What we do

Housing benefit

The government is seeking to implement major reform to housing benefit in the private rented sector through the Welfare Reform Bill. It has started its passage through Parliament and Royal Assent is likely some time in 2007.

Several local areas have been testing the new policies. They include a local housing allowance which, in most circumstances, is paid directly to the tenant, rather than landlord.

The Bill provides the opportunity for the reform of housing benefit and we will be pushing several issues, including the payment of benefit in advance rather than arrears, and the scrapping of single room rent.

More broadly, whilst the reforms will make some contribution to reducing benefit processing times, they fail to address the major cause of delay - the variable performance of local authorities in their payment of benefit. We believe this variability is unacceptable and must be addressed.