Extra support to help protect rough sleepers and renters from the effects of COVID-19 has been announced by the Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick today, 8th January. Just yesterday we wrote of the lack of support being offered to renters and homeless people during the latest lockdown. Backed by an additional £10 million in funding, all councils in England are being asked to redouble their efforts
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As we enter the third lockdown, over 76,000 deaths have been recorded as being COVID-19 related in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. Since the lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, there has been no mention of re-introducing the ban on tenants being evicted that was put in place last March. Nor have provisions for rough sleepers been
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The National Audit Office (NAO) has found that work to remove flammable cladding identified in the wake of the Grenfell Tower Fire, hasn’t even begun on over half of the buildings identified by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG). Furthermore, the government spending watchdog also found that private landlords are lagging behind in remedial works, in comparison
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The government has been accused of covering up a significant report on Universal Credit to hide the poor results. The study which looks at the transition from Tax Credits to Universal Credit is dated November 2017. It was carried out jointly by HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its results although dated, paints a dire picture
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A new report released by Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has blamed the UK government’s welfare reforms for a rise in clients seeking help for rent arrears on. The report comes the day after the government whipped their MPs to block the release of papers showing how Universal Credit will impact families. The report starts by saying that in Scotland, the
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How Universal Credit puts people in rent arrears. Housing is one of the biggest, more obvious ways Universal Credit fails claimants. Besides the much covered policies surrounding young people and housing, the way the benefit processes these payments in general almost guarantees arrears. I’m hardly the first person to criticise how this benefit handles this, CPAG have alluded to many
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