News from the Residential Property Investor, the bi-monthly magazine for RLA members other artilces from the November / December 2002 issue RPI news archive

Housing benefit pilots - November / December 2002

Andrew Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has announced a new type of housing benefit not linked to rent levels. A pilot scheme will be tried across the country in which a housing allowance will be paid according to family size and broad local rent levels.

Ministers hope that this will lessen bureaucracy such as the need to refer rent levels to local rent officers. The pilot schemes will be among private sector landlords, who are affected by 815,000 tenants on housing benefit ­ down from more than a million in 1997.

The reform is separate from plans to deprive anti-social tenants of housing benefit. The payments would no longer be directly related to the rent paid and would be paid by tenants to landlords.

The current need to take into account the income and capital of each claimant and their family, the exact household structure and particular housing costs and local taxes, renders the operation of the system labour intensive.

Tenants who can find homes that are cheaper than the allowance would be allowed to keep the difference.

The idea will be tested next year in 10 districts with a view to applying it to all private sector tenants as early as 2005.
 

other artilces from the November / December 2002 issue

• Making representations
• Tenancy gains for unmarried couples
• Queen's speech
• In brief
• Inheritance tax clamp down
• House price inflation lower
• Housing benefit pilots
• Household debt management