Shropshire Council tenants are £314,000 in arrears
Former and current Shropshire council house tenants owe more than £314,000 in arrears, new figures reveal.
But the authority says that is an improvement on the £502,263 that was owed on its 4,000 properties at the same time last year.
The figures, which cover the period until March 31, are revealed in a report to members of the council’s audit committee, which was due to meet at Shirehall this afternoon.
At the meeting, members will be told the authority has set aside £272,000 to cover bad debts.
In the first quarter of the year the rent collection rate was nearly 95 per cent – although the council says it is on course to get rent payments off 99 per cent of tenants.
In 2009, the authority was owed £674,347 and had £398,249 set aside in bad debt provision.
The report adds: “Since 2009/10 collection rates have been improving and the annual target rate has been increased year on year.
“While performance for the first quarter of the current year is encouraging, the current economic climate and potential impact of the Government proposals for reform of the benefits system will place additional pressure on our ability to maintain the recent improvement in collection rate.
“For these reasons the target rate for 2012/13 has been held at the 2011/12 level of 99 per cent.”
The council owns 4,000 properties in Oswestry and Bridgnorth.
Since July it has been piloting a scheme for direct payment of benefits to 400 tenants.
It is also encouraging tenants to pay rent by direct debit.
Some 177 people have signed up, and the scheme is to be extended over the coming weeks.
The impact on the collection rate will be monitored.
The report concludes: “Improvements continue to be made on collection rates and the level of rent arrears.
“However, the ability to maintain this trend is uncertain in light of on-going difficulties in the wider economy and the potential implications of direct payment of housing benefit.
“Based on current performance the council has adequate bad debt provision.”
Comments for: "Shropshire Council tenants are £314,000 in arrears"
Julian S
i hope they will be paying interest?
i dont get my rent subsidised, they get cheap rent AND benefits to pay that rent, i get neither
sowhat
If they dont pay then kick them out, evict them! i bet they will pay then. Threaten them with temporary accomadation if need be, I am fed up to the back teeth with scroungers who receive so much benefit who also take all of the social housing and then dont pay the due rent. They are a bunch of parasites. Dock the money out of their benefits or if they work, take it straight out of their salary. It happens for the CSA so dont say it cant be done. Time to get tough council
Roger
Housing benefits should always be paid direct to the landlord. In these times of rducing benefits (RPI-CPI) and far stricter and possibly unfair restrictions on benfits to be followed by the cutting of Housing benefits what else can we expect.
The Benefit system was never designed to suppy claimants with dispoable income so reduced benefits and rising rents is bound to provide challenges to claiments. Many will end up in arrears which can only be limited by paying the benefits to Land Lords direct. Legally the default is to pay the tenant who then has to pay the landlord. This was, is and always will be stupid.
With the trend to part time work and lower wages in real terms there are probibly many more with entitlements not currently claiming and even when they do will get them it will be at a lower level. So the problem will spread up the scale of employment much wider than is currently the case.
The delay in processing claims is also a problem since the tenant who is entitled will not be able to afford to pay whilst they await a descision. If the descision is not what was expected the problem becomes irrepairable.
I see nothing but problems ahead on this issue because the numbers will simply fail to add up resulting in arrears in both public and private sectors.
Kelly
Why does this not surprise me. They get cheap subsidised housing and can't even pay for that.
Harry D
Why don't you get the title correct?
"Some Shropshire Council tenants are £314,000 in arrears"
Others own nothing at all.
mark
to julian s,sowhat,roger,kelly
Why are you all complaining about people on benefits being the main problem in regards to the amount of money due?.
Does the article say the majority of the money owed is from benefit claiments?.
I've been employed all my eligable working life & never claimed a penny in benefit and at one time money was hard & i owed near £800 in rent that took me a good 6 months to catch up on & clear the account,and i bet around 50% of the money due in the article is by people in similar circumstances,so quit with the benefit claimant complaints,you sound like the bloody tori's,who by the way are millionaires in high paid jobs & get a second home bought paid for & furnished by the taxpayer,now thats something worth complaining about don't you think?.