Help & Support

• Some of the Private market rent properties where VIVID collects rent for are not owned by VIVID and we are just a managing agent. They are classed as Private rent - these properties are located in the Eastleigh area. It only affects some Market rent properties so you need to check your tenancy agreement especially if you claimed UC and check what you have reported
• The DWP (Department for work and pensions) needed us to confirm your housing costs through the landlord portal (the system provided by the DWP), which we’ve done 
• Because of this, the DWP haven’t applied the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rules, and this could mean you’ve been overpaid Universal Credit  
• Any overpayments of Universal Credit are recoverable by the DWP

• The LHA is calculated based on the number of bedrooms the household is entitled to 
• They cap the maximum amount of housing costs that can be included when calculating someone’s Universal Credit award 
• Any market rental homes let privately, aren’t affected by the bedroom tax, but are affected by a local housing allowance cap (LHA)

Here’s a couple of example situations to help: 
Example 1 
Emily and Callum live, with their teenage children Fran and Dean in a three-bedroom market rental house not owned by VIVID; their rent is £1200 pcm (per month). They need a three-bedroom home.  
When submitting their UC claim, they stated VIVID were they landlord and they were treated as a social renter customer and verified through our portal. The full rent would initially be included in the calculation to work out their Universal Credit award. The LHA for a three-bedroom property wasn’t applied using market rental guidelines, this is currently £1,072 pcm (per month), which should have left a shortfall of £128 pcm (per month). This means, they would potentially have been overpaid every month. 

Example 2 
Jack and Kate and their child Gus rent a three-bedroom market rental flat not owned by VIVID; their rent is £1200 pcm (per month). They only need a two-bedroom home.  
They submitted their UC claim with VIVID as their landlord and were then verified as a social renter. The full rent would initially be included in the calculation to work out their Universal Credit award. Because they are affected by the bedroom tax the maximum rent, they can get help with is £1,032 (£1200 – 14%), a shortfall of £168 pcm (per month). However, the LHA for a two- bed property should have been applied and the bedroom tax removed. This is currently £875 pcm (per month), which would be a shortfall of £325 pcm (per month). This means, they would potentially have been overpaid the difference between £325 and £168 - £157 pcm (per month). 

• We’re contacting all customers affected by letter and/or phone call
• We’ll work with you, and support you to request a waiver (write off) to the DWP of any overpayments, if needed 
• We’ll contact the DWP to explain what has happened, asking them to work out the overpayments and let you know how much any overpayment is. We’ll ask them to not to start making deductions to recover the overpayments whilst they consider the waiver
• We’re changing our systems to ensure that details are captured clearly from the start and ensuring it is made even clearer to customers at sign up that we are the managing agent only and how they should report their housing costs
• If you have a VIVID online account, we will set up a Local Housing Allowance case so you can communicate with us quickly and easily through the case

• If you want to check your housing allowance rate you need to find out your bedrooms eligibility and then look at the LHA rates below.  
• You can check how many bedrooms you’re eligible for here
• Current LHA in Eastleigh area (where some of the Market rent properties are affected)
  - One bedroom rate: £161.10 per week, £698.10 per month 
  - Two-bedroom rate: £201.37 per week, £872.60 per month 
  -Three-bedroom rate: £247.40 per week, £1072.06 per month 
  - Four-bedroom rate: £333.70 per week, £1446.03 per month