5 8, NG5 9, NG6, NG7, NG8, NG9 2, NG11, NG12, NG13, NG14 5, NG14 6, NG15 5, NG15 6, NG15 7, NG15 8 and NG23 5 in Nottingham.
- PA2 8 of Paisley.
- RH1, RH2, RH3, RH4, RH5, RH6, RH7, RH8, RH9, RH10 3, RH12 3, RH12 4, RH14 0, RH19 2 and RH19 3 in Redhill.
- RM1, RM2, RM3, RM4, RM5, RM6 4, RM6 5, RM7, RM8 1, RM9 6, RM11, RM12, RM13, RM14 and RM15 4 in Romford.
- SM7 1, SM7 2 and SM7 9 of Sutton.
- TN8 AND TN16 2 in Tonbridge.
Keep up-to-date with all changes to landlord finances at LandlordNews.co.uk.
