Citizens Advice report a very significant rise in demand for advice on rent arrears. This will partly result from growth in the private rented sector but also links to affordability issues in the mortgage market and changes in benefits. It seems likely that completion of the SMI changes will see this rise further in due course, while in the short term impacting the mortgage lending sector directly.
Citizens Advice Scotland has published evidence showing that demand for advice on rent arrears increased by 47% between 2012 – 2017. The new Citizens Advice Scotland report, which considers the causes and consequences of this rise, finds that changes to the social security system have been one of the key drivers of the problem, in particular, Universal Credit. The report notes that the increase covers the period in which Universal Credit has been rolled out, and presents a number of case examples which illustrate the typical links between the two.
