National plan for automatic deductions to halt public housing evictions
PUBLIC housing rent would be automatically deducted from welfare payments under a radical nationwide scheme developed by the NSW Government to claw back $30 million in unpaid rent.
NSW
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PUBLIC housing rent would be automatically deducted from welfare payments under a radical nationwide scheme developed by the NSW Government to claw back $30 million in unpaid rent.
NSW community services minister Brad Hazzard will today present the mandated scheme to all state and territory housing ministers, as a way to cut down on evictions and guarantee rent is paid.
The public housing system loses $30 million a year from unpaid or late rent across Australia, and Mr Hazzard said all tenants whose main source of income is welfare should be forced to pay rent before spending money on anything else.
Mr Hazzard said that while NSW tenants can voluntarily have rent taken out of welfare payments, it should be mandated.
“The current system allows public housing tenants to pull out of paying rent automatically, and that’s a recipe, in many cases, for total disaster,” Mr Hazzard said.
“These individuals all too often end up with their entire families evicted. That puts children and families on a treadmill to disaster.”
In the 2013-14 financial year, 7,900 people in 3,800 households across the country were kicked out for failing to pay public housing rent, or chose to leave while still owing rent, which is set at 25-30 per cent of income.
In NSW, there were 393 evictions because of failure to pay rent, and 1,319 failed tenancies where there were problems paying rent — which impacted 2,780 people.
In 2013-14 in NSW, Centrelink estimates 70 per cent of tenants chose some form of automatic deduction, but 80 per cent of those who got evicted had withdrawn from automatic deductions altogether.
The proposal would affect more than 90 per cent of public housing tenants, who have welfare payments as their main source of income.
Mr Hazzard said the Federal Government supports the automatic rent deduction, and would be a way to stop the “churn” of social housing tenants who become homeless.
In January, Federal Social Services minister Christian Porter wrote to state ministers confirming “in principle” support for a nationwide automatic deduction scheme.
Mr Hazzard said keeping people in secure housing was more important than arguments about letting people choose what they spend money on.
“It is about those in public housing paying their obligation first and foremost, to the taxpayers, and secondly making sure they don’t fall off the wagon into a social disaster by being evicted,” Mr Hazzard said.
There are more than 60,000 people on the NSW waiting list for public housing,
By 2025, the state government wants up to 35 per cent of all public housing to be managed by the private sector and non government organisations, who will be brought on to build another 23,000 dwellings.
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