Rent Increase 2024

Guidance on your rent from April 2024. This includes information about changes to your rent and why this is happening, how we use your rent and what support is available if you’re struggling to pay your rent.

Changes to your rent

Rent & Service Charge Increase 2024-25

As a social housing Landlord, we follow rules set by the government when we calculate any changes to your rent each year.

The government usually sets your rent based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for September, plus 1%. The CPI is a commonly used measure of inflation, which measures changes in the prices of goods.

In September, the CPI was 6.7%. This means we’ll be increasing your rent by 7.7% from April 2024.

The government has confirmed that benefits will increase in line with inflation. If you use Housing Benefit, Universal Credit or another form of benefits to pay your rent, you will see these payments rise from April onwards.

For most residents who are claiming full or partial benefit, the rent increase will, to a large extent, be met by increases in Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit.

If you pay a service charge as part of your weekly payment to us, then you may also see that this charge has increased to ensure we fully recover the costs of services being provided to your block or estate.

Why we’ve increased your rent

As a not for profit charitable housing association all the money we make through the rent you pay is reinvested into our homes and services through activities like managing and carrying out day-to-day repairs on your home, as well as delivering bigger works to make long-term improvements to homes, like replacing windows, bathrooms as part of the high rise refurbishments.

Unfortunately, high inflation also means that the cost of the materials we use to carry out works to existing homes has also gone up. 

We have to balance keeping rents as low as possible, whilst making sure we can fund essential maintenance and continue to improve the quality, safety and environmental efficiency of our resident’s homes.

We consulted with the Watmos Board when setting the rent increase. Although it was a difficult decision for us to make, they agreed the increase was necessary for us to continue making essential improvements to our existing homes and services.

What happens next

Your rent and service charge increase notice will be sent to you by letter from the week beginning 19 February 2024.

What you need to do 

If you receive Housing Benefit you don’t need to do anything as we will inform the Housing Benefit department of the new rent charges.

If you are a Universal Credit (UC) claimant, please log into the Universal Credit portal to advise the Department of Work and Pensions of your new rent charges but do not do this until 1 April 2024 when the new charges take effect. 

It is important that you complete this, otherwise the rent increase will not be reflected in the amount of Universal Credit you receive to help to cover your rent.

If you pay by direct debit, you don’t need to do anything. Your payments will automatically be adjusted, and you’ll receive confirmation of this from AllPay Limited, in March 2024.

If you manage your payments online, please adjust your payments to the new amount from the day of your increase.

The 53 Week Financial Year

As your tenancy charges you rent every week your Universal Credit claim will not cover all of your rent payments this financial year. This is because the rent is charged to your account every Monday and there are 53 Mondays between 1^st April 2024 and 31^st March 2025.

The DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) will only pay up to 52 weeks of rent and service charges per year.  Therefore you will need to pay the rent for the 53^rd week of the year due on 31 March 2025 using your personal income. 

If you are affected by this, we can help you set up a payment plan where you pay extra each week during the year to cover the additional week’s rent.

What to do if you’re having difficulty paying your rent

If you are worried about not being able to afford your rent or other essential living costs please don’t suffer in silence - talk to us. Our dedicated Income team are also on hand to offer advice on benefits, budgeting, including putting in place a payment plan if you need one to help you manage your rent payments. Please call us on: Walsall: 01922 471910 and London:  0207 043 0670.

We will do all we can to help and support you. 

Support available to help residents in need

We are offering you help and support to manage your finances, energy and living costs by making food bank referrals, accessing the Household Support Fund and the Watmos Hardship fund.

Help with welfare benefits

• If you need help with welfare benefits advice please contact your Income Officer who will assist you.
• For online advice to suit your financial circumstances please check our website for support: https://www.watmos.org.uk/benefit-advice
• For support with Universal Credit go to: https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/benefits/universal-credit/money-manager

Help with cost of living and energy costs

• For more information on various schemes and other ways that we can help with the cost of living crisis, utility bills, budgeting, as well as benefit and debt advice, go to: https://www.watmos.org.uk/money-benefits  

• Please contact us for help or go to our website https://www.watmos.org.uk/help-with-bills-universal-credit for more information on the following:
  • Warm Home Discount Scheme
  • Cold Weather Payment
  • Winter Fuel Payment

Help with food and living costs

• Please contact us or email info@watmos.org.uk to request information on the types of support that are available to you to help with food and living costs.

• Councils also have funds to assist households on a low income with food and utilities during winter
• Lambeth https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/benefits-financial-support/extra-support-people-crisis/emergency-support-scheme/apply-online
• Walsall https://go.walsall.gov.uk/benefits/household-support-fund

Referrals to external agencies for support:

If you live in Lambeth you can get advice at the following agencies:

• Brixton Advice Centre Tel: 020 7733 7554 or  http://www.brixtonadvice.org.uk
• Citizens Advice Merton & Lambeth – Tel: Lambeth: 0800 254 0298 (Freephone) or Merton: 0344 243 8430 or email: https://www.caml.org.uk
• Citizens Advice national consumer helpline Tel: 0808 223 1133
• Age UK Lambeth – Tel:0333 360 3700 or email info@ageuklambeth.org
• Step Change – Tel: 0800 138 1111 or https://www.stepchange.org/
• Christians Against Poverty – Tel: 0800 328 0006 or https://capuk.org/get-help
• CCW is the independent voice for water consumers - https://www.ccwater.org.uk/households/help-with-my-bills/

If you live in Walsall you can get advice at the following agencies:

• Walsall Money Advice Project - http://www.wmap.org.uk/ or Tel: 01922 623292
• Citizens Advice – https://citizensadvicesandwell-walsall.org/

Tel: Advice Line – 0300 3309017 or Debt Advice 0121 726 6745   or email advice@cab.walsall.org.uk / moneyadvice@cab.walsall.org.uk

• Ablewell Advice Centre, Ablewell Street, Walsall, WS1 2EQ Tel: 01922 639700
  or email: info@ablewelladvice.org.uk

Watmos Hardship Fund

Watmos has extended the hardship fund again this year. This helps Watmos residents in these challenging times, it is a one-off support payment to help contribute to essential goods or services for residents who are experiencing financial hardship.

Please speak to your Housing Officer if you wish to make an application to the fund.

How to contact us

To reach us for help you can email info@watmos.org.uk

Reaching us on the phone:

Telephone Walsall: 01922 471910

Telephone London: 0207 043 0670

Meet us

Our teams are always here to meet with you on your estate or in our head office. The best way for us to support you face to face is to make an appointment with one of our team members.

We’re here to help.