Council opens fund to help tenants with rent

TOWER HAMLETS Council has opened a fund to help some residents on low incomes pay their rent and not fall into arrears.

Rents in Tower Hamlets rose by 4.8% in Tower Hamlets this year – starting from 6th April, which is an average of £6.70 per week. That sum is in line with government guidelines. It’s always difficult setting rents, because the cost of keeping properties in good condition is rising fast. Councils need to increase rents to meet those costs and deliver a decent service – but they are conscious that these increases put pressure on low paid residents who do not qualify for Housing Benefit.

To deal with that dilemma, Tower Hamlets Council has set up a hardship fund to which those tenants can apply for assistance. Tenants who apply have to be:
•secure council tenants who pay their own rent;
•not in receipt of Housing Benefit, Universal Credit or Pension Credit;
•able to show that they are experiencing hardship linked to the rent increase.
Appllicants to the hardship fund will also have to meet a range of financial criteria relating to their income and level of savings.

Successful applicants will receive a payment equivalent to the extra rent for a six month period. The payment will be made direct into their rent account. There will be several opportunities to apply to the Hardship Fund during the year. However, the Council has set a fixed amount aside to pay for successful applications, so tenants are advised not to delay applying.

The Council points out that there are other ways in which they can help residents who are experiencing financial problems, including those who are experiencing problems in paying their rent. Details are on the Council website.

This is a practical and useful scheme. The assistance will help Council tenants who are worried sick about how to stretch their income to meet the new rents. However, there is a limited number of Council tenants in the Borough. In the early part of this century, the Government was saying that Housing Associations deal only with housing services, so they are better at running housing than Councils, which have to deal with many more tasks. That was one of the arguments put about to encourage Councils to sell off their housing to other providers to make the Government’s debt figures look better. Sadly, the idea that housing associations were good at running housing turned out, in the vast majority of cases, very much not to be true.

The fact that Housing Associations concentrate on housing means they do not have access to government hardship funds. Those who were Council tenants and now, through no fault of their own, are tenants of housing associations do not have access to hardship funds to help with their rents. Private renters are even worse off. Let’s rejoice and spread the word about the Tower Hamlets Council Rent Hardship Fund. Let’s write to our MP about the problems that other tenants face.

●For information on how the Council can help with financial problems, go to:
Help with hardship

●Read more about it:
Mayor tells Cabinet why housing is a priority
Confirmed: poor people have fewer housing options