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UC housing costs- lack of evidence
I am looking for suggestions how to advise client or persuade UC.
Cl’s landlord refused to give her tenancy agreement or anything in writing to confirm housing costs. Cl’s partner, who made payments, abandoned her, following arrest for DV. Since he left, she had no income for past 3 months and has not been able to pay rent, thus has no evidence via her bank statements etc. She is now in arrears of 3 months.
There never was a tenancy agreement or some sort of a document- so we cannot even source a copy. Rogue landlord for sure, but this is often the only way for some vulnerable clients :(
Is there any way to persuade UC about her liability for rent? Or is the homelessness route/change of accommodation the best option?
I think I would be inclined to approach the local authority.
From what you are saying, she is currently threatened with homelessness. She will have to give the LA reason to believe that she may be threatened with homelessness in order to trigger the enquiries, etc. but as long as she can do this, the LA should start to get involved. They should be keen to help her verify her housing costs with UC under the prevention duty - if that’s all they need to do to help her avoid homelessness then they should be very pleased. Other advantages to this are that the LA may well be familiar with the landlord, and they should also be able to help her if there is any threat of illegal eviction.
It might also be useful to quote Kerr at the DWP in this instance, which held that a claim for benefit is a collaborative process in which both the claimant and the DWP play their part:
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200304/ldjudgmt/jd040506/kerr-1.htm
If you can show that the client has done everything reasonable in her power to obtain the evidence from the landlord, it’s arguable that the DWP should also put some effort in by trying to get some proof from the landlord as well.
I certainly agree that the LA homelessness team is a good idea as well.
[ Edited: 17 Sep 2019 at 10:42 am by AlexJ ]Thanks very much guys, much appreciated.