Helping our tenant with Universal Credit

Our Money Advisor, Joanne, helped Mr Jones* clear his rent arrears by backdating 5 months’ worth of payments from Universal Credit.

*Tenants names have been changed for anonymity

What had happened?

Mr Jones was in a large amount of rent arrears. There was an issue with his Housing Benefit and Universal Credit payments, and it wasn’t made clear who should be paying his rent.

The problem resulted in Mr Jones getting ill because of the stress and worry it was causing him.

Our Money Advisor stepped in

Mr Jones was initially wary of using our Money Advice service, because he had received poor service from Housing Benefit and Universal Credit in the past. He was convinced that we wouldn’t be able to help either.

When Joanne was made aware of Mr Jones’ situation, she jumped straight in to help resolve it and contacted Universal Credit’s Escalation Managers. She managed to confirm that UC were responsible for paying Mr Jones’ rent and not Housing Benefit. Joanne set out to try and claim five months’ worth of backdated payments from UC to cover Mr Jones’ rent arrears - but UC’s usual policy states a backdate of one month maximum.

It took several months for Joanne to appeal UC’s decision not to back date for five months, but by working hard on behalf of Mr Jones, and with help from his Rent Payment Officer, she was successful in her mission!

The backdated payment was finally received. Not only did it secure Mr Jones’ tenancy, but it also cleared his rent arrears.

”I’ll be forever grateful”

Mr Jones was really pleased with the outcome and we were happy to be able to relieve some of his stress! He said, “thank you so very much, Joanne, for everything you’ve done to help with my situation. I will be forever grateful.” Mr Jones is now much more likely to use our Money Advice service if he has any more benefit or debt issues in the future.

If you find yourself in a similar situation to Mr Jones, then please reach out to us and we’ll be happy to help. You can get in touch with us on 0345 60 20 540 or fill out this form to contact our Money Advice Team.