Torfaen, a county borough close to Newport in South Wales, is one of six areas where the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) is running what it calls “demonstration projects” ahead of wider introduction of the Welfare Reform changes. In the first group of Torfaen residents on the pilot scheme rental arrears grew from £20,000 to £140,000 in just seven months.
A large proportion of this test group that incurred the 600% rise in arrears are said to have had ‘a good track record of payment before’ with ‘a pretty low level of arrears’.
Wrexham.com attended an information session with Wrexham Council recently where we asked if they had a prediction of what percentage of arrears they were expecting, as the BBC had reported a DWP source stating “a rate ‘in the teens’ rather than 20-30% reported“. No figure was placed or indicated, however it was recognised it is likely to be a problem.