DWP program that automatically approves landlord benefit deduction requests ruled unlawful
DWP program that automatically approves landlord benefit deduction requests ruled unlawful
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Tenant challenged procedure after £500 docked from universal credit payment at landlord’s request, with whom he was in dispute over repairs. A “computer says yes” program that automatically approves landlord requests to deduct hundreds of pounds from tenants’ universal credit benefits without requiring officials to check first with the claimant has been declared unlawful by the courts.
The challenge was brought by a tenant who was outraged to find the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had docked £500 from his universal credit payment at the request of his landlord, with whom he was in dispute over repairs. The “click-screen” program used by the DWP means tenants can lose up to a fifth of their monthly universal credit standard allowance – and have their rent paid directly to the landlord – without being consulted by either the landlord or welfare officials.
The ruling means that the DWP must now introduce tenant safeguards into a process that approves tens of thousands of benefit deduction and rent diversion requests by landlords each year. The process was declared unfair and unlawful by a judge earlier this month in a hearing brought by Nathan Roberts, a law graduate and former police control room worker who argued it was “clearly arbitrary and an abuse of process”.
Roberts, who had been in dispute with his landlord, Guinness Partnership Trust, over its alleged failure to carry out repairs, argued that it was unlawful for DWP to pay the £460 rent element of his benefits and a £44 deduction for alleged rent arrears direct to Guinness without consulting him.
