Our proactive customer contact service
Universal credit means weekly housing benefit payments can be paid directly to landlords, alternatively a single monthly income - to cover a range of benefits - is paid directly to tenants.
With the need for tenants to manage their money differently, there has been an increase in missed rents payments, arrears and tenancy eviction, with a knock-on effect on social landlords who are facing a rise in court orders to recover debts, an increase in costly tenancy terminations and increased demand for temporary accommodation.
We help you better support your tenants, while minimising the impact on revenue collection, budgets and services, with our fully-managed rent collection and arrears management service. We work alongside your existing teams to support profiling and contact management, taking and making payment arrangements, as well as signposting to wider support and preparing court documentation for non-payers.
The resilience service provided by Capita has enabled Southwark to effectively manage workload fluctuations following the implementation of universal credit full service within the borough.
The team delivering the service have assisted in initially maintaining then improving performance helping to mitigate the risk of a significant increase in arrears following direct payment of benefit.
We use insights to profile customers in areas that are more likely to be impacted by universal credit, have the propensity to miss payments or have rent arrears. Our team contacts tenants to explain the available payment options, arranges to take rent payments and helps eligible tenants who need alternative payment arrangements (APAs) applied to their universal credit. As part of our rent collection and arrears management services, we focus on:
Promoting automated and digital payment methods
Providing information on how universal credit works
Helping vulnerable people and families with complex needs
Arranging alternative payments (APAs) for those eligible
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