Letters: Urgent help needed for struggling tenants

Urgent help needed for struggling tenants

Right now we are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis which is only going to get worse as we move into the winter months. As housing associations, we are working together to ensure tenants get much needed help but in reality the government and energy companies need to do more.

The increases in price of energy and staple foods has turned a cost-of-living crisis into a cost-of-surviving crisis for hundreds of thousands of people across Northern Ireland. A University of York study predicts that over 70% of households in Northern Ireland will be affected by fuel poverty by January 2023. Many of these will be social housing tenants, including the 33,000 managed by Radius and the 138,000 social housing units which are located across the region.

That stress on family finances has seen our housing and financial inclusion staff dealing with a significantly increased level of crisis management cases across tenants of all ages. The reality of 2022 is that many of our tenants are getting into debt for the first time in their lives.

How do we respond to this crisis?

Firstly, we urgently need clarity in the form of firm dates and methods of distribution of how all eligible and vulnerable persons will receive the energy cost of living payments and those monies to be released as soon as possible.

In the last 12 months Radius has shielded vulnerable customers from charges which would apply in normal times, up to an amount of £1.6m. We also have a dedicated financial inclusion team who provide an advice service to help support tenants and we are expanding this team to meet demand. In the last two years, over £2.2m of unclaimed benefit entitlements were identified on behalf of tenants and we provide small grants for the most vulnerable tenants. We support local community groups by way of our Community Chest grants initiative and are also collaborating with other housing providers in the social housing sector and a broad range of statutory bodies on an Energy Hardship working group.

We are realistic enough to acknowledge that these measures on their own will not be enough to alleviate pressures.

Broader and more sustained government support is required, both from Westminster and from an executive which really should be restored without delay.

Radius stands with the Cliff Edge Coalition in support of their emergency proposals which include the reinstatement of the £20 Universal Credit (UC) uplift, the removal of the two-child limit for UC and child tax credit, the pausing of social security debt for six months and a one-off payment of £500 to those on disability living allowance or carer’s allowance.

The choice facing government and society in the coming weeks and months is a simple one – are we to help those most in need now or is a combination of a London government’s dogmatic approach to policy alongside a moribund NI executive going to see families and individuals abandoned to their fate?

We know what we want to see, and I know what all our colleagues across the housing sector want to see.

John McLean,

Chief executive, Radius