There have been a few important changes made recently in the way LHA benefits are paid and, as I have discussed on previous blogs, many landlords with social housing tenants have been experiencing difficulties with rent payments. According to recent research, more than 87% of UK landlords with social housing tenants have had problems with late rent payments, and in some cases no rent payments at all.
Obviously, with the current economic conditions so dire, issues with rent are not restricted to the social housing sector (more than half of all landlords are seeing an increasing number of tenants struggling to pay their rent), but the problems are definitely more pronounced with social housing tenants.
Changes to the way housing benefit payments are being made are obviously having a negative effect on many tenants’ ability to pay their rent; in some cases payments have been reduced and the tenant is being forced to fund the difference. The government also changed the way payments were calculated last year and for many the shortfall between rent payments and housing benefit payments increased.
How is this affecting elderly tenants?
