THE SCOTTISH Government today announced plans to allow people receiving the new Universal Credit payments to have their housing benefits paid directly to landlords.

The move comes after East Lothian Council revealed tenants placed on the new benefits system were falling behind in their rent.

The council called on the Scottish Government to use devolved powers to change the system and give them the chance to claim the money direct.

They said they were now facing rent arrears of £1.7million this year, after introducing the new service.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) introduced the full Universal Credit system in East Lothian in March last year, as it became the first local authority in Scotland to introduce it.

Universal Credits replace benefit payments with a single monthly payment to recipients,which includes the housing element of their benefits, which would previously have been paid directly to local authority and private landlords.

However the system has come under fire after tenants faced up to eight weeks delay between coming off the old system and receiving their first payment.

Rent arrears caused by the delay quickly became a common problem with the council reporting a 20 per cent rise in money owed to them by tenants on the new credit.

East Lothian Council wrote to the Scottish Government urging them to invoke the powers they had been given to allow local authorities to collect housing benefit directly from the DWP instead of asking tenants to pay it.

Jeane Freeman, the Scottish Government's Social Security Minister, said new flexibilities would be introduced around the Universal Credit payments.

She said tenants would have the choice of having the housing element of their benefit paid directly to landlords as well as being given the option of fortnightly payments rather than monthly.

She said: "As part of the social security consultation exercise last summer, we heard direct from people that paying the housing element of Universal Credit direct to landlords and receiving more frequent payments would be two important improvements to the DWP approach.

"These are issues that people have repeatedly raised with us, highlighting the problems the current system can cause for budgeting.

“People claiming Universal Credit want to have a choice about how the housing element part of the payment is paid – we have listened to that wish and are now taking action to make sure it happens as quickly as possible.”