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    Ministers scrap DWP program allowing landlords to tap into tenants’ benefits
    United Kingdom

    Ministers scrap DWP program allowing landlords to tap into tenants’ benefits

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    13 Comments

    1. lfgeorgiapeach on

      Labour actually enacted something to the detriment of the parasite class. Colour me surprised.

    2. BestButtons on

      > Ministers are to scrap a controversial “computer says yes” program that automatically approves landlord requests to deduct hundreds of pounds from tenants’ universal credit benefits without their consent.

      > Last month, a judge ruled that the “click-screen” program used by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to process tens of thousands of deduction requests each year was unlawful.

      > The internal review of landlord deductions will be part of a wider overhaul of universal credit design and processes promised by the government as it grapples with what it calls the UK’s “broken welfare system.”

      > Labour’s fair repayment rate, which caps the amount that can be cut from benefit payments each month to repay short-term loans and debts, and which is expected to leave 1 million of the UK’s poorest households £420 a year better off, starts in April.

      More good news and real action instead certain party’s empty promises during their 14-year reign.

    3. Ecstatic_Lion4224 on

      I hadn’t been aware of such an insidious policy existing. Good news for once that they’ve put a stop to it.

    4. Commercial-carrot-7 on

      Great. Would be brilliant if we could just have something on the scammy service charges now

    5. antbaby_machetesquad on

      They wouldn’t be able to unilaterally deduct funds from one’s salary so I don’t see how this is different.

    6. IamBeingSarcasticFfs on

      I agree, as long as housing benefit is paid directly to the landlord. Otherwise UC people will have a hard time getting housing from the private sector.

    8. jangrol on

      For clarity – this isn’t about private sector landlords. The only landlords who could do this before were social housing.

      Private landlords have always had to request deductions via review.

    9. Ethroptur on

      Wait, such a policy existed?

      Just when you thought the government couldn’t ever stoop so low.

    10. commonsense-innit on

      private landlords have raked in 30 billion from housing benefits

      curiously many landlords continue to claim housing benefits after the tenants have moved out and fail to inform DWP

      i wonder why

    11. LicenceToShill on

      It doesnt sound like good news. In reality, this will make it harder for landlords to confidently take on social tenants. Harder for people on benefits to find a place to live. Got to look at the practical consequences and not just some feels

    12. ArcticAlmond on

      I’m pretty sure deducting money from people’s wages without their consent would be unlawful, with the exception of taxation, so why would just deducting money from people’s benefits be lawful?

      Seemingly, there is a double standard with benefits where we admit that people are entitled to benefits, hence why they get them, but we also simultaneously act like they don’t really deserve the money they’re entitled to, and it can simply be taken away from them on whim.