The exercise of judicial discretion in rent arrears cases - Sheffield ...

District judges’ knowledge. Some of the district judges interviewed displayed a detailed
knowledge of the housing benefit system, and were able to comment on difficulties caused
by aspects such as the requirement for annual re-applications, and by both the possibility of
backdating claims and by the restrictions on backdating benefit. None of the interviewees
said that housing benefit calculations had been covered in training, but many were very
conscious that some particular categories of claims were not straightforward. For example,
DJ O was among the district judges who were well aware that claiming housing benefit was:
“particularly difficult if the tenant is low paid, in and out of casual work, working for their
brother-in-law, no wage slips, you know.”
A number of district judges had had personal experience, through assisting elderly relatives
or in one case the judge’s own tenant, of completing housing benefit forms. They had all
found the process complicated. Even without this personal experience, most of the judges
interviewed were well aware of how difficult the process of claiming could be. DJ D
expressed the view that “anybody on housing benefit has my sympathy, not because of their
predicament, but because of the bureaucracy they have to deal with.” Another was
concerned about the difficulties faced by any claimant “who’s not terribly bright or doesn’t
speak much English” (DJ J).
This empathetic approach may help to explain why the mention of housing benefit problems
so frequently leads to cases being adjourned.
Contradictory evidence. The frequent delays in processing claims, the complex nature of
housing benefit, and the potential for error, mean that the district judge is often faced with
deciding between two versions about why a claim had not yet been processed: “is it because
housing benefit are being inefficient, or is it because the tenant hasn’t co-operated, or is it a
mixture of the two?”, in the words of DJ O. A few district judges said that when this situation
arose they made an assessment of whether “the tenant is telling the truth so far as you can
judge”, using “experience and gut feeling about knowing what to do, what questions to ask”.
Some were inclined to see housing benefit delays as a ‘fact of life’ and did not attribute
blame to either party:
“Just the local authority being very slow, and often tenants not doing what they
should do.” (DJ Q);
“Housing benefit sitting on an application for three or four weeks before they return it
because somebody’s forgotten to sign page three, or whatever it may be.” (DJ W)
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