Hi Bristol, I’m not clear what are you aiming to achieve for your client? Are you aiming for UC paid on a more frequent basis, or split between a couple or are you housing costs element paid direct to landlord.
The APA for housing costs paid direct to landlord is a separate thing to Third Party Deductions from the claimant’s personal allowance for rent arrears repayments. Although both can be requested on the UC47 form.
Where the claimant is in arrears landlords are very likely to request this. If agreed by DWP, they cannot be at a rate lower than 10% of the personal allowance.
The alternative, where this is causing hardship is that a landlord may agree to accept a repayment arrangement direct from the claimant at, say £16 per month, which is the equivalent of the £3.70 per week that they would get under the legacy benefit system. Although where arrears are very high or the person has not kept to previous arrangements you can understand why they would go for the 10-20%, as losing your home also causes ‘hardship’.
Can you update us if you are any further forward with this as intrigued by what happens in cases where the social landlord is not taking the initiative?