APA and missing rent payments

Hey everyone,

Apologies in advance if this is messily writte!

I have two clients who switched from having UC housing element paid directly to them an APA to for direct payment to landlord, and both of them ended up with a month of rent missing and rent arrears to be repaid.

I ended up in quite a long conversation with DWP about one of them. In the month in which he switched over to APA, his rent did not get paid. He ended up in rent arrears that are now being paid out of his UC, leaving him with almost nothing to live on.

We talked to DWP about this, and at first their stance was that no payment had gone missing, and that they had paid housing element for the assessment period in question. We put in an MR, which they refused to consider as they said there was no reason to submit an MR given that no payment had gone missing. To be clear, they did not give a negative MR decision, they just refused to accept that one could be submitted in the first place.

We called them again, and they changed their explanation, saying that everything was paid correctly, but because the client’s UC payment date and his rent due date did not match up, they were just paying the rent later (but with no rent missing). They put a note on his journal saying:

‘As you have been paid housing costs every month since claiming Universal Credit there is no adjustment that can be made and thus no Mandatory Reconsideration to be referred to a Decision Maker. You keep referring to your rent in August and I have explained the dates that payments are sent to landlords are different from your Universal Credit pay days, and the rent for this period was sent as follows [dates showing that they’re paying it one month later than when it’s due].’

Has anyone dealt with a situation like this before? My impression is that, whatever their logic about rent day and payment day not matching up, the client effectively did not receive housing element of UC for one assessment period. Their logic is that he is receiving it, just late. Any suggestions on how to proceed?

Thank you!

Hi - if the landlord is a social landlord they pay the APA on a different payment cycle - the third party deduction (TPD) scheme - see para 8.4 of Universal Credit and rented housing: guide for landlords. What happens is that UC pay a full month’s rent every 4 weeks but in one assessment period in the year there will be two TPD cycles and they will only pay on one of them. So 12 payments of a month’s rent are paid in each year - one in each assessment period - but not necessarily at the beginning of the assessment period

So it could be that your client gets his UC payment but the next TPD date isn’t for another 3 weeks. If the payment to the landlord was made within four weeks of your client getting their UC payment then it probably is just due to the TPD cycle.

They have started a pilot to try and finally get this sorted - https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/welfare-rights/news/item/dwp-announces-small-scale-pilot-to-test-making-managed-payments-to-social-landlords-at-same-time-as-tenant-receives-their-universal-credit-payment

Thanks so much Daphne, that’s very good to know!

Is there any way of helping out clients who have ended up in arrears due to these rules?

Talk to the landlord - they should be aware of the problem - the “arrears” as they appear should gradually get less as each monthly payment is made every four weeks - it gradually catches up - and hope that UC sort a solution sooner rather than later.

Hope that helps a bit!

Daphne - 29 January 2020 11:46 AM

Talk to the landlord - they should be aware of the problem - the “arrears” as they appear should gradually get less as each monthly payment is made every four weeks - it gradually catches up - and hope that UC sort a solution sooner rather than later.

Hope that helps a bit!

It might well be clear to all but who is carrying the debt - either the claimant or the landlord - unacceptable.
As someone that rents out properties, this situation besides others is the reason why I refuse to accept tenants that are not in full time paid employment and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future AND do not claim such benefits..