Insight
Over the course of the Covid 19 pandemic the Welsh Government introduced a series of new grants and allowances to support households struggling with its economic impact. One of these grants was the Tenancy Saver Loan Scheme. The scheme, as originally designed provided tenants living in the private rental sector that did not receive any benefits with a loan to cover any rent arrears that they had built up over the pandemic.
The Bevan Foundation highlighted two major concerns with the scheme:
- Providing tenants with a loan rather than a grant reduced trapping families in debt.
- There was no support available to social housing tenants that did not receive any benefits.
Idea
The Bevan Foundation called on the Welsh Government to address its two concerns. First it called on the Welsh Government to change the scheme from a loan based scheme to a grant. Second it called on the scheme to be expanded to ensure that social renters were also entitled to support.
Impact
In June 2021 the Welsh Government announced that the Tenancy Saver Loan Scheme was being replaced by the Tenancy Hardship Grant. This means that renters are now provided with a grant rather than a loan.
In November 2021 the Senedd Equality and Social Justice committee echoed the Bevan Foundation’s calls for the Tenancy Hardship Grant to be extended to social housing tenants who are not entitled to benefits. The Welsh Government have accepted these arguments and have now extended the scheme to cover both private and social renters.
