Universal Credit persuaded to pay tenant’s rent in full
CHAC Case study
Freya’s story
A misunderstanding about joint tenancy led to Freya being informed by Universal Credit (UC) that she was only entitled to half her rent and that she had been overpaid for one year by more than £2,200.
Freya was a secure council tenant with a young dependent child. Freya’s housing costs (ie her rent) were covered by monthly UC payments.
The Council change their rents every year on the first Monday in April. When Freya’s rent increased in April this year, she reported her rent increase to UC. This is a routine procedure done online but includes a question about whether anyone else is on the tenancy. Freya answered ‘‘yes’ to this question as her ex-partner was still a joint tenant of the property. However, he had left the property – permanentlyfour years ago.
UC then informed Freya that she had been overpaid by £2,206 for one year. She was told she was only entitled to half the rent because she was a joint tenant with another person. In addition, Freya was told that, from now on, UC would only pay £194 each month for her housing costs. This only covered half her rent.
Freya contacted UC in an attempt to sort out the confusion, but UC refused to change their decision.
How CHAC helped
Freya contacted us, and with her consent, we accessed her online UC claim on 7 May to request a Mandatory Reconsideration. In our submission, we explained why Freya was legally entitled to be paid housing costs equal to her full rent under the UC Regulations.
The outcome
On 10 May, UC responded with an apology and confirmed the claim for UC overpayment had been cancelled. Freya was told her housing costs would be paid in full without a break. She had only been paid half her UC housing costs for one month but UC have now paid the housing costs of £194 that she was owed for this month.