Tenants living in private rental accommodation and who receive benefits have been offered a rent reduction negotiation service.
Islington Council in London is expecting to be one of the worst hit areas when new benefit caps come in next April, due it says to high private sector rents and the high proportion of lone parents.
The caps will mean that the most a single person with no children can get is £350 a week, and the most lone parents and couples with or without children can get is £500.
Islington Council believes over 1,000 of its households will be affected.
As well as offering to negotiate cuts in private rent, the authority is also offering housing relocations, either within or outside the borough.
Comments
Where I am a single person with no children can get a maximum HB of £60 a week - I should tell all my tennants to move
@ Sheila Kirk.
The figures are indeed weekly figures, but do not just cover housing benefit.
Universal credit will replace the following benefits:
housing benefit
income support
jobseekers allowance
employment and support allowance
child tax credit and working tax credit
budgeting loans and crisis loans
Effectively these are the figures (£500 or £350) which claimants will have to live on, and the general consensus is that rent arrears are going to increase greatly when the new system is implemented, especially as the Universal Credit is going to be paid monthly and direct to the tenant. The proposals currently do not provide for the housing benefit element to be paid to landlords or agents.
What business is it of the council to interfere with a rent agreed between the landlord and the tenant? A shame they do not offer a negotiation to reduce Council Tax charges!
Are you sure that the caps mentioned in the article are weekly maximum rates and not monthly?
If its anything like Westminster then the courts will be busy. Westminsters negotiating style is 'pay what you can until the bailiff turns up'. They forget to tell the poor tenant that they will run up large bills of unpaid rent and legal costs. Great negotiation techniques!