How does Universal Credit affect housing affordability for renters in England?

Link Seminar - April 2024

A seminar series designed to connect academic knowledge with pressing policy agendas

Presented by DWP in collaboration with the Universities of Leeds, Loughborough, Sheffield and York, LINK is a webinar series designed to help build richer connections between the academic, policy and analytical worlds by providing an opportunity to hear from both leading Social Scientists at the University of Leeds and other universities as well as prominent analysts, strategists and policy makers from the Department for Work and Pensions.

Presenter: Dr Rhiannon Williams, from the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE), University of Sheffield

Abstract: Universal Credit claimants are at particular risk of having problems meeting their housing costs. In this University of Sheffield study, we use data analysis to compare how Universal Credit claimants’ likelihood of housing payment problems has changed over time compared to legacy benefit claimants. Among new benefit claimants, claiming Universal Credit was associated with an 80% likelihood increase of having housing payment problems compared to claiming Housing Benefit, and a 41% likelihood increase compared to claiming Jobseekers Allowance. In its current form, the Universal Credit system negatively impacts particular population groups more than others, placing these claimants at disproportionate risk of having problems paying for their housing. In particular, claimants with a disability or long term health condition were more likely to experience problems paying for their housing.

In this seminar, we will explore how Universal Credit affects housing payment problems, including: What elements of Universal Credit have an impact on housing problems? What characteristics make someone at more risk of having housing payment problems in the Universal Credit system? The disproportionate risk of housing payment problems for disabled people and how problems are likely to increase as more vulnerable people enter the Universal Credit system through Managed Migration.

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