Community Housing Income Advisor, Sarah Arnold is currently completing her level 4 apprenticeship in Housing and Property Management, and as part of this she is undertaking a research project of her choice into how arrears are now managed at Community Housing since the Housing restructure.
Her project, titled “Is a holistic approach the way forward with rent arrears collection?” compares the new customer centred approach compared with the previous process and procedure driven approach, with valuable evidence gathered by Sarah from external agencies, other social landlords, teams within Community Housing and customers of Community Housing.
Sarah said: “We did used to have a Financial Inclusion Team, but referrals were more to try and stop court action or eviction and not everyone would be referred. Although we still have procedures in place and they are still followed, we now look at the bigger picture with the customer and see what help they could need with everything, not just rent but other debts they may have and benefits they may be entitled to. We can refer to more places now, such as Wyre Forest District Council Homeless Prevention Team if a customer is facing eviction, and our Tenancy Sustainability Team to see if they can help with things such as benefit checks, vouchers towards food shopping or fuel bills. We work with the customer more and the focus is put on them rather than the procedure. It’s more about prevention and trying to act sooner when a customer gets in arrears and working with them to avoid it escalating”.
This is an example of a comment received from a customer surveyed as part of the project: “I was made to feel at ease and that I’m not a bad person. If it wasn’t for the help and understanding of the Income Advisor, I would have buried my head and would have lost my home. I feel confident to contact the team and trust them to help me”.
Sarah commented: “Every person I have spoken with has said how they used to worry about calling us, but they don’t anymore and will always get in touch and not ignore the problem”.
