Universal credit is pushing people into rent arrears according to a new survey.
Citizens Advice Scotland said that demand for advice on falling behind with rent has gone up by 47% in the last five years.
It said that benefit changed and in particular Universal Credit was the key driver of the rise.
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.
Rab Gowans, Citizens advice Scotland Spokesman said: “The rise in rent arrears is one of the most worrying trends we see across the CAB network at the moment.
While there are a number of factors driving this, we have no doubt that the flaws in Universal Credit are one of the main ones.
“For the past 18 months we have been calling for a halt and fix to Universal Credit.”
He said that people were still waiting too long before the first payment which causes problems paying rent and reduce the amount that is deducted from payments for loans.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here