Social landlords have allowed tenants to disconnect from their contractual responsibility to pay rent, it has been claimed.

The comments come as the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Scotland Chair Elaine Gibson opened CIH Scotland's Annual Conference and exhibition at the SECC in Glasgow on Tuesday.

In her speech, she said that the housing benefit system has allowed landlords to rely on an assured source of income with payments being received for little effort expended.

She said: "Now we're all busy trying to persuade tenants who've never had to think about their rent to start prioritising it. How many times have you heard the dreaded words 'but I don't pay rent'?"


Ms Gibson also commented on that while the standards of customer service have improved greatly over the years, welfare reforms have brought their own unforeseen challenges.

"If you had told me back in 1980 that thirty-odd years down the line, people would be relying on food parcels to feed their families, I wouldn't have believed you. But that is the reality for many today and it's getting worse."

Ms Gibson said she understood the current debt problems more than most as she also once lost her home and fell into debt. She also had to present as homeless along with her young son – at the time, she admitted she found it even more difficult because she was working for the council's housing department.

She continued: "No scandal has been more successfully covered up than the appalling truth about what is happening to Britain's poorest people. The emphasis of the benefits system has shifted: job centre staff used to be there to help people find jobs.

"Now their role is to gatekeep benefits, finding ways to sanction Jobseeker's Allowance for the most trivial reasons – leaving many of our tenants with no money to live on for weeks on end."

CIH Scotland's Annual Conference & Exhibition is taking place at the SECC in Glasgow from 11-13 March 2014.

(JP/IT)