Rent Arrears deductions from UC even tho there are no longer any arrears

Sounds like there’s quite a lot of mis-information going around.

The landlord must have requested a third party deduction (“3PD”) for the rent arrears and they could have asked for a managed payment to landlord APA at the same time. The 3PD would have been refused if there had been less than two months of arrears or the claimant had some earned income. The actual amount of the deduction is down to UC except that it has to be between 10% and 20% of the Standard Allowance (between £36.87 and £73.74 for a single person 25+). So although the landlord has to request the deduction, they don’t have any control over how much they receive or whether they are granted the payment.

I believe UC are wrong to say that a 3PD for rent arrears comes from DWP Debt Management - that would be true for a deduction for a DWP overpayment, etc. DWP Debt Management would be unaware of a 3PD because it’s not a DWP debt. The Third Party Payments team at DWP would be aware of a 3PD because they make the actual payment to the landlord, but they just pay what they’re told by UC.

In my experience the process for getting a 3PD stopped involves magic incantations and luck. Although you can request a 3PD on the UC Landlord Portal, you can’t request the end of a 3PD. The “procedure” is for the landlord to email the UC service centre and ask them to stop it, and then when that doesn’t work escalate it to the local Partnership Manager, and if that doesn’t work, raise it as a complaint. At the same time it can be helpful for the tenant to put a note on their journal to say they’ve spoken to the landlord who has confirmed the 3PD can stop as there are no arrears left. Failing that, maybe wait for the next full moon or something?

Did you get (or are you getting) UC to accept a late notification of the new housing costs so the housing costs are paid back to the start of the tenancy? Potentially worth pursuing if you believe your client has a good reason for not completing the notification during the relevant AP.

Personally I’d regard this outrageous situation as a case for threatening judicial review. CPAG have a template - JR116 https://cpag.org.uk/welfare-rights/judicial-review/judicial-review-pre-action-letters/deductions-uc

Paul Stockton - 12 September 2023 05:08 PM

Personally I’d regard this outrageous situation as a case for threatening judicial review. CPAG have a template - JR116 https://cpag.org.uk/welfare-rights/judicial-review/judicial-review-pre-action-letters/deductions-uc

Do we know enough about what evidence has been provided to UC? The initial request for a 3PD came from the landlord who is a trusted partner, and the decision to take an arrears deduction was probably correct. Perhaps JR would be an option if the client had already provided UC with an up-to-date rent statement showing the account in credit, or if UC were to refuse to ask the landlord whether the arrears have been cleared. But in the absence of any other evidence, I’m not sure UC could be said to be acting unreasonably in believing what a social landlord is telling them about rent arrears.

Clearly the client has to tell UC that they don’t owe anything, and to produce evidence to that effect, but when UC get that information they ought to stop deducting immediately. They are not obliged (in my opinion) to wait for the landlord to get their act together. They can and should say to landlord and tenant: “If there’s a dispute you sort it out between you. We’re not obliged to act on a landlord’s request to avail themselves of our free debt collection service, and when we have evidence that there is no debt it would be potentially unlawful for us to continue deducting.” Or words to that effect.

One of the great strengths of a JR letter is it should put an end to buck-passing anyway.

Yes we are supporting cl to request backdating of HE to the start of the tenancy.
re continued deductions, so its best to make a note in their UC junl stating that there is no-longer any rent arrears and request a link to be created to allow the rent statement to be uploaded. If the request to stop is ignored, then either go down the MR or the JR route.
I will also go back to the LL and request that they send an email to the UC Service Centre to have them stop any further deductions from being made
Many thanks for all the help

Marie CA - 13 September 2023 08:51 PM

Yes we are supporting cl to request backdating of HE to the start of the tenancy.
re continued deductions, so its best to make a note in their UC junl stating that there is no-longer any rent arrears and request a link to be created to allow the rent statement to be uploaded. If the request to stop is ignored, then either go down the MR or the JR route.
I will also go back to the LL and request that they send an email to the UC Service Centre to have them stop any further deductions from being made
Many thanks for all the help

The landlord definitely has a part to play in this - they requested the 3PD and although there’s no defined process for ending a 3PD, UC should end it when the landlord asks them to. Also your client could ask that the landlord refunds any 3PD that shouldn’t have been taken (assuming it’s put their rent account in credit).

A decision to make deductions in this case is provided by Regulation 60 of the Universal Credit (Claims and Payments Regs, and will be an appealable decision given that it is not listed in paragraph 1 of Schedule 3 of the UC&c (Decisions and Appeals) Regs

The Court of Appeal aknowledged this in Timson