Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that direct payments from universal credit to landlords of rent and arrears continue (a) when a claimant moves from live to full universal credit service and (b) during the managed migration process.

When moving from a live service claim to a full service claim on Universal Credit, claimants must re-declare their housing costs and for claimants in Social Rented Sector properties their landlord will need to re-verify their housing costs. The Alternate Payment Arrangements (APAs) that they had on the live service, including a Managed Payment to Landlords (MTPL), will be visible to their Case Manager who will be able to transfer these across once their housing costs have been verified. The claimants next APA review date is also transferred to the Full Service.

Our Trusted Partner scheme allows social landlords to play a key role in engaging with their tenants who are on Universal Credit, helping those who can’t manage their housing payments to access the support available and to help put managed payments in place where appropriate. We are rolling out the scheme alongside the Landlord Portal, which provides social landlords with the ability to submit information directly to the Universal Credit online system, supporting the timely and accurate payment of housing costs to Universal Credit claimants.

Last year we made changes to the guidance to ensure that when Private Sector Housing Benefit claimants move onto Universal Credit, we know whether they had their rent paid directly to their landlord and why. This allows DWP staff to determine whether a managed payment to the landlord for the Universal Credit claim may need to be applied and will prompt a conversation with the claimant. This will be the case for claimants who move over as part of the managed migration process.

Claimants in Scotland may choose to have the relevant housing costs in their award paid directly to their landlord as part of the Universal Credit Scottish Flexibilities. The Universal Credit Scottish Flexibilities are a matter for the Scottish Government as part of the Scotland Act 2016 and is their policy.