Thousands of people are signing up to credit unions as an ethical and affordable alternative to high-interest money lenders.
In the last two months of 2013, Glasgow Credit Union dealt with more than 1600 inquiries and signed up 733 new members - a 260% increase on the previous year. The influx followed the Scottish Government's '12 Days of Debtmas' and 'A Helping Hand with Debt' campaigns.
Changes in housing benefit payments affecting disabled people could cost the public purse millions of pounds in Wales, a housing association has said.
Wales & West Housing (WWH) said many disabled tenants may be forced to move because of the so-called "bedroom tax".
Vulnerable housing benefit claimants who might need extra support are set to be helped by an additional £165 million of funding being made available to councils.
According to the Government, this builds on the £180 million funding this year and ensures continuing financial support.
Over a quarter of parents blame poor housing as a major factor for life in the UK becoming harder, a poll has revealed.
With 56% of families believing that life is harder today than it was 20 years ago, one in four told the survey that their neighbourhoods are not good places for their children to grow up in.
The government's stuttering universal credit system is continuing to baffle tenants, new research has revealed.
Half of those who took part in the National Landlords Association's survey said that though they are aware that UC will replace the current benefits system, they don't fully understand what it means.
Around 70,000 people are being pursued by bailiffs for council tax arrears following benefit cuts, the Labour Party has claimed.
The party has, according to the Independent newspaper, issued requests under the Freedom of Information Act to all English councils and 143 responded with figures showing 30,761 have been issued with bailiff notices. If extrapolated across England, 70,000 could be affected.
Universal credit remains largely misunderstood, according to a study conducted by online letting agent Makeurmove.co.uk.
The research reveals that one in three landlords are unaware of universal credit while 40% of landlords have heard of the new government scheme, but are unclear about the details. Just 27% of landlords say they fully understand universal credit.
Channel Four's infamous benefits Street 'documentary' has featured a squalid four-bedroom rented home that is so riddled with damp that water runs down the walls.
It has no heating because the boiler has long been broken, and the tenant's children are so frozen at night they sleep with their clothes on.
ALMOST 800 jobseekers in Wigan signed up to the new Universal Credit in the first four months of the benefit being rolled out in the borough.
A total of 790 people completed the application process and began receiving the new benefit between July and October 2013, according to the first figures on Universal Credit released by the Departmentfor Work and Pensions (DWP).
ARLA says the number of tenants struggling to pay rent has fallen to a record low having fallen from 65 per cent to 27 per cent in just under five years.
“Any overall fall in rental arrears is good news but 27 per cent is still high considering the economic climate in the UK remains challenging” says Ian Potter, outgoing managing director of ARLA who leaves his post in June.
According to a new survey from the AA, seven out of 10 landlords say they’ve drastically changed their plans in the past year to go and help out a tenant with a household repair.
The research from AA Home Membership, conducted amongst 200 landlords, reveals that in the past year one in five have returned from a holiday early and another one in five has had to find a babysitter. 18% have taken time off work and 16% have left a wedding or other special event.
More than half a billion pounds has been spent by London's boroughs on emergency housing since the general election, new figures have revealed.
Local authorities have spent more than £630 million since 2010 on placing people in temporary accommodation, such as hotels and B&Bs, after they presented themselves as being homeless.
Councils are cutting off housing benefit payments to tenants who are entitled to receive them, as an unintended consequence of sanctions applied to other benefits.
Jobseeker’s allowance and employment support allowance claimants can have sanctions applied to their claims if they miss appointments or fail to do enough to find work. But many are also having their housing benefit cut, because they are unaware that they need to tell councils their financial circumstances have changed. Local authorities are stopping claims as a result.
Jobless migrants from within the European Union will be denied access to housing benefit from April this year, senior government ministers have said.
Home Secretary Theresa May and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told the Daily Mail it would prevent exploitation of the UK welfare system.
Migrants from the European Union who arrive in the UK without a job are to be denied housing benefit from April, the government has announced.
Additionally, migrants will only be able to claim unemployment benefit for six months unless they have a "genuine" possibility of getting into work.
A property website specialising in LHA tenants says the current media rhetoric around tenants on benefits is stigmatising the LHA market.
DSSmove.co.uk, a website tenants searching for LHA properties, claims Channel 4’s controversial ‘Benefits Street’ and Fergus Wilson, the Kent-based professional landlord who recently announced that he will no longer be accept benefit tenants, are giving a heavily distorted impression of the market.
More than 67,000 rental households across the UK now owe more than two months’ rent according to LSL Property Services.
The firm’s quarterly rental market analysis, looking at October to December inclusive, shows that those in severe arrears rose 2,000 since the third quarter of 2013. Even so, the number of households in severe arrears is still 26 per cent below the rate a year ago.
George Osborne has announced the Conservative Party would cut housing benefit for under-25s after the next election as part of £25billion spending cuts, removing a vital lifeline for many homeless young people who are already struggling financially.
Such a move would be catastrophic for the 6,000 homeless young people Centrepoint supports each year. For many, returning to their family home isn't an option: some would be re-exposed to violence or abuse, for others there would simply be no room for them in already overcrowded accommodation.
A credit union will open in Barton next week as volunteers bid to help estate residents with money woes.
The service is first being showcased on Monday – the day known as “Blue Monday”.
A Cabinet minister has urged middle-class savers and borrowers to cast aside their prejudices and join credit unions.
These non-profit organisations have long been regarded as the preserve of low-paid families who would otherwise struggle to obtain a mortgage or bank account.