direct deductions for rent arrears

my client is having deductions from UC for rent arrears, he disputes the arrears, he has appealed to a Tribunal but seems to have not done an MR, the Tribunal has asked for evidence of the MR but more importantly has suggested this is not an appealable decision, deductoins of rent arrears from UC

what can my client do, can he appeal, how does he stop the landlord who the client says is a notorious rogue landlord from getting paid by UCif he is not entitled, I am trying to get the client to provide some evidence that he has paid the shortfall in housing costs to his landlord

many thanks

I think a decision to deduct rent arrears from UC is appealable - is not listed as decision that’s not appealable in schedule 3 of the UC etc Decisions and Appeals Regs  (see paras 10 and 11) and CPAG also confirms that you can appeal on p1139 of the current handbook.

I don’t have any direct experience of running an appeal about deductions but guess, as you say, the key to success will be gathering evidence that the claimant has paid off any arrears. Does anyone else have any ideas?

On the jurisdiction point, he could refer the Tribunal to para 24 of the Timson Court of Appeal decision, as Stainsby notes here:
https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/19592/#94368

These decisions are appealable, it is just that appealing is not really a particularly effective way of dealing with them. The deductions will probably continue for yonks whilst you wait for your appeal to be heard and, whilst Cavanagh J must have been told that the DWP would re-pay arrears to the claimant, it would be reasonable to suspect it will not be that simple in practice.

The DWP should be interrogating the facts of the case to be satisfied that the debt is owed before making deductions in cases of doubt. This point should be obvious but is also confirmed by R(IS)14/95 and ADM D2026-8 and D2095. I would think that applications for deductions should generally be refused where there is any real doubt about the case, as it isn’t the DWP’s role to decide questions of rental liability and it is not something that falls within their reasonable expertise. In making deductions where the sums are contested, the DWP does seem to run the risk at least that they could end up having to pay funds twice over and that seems to me to be a poor use of public funds.

If your client is providing some sort of reasonable grounds for challenging the landlord’s account (e.g. bank statements showing a history of payments), then you are probably going to get a quicker resolution through the complaints process or a partnership manager.

Than you all,  the DWP did put a   stop on the deductions as client had provide evidence of paying his rent shortfall, however the landlord seems to have just made a fresh application for deductions and UC appear to have reinstated them on the landlords request,
I want to get this before a Tribunal if possible to get a definitive outcome, I will ask the Tribunal to list the case if they will , my cl may not have asked for an MR but we may be able to argue he has done so in effect by his numerous disputations on his UC journal !!!???
many thanks

New judgment:

Universal credit rent deductions scheme declared unlawful by High Court

thanks admin