Newsletter - March 2011
Important changes to Benefits happening now!
The government has introduced changes to the benefits system that affect many of the association’s tenants. These changes not only affect people on housing benefit but those on a range of other benefits.
In April 2011 tenants with children over 18 living with them will have to pay more towards their rent and council tax. The basic increases are from £7.40 to £9.40 per week towards the rent and £2.30 to £2.85 towards the council tax per week. These charges go up if the person earns more or is on different benefits. If this applies to you, you will need to pay more towards your rent from 1st April 2011.
Another change is the phasing out of incapacity benefit which should be complete by April 2011. Incapacity Benefit(IB) will be replaces by Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and all those presently claiming IB will have to undergo a test to see if they will go onto ESA or whether they are deemed fit to work and go onto Jobseekers Allowance or Income Support. It is very difficult to give an accurate comparison of the change from moving from IB to ESA but the staring point for IB is currently £68.95 per week compared with ESA of £51.85 per week.
In addition there have also been proposals announced that those who are moved onto Job Seekers allowance and do not secure a job for 12 months will have their housing benefit cut by 10% until they find employment.
There are many other changes and we will endeavour to keep you updated with the changes as they impact on the associations tenants. However if you need more information or to talk with an advisor Manchester Advice can help their contact details are:
Telephone: 0161 234 5678 Mondays to Fridays 9 am to 4 pm
E -mail: man-advice@manchester.gov.uk
In person: At their Customer Service Centre at Number One First Street in the city centre, junction of Whitworth Street West and Albion Street (for satellite navigation systems use M1 5DE).
In addition speak to your housing officer or come into our reception to use the internet facility.
Welcome Birch Court Tenants
The Association took ownership of Birch Court, an excellent development for the more mature of our community in January.
The association would like to extend a warm welcome to our new tenants and hope that we can do everything in our powers to make sure they enjoy their homes.
We are in the process of drawing up a programme of improvements at the scheme and we hope we can meet their expectations in making the improvements.
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Mutual Respect Required on the Telephones
As part of the review of the associations IT systems a new telephone system has been installed that records all telephone calls made to the association.
The system also enables the association to monitor how quickly telephone calls are answered and whether any calls are lost. The recorded calls will be used for training purposes to ensure staff members are polite, positive and also focus on solving problems.
We ask all tenants to respect staff members as the recordings can be used as evidence if tenants are abusive or rude.
Join the Tenants Quality Panel
The Tenants Quality Panel met in January and discussed the long term repairs programme for the association. It learned that the association had replaced nearly half the kitchens in its 900 properties in the last 3 years. In addition around 200 boilers had been replaced in the last 2 years. The panel were critical however at the standard of external painting being undertaken and felt tenants did not have sufficient incentive to replace items themselves. The Asset Manager agreed to encourage tenants to act as the eyes and ears of the association by providing more information about the standards painters were supposed to achieve for tenants and for him to look again at the tenants improvement policy that can reward tenants who undertake works themselves.
The meeting also elected their chair and congratulations are in order for Shirley Lawrence who the meeting unanimously agreed should be the Panels Chair. Shirley’s first action was to invite all tenants to apply to join the Quality Panel. Membership is open to all and if you are interested in joining call or write to the office or email slawrence@arawakwalton.com
We love your feedback!
Each year we send you our annual report and enclose a questionnaire to let us know what you think of it. Everyone who returns the questionnaire is entered into a prize draw to win a £25 gift voucher. Here are the lucky winners ...Heather of Whalley Range, , Miss Salmon of Ardwick, Mrs Dolan of Altrincham and Mr Hussain of Alexandra Park.
The Big Lunch
The Big Lunch is a very simple idea from the Eden Project. The aim is to get as many of the 61 million people in the UK as possible to have lunch with their neighbours once a year; it’s happening on Sunday 5 June 2011.
For more information go to /www.thebiglunch.com
Affordable contents insurance
The National Housing Federation is introducing a scheme to assist social housing tenants with affordable home contents insurance. We encourage all out tenants to take out such insurance and we highly recommend this scheme!
For more information call 0113 2035817 or Email Myhome@jltgroup.com
Gas Safety checks save lives!
As you know we have to carry out a Gas Safety Check at your home once a year. This is a vital procedure to ensure the safety of you and others in your home.
If you receive a letter to tell you that your check is due it is very important that you call the office and make an appointment straight away.
Help us to keep you safe and keep your appointment.
Thank you
Arawak Walton Performance
As always we like to keep our residents informed about how we are performing. See for yourself below.
| Nov 10 | Dec 10 | Jan 11 | Target | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voids % (no. of properties) |
0.82% (7) |
0.23% (2) |
0.12% (1) |
0.5% |
| Rent arrears (as a % of weekly rent receivable) |
5.65% |
5.48% |
5.80% |
5.8% |
| Repairs Completion Statistics | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 10 | Dec 10 | Jan 11 | Target | |
| Emergency | 98% |
99% |
98% |
98% |
| Urgent | 95% |
95% |
95% |
98% |
| Routine | 96% |
95% |
96% |
98% |
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