Common challenges social housing associations face with Universal Credit

Last year marked the 10-year anniversary of Universal Credit. As a welfare rights trainer at Child Poverty Action Group, I’ve seen the ups and downs of this benefit.

Throughout 2024 and 2025, Universal Credit will replace Housing Benefit for hundreds of thousands more social residents, so I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on some of the recurring issues for frontline housing workers when dealing with Universal Credit.

Tenancy agreements and other paperwork

Since the beginning, I have felt the Universal Credit application process is too demanding when it comes to providing evidence of housing costs. A claimant might show the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) a valid tenancy agreement, only to be told it’s not valid for many reasons. It is not recent enough, not signed by the right parties, or it doesn’t contain the right information. Sometimes the DWP asks claimants to produce other proof of address, such as uploading photographic evidence, like selfies taken inside and outside of their property.

These demands can hold up the payment of Universal Credit and lead to rent arrears. We’ve seen that housing association support for affected residents can make all the difference. Residents find it helpful when housing associations take a flexible approach to arrears, support them with negotiating with the DWP and give residents up-to-date evidence of their tenancy as soon as requested.

Untidy tenancies

There’s also the ongoing problem of untidy tenancies. This is when one joint resident has left a property or passed away and Universal Credit is sometimes wrongly paid for only 50 percent of the remaining resident’s rent. Benefit advice has been crucial in helping residents challenge these mistakes, which can otherwise lead to massive arrears and put tenancies at risk. On the CPAG Welfare Rights website, we provide a template for advisers to write a mandatory reconsideration request to challenge untidy tenancy decisions.

Supported and temporary accommodation

The same goes for errors about housing types. If a resident lives in certain types of supported housing, referred to as specified, or temporary accommodation, they can’t generally claim Universal Credit to help with their rent but instead must claim Housing Benefit. This creates a lot of confusion and sometimes leads to both benefits being refused because of conflicting information over the status of somebody’s home. Again, housing associations can play an important part here by verifying in writing to the DWP whether a claimant’s housing meets the definition of specified or temporary accommodation to ensure they receive all the support they are eligible for. Those definitions can be found in Schedule 1, paragraphs 3A and 3B, of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013

Benefit suspensions

The DWP’s anti-fraud programme has been another cause of concern for housing providers, particularly in the last 18 months. Universal Credit claimants can face indefinite suspension of their benefit while an investigation is underway. While payments are suspended, rent arrears inevitably mount up. In many cases, payments are restored later with limited explanation, but this can be too late to save a tenancy. We see advisers using escalation contacts, pre-action letters, the complaints process and sometimes the involvement of the local MP to try to speed up a decision to restore payments.

Fraud and error are set to remain a focus for the new government, meaning it will be even more crucial that those advising residents know their legal rights when their benefits are suspended or closed.

Handling the challenges

If you work in an income or welfare rights team and you want to learn more, look at our training programme on the cpag.org.uk/training website. As well as our Universal Credit and housing costs course, we deliver more courses on Universal Credit and other aspects of the benefits system.

We know that advice and support from in-house teams play a vital role in protecting incomes and sustaining tenancies. With the move to Universal Credit well underway and vulnerable employment and support allowance claimants the final group in scope, this work is even more crucial.