Abstract

The Government’s flagship welfare reform, Universal Credit, which in addition to collapsing six workingage benefit payments into one monthly payment, involves social housing claimants being given the responsibility of paying their rent, a responsibility referred to in the UK context as direct payment. This presentation examines how tenants managed on direct payment by drawing on data collected from the evaluation of the pilots (DPDPS) set‐up to test it. The study found that direct payment had many negative impacts, not least that many tenants fell into arrears.

Biography

Paul Hickman is Professor of Housing and Regeneration at the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University. He has undertaken research on a range of subjects including: housing benefit; welfare reform; housing improvement; the private rented sector; residential mobility and immobility; community participation; neighbourhood infrastructure and social interaction; housing management; housing and regeneration; social enterprise; and French housing policy and practice. He has successfully managed major research projects for a number of funders including the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and the ESRC . Paul led the evaluation of the Direct Payment Demonstration Projects for DWP , a programme designed to inform the development of Universal Credit. Paul was Chair of the Housing Studies Association for four years.