Early Impacts of Welfare Reform on rental income and arrears

Kirstie Corbett17 Feb 2014

Methods and Measures• Quarterly online survey• All Scottish Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and

local authority landlords

• Rental income for financial year 2013-14• Arrears as a percentage of rental income• Challenges • Actions

• Seasonal variations (March, June & Sept)• Changes over time (2011, 2012 & 2013)

Arrears – all landlords at September

Arrears – seasonal pattern for RSLs

Landlords’ estimates of impact

Cash value of impact

Total cash value of direct arrears = £4.86 million (for 113 landlords)

Over 80% of landlords have

reviewed their budgets or revised their business plans

Over 90% of landlords are working to identify and engage

directly with vulnerable tenants

Over 60% of landlords have

appointed new staff specifically to deal with Welfare Reform issues

All landlords are focusing on actions to

advise and support tenants

Existing financial

constraints

Concerns over rental income and financial

health

Pressure on staffing, IT

systems and resources

Increasing Arrears

Key FindingsJune 2013 Sept 2013

Overall % arrears = 3.97% Overall % arrears = 4.43%

Total arrears = £63.1 million Total arrears = £72.6 million

77% landlords estimate up to around 10% arrears from Welfare Reform

66% landlords estimate up to around 10% arrears from Welfare Reform

Local authority landlords report higher % arrears and estimated impacts arising from Housing Benefit reductions

For individual RSLs – 64% saw increase in % arrears from March 2013 levels

For individual RSLs – 49% saw increase in % arrears from march 2013 levels

Landlords broadly confident in their estimates of Welfare Reform impacts