Working lives: preparing for direct payment of housing benefit | Housing network | Guardian Professional

Working lives: preparing for direct payment of housing benefit | Housing network | Guardian Professional

The Oxford English Dictionary is clear what vulnerable means: "Vulnerable adj. exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally: 'we were in a vulnerable position, small fish are vulnerable to predators'".
Mrs Jones who is fleeing her violent husband with two scared kids in tow, Mr Adams whose learning difficulties mean he finds it hard to complete forms and Ms Jean who, when pressed, admits she's a bit forgetful could all be classed as vulnerable.
When it comes to defining vulnerability in respect to the direct payment of benefits to tenants, Walsall Housing Group has to similarly define who qualifies in this category.
Like many social landlords, our communications and customer engagement drive is in full swing, and a partnership with the local credit union is already offering customers new products such as jam jar accounts, enabling them to budget, save and spend.
But having been tasked with writing, and now delivering, the welfare reform strategy, one of my biggest challenges is planning without knowing what support mechanisms and assessment processes will be in place. The only answer given by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is that the demonstration projects, six small-scale projects that will test some key elements of social sector housing support under universal credit while protecting social landlords' financial position, will give us this ..............