In March 2020, kelly stephens said:
I love Walsave, they've been there to help when it's been difficult for me elsewhere, I'm saving regularly, and it's comforting to know they're there if I need them.<br>However, there is one thing that does greatly concern me, and I feel it should be addressed with Landlords, letting agents and the housing benefit department. I wasn't given a choice by my letting agent, weather to have my housing benefit through Walsave. Now, as far as I'm concerned my housing benefit is not my money, it goes from HB to K2, it is for my rent, to keep a roof over my family's heads. I have absolutely no access to these funds and don't wish to either. It is not paid to me, and is not part of my cash budget! As, happens to us all from time to time, I have run into unexpected financial issues on occasion which has prevented me from being able to make a full monthly repayment to Walsave, or I've had to pay it late. As a result, my housing benefit gets locked down because it's paid through my Walsave, causing knock on issues with my letting agent. When I apply for a Walsave loan, I NEVER include my HB as income as I never actually have that money in my hand or in an accessible account, and I feel that it's unfair, and actually quite risky, locking people's rent money down! Potentially, this action, for someone in long term financial difficulty, could cause an eviction, just adding to an already terrible situation. Obviously I understand that as a credit union, you need to work for all your members and if someone's not paying that needs to be addressed, but isn't that why our savings are locked down whilst repaying loans? I genuinely struggle to see the logic in locking down a benefit, which is NEVER meant to be "money to spend". The HB is not my money, it's the council's and then my landlords, I have absolutely nothing to do with that money, it doesn't belong to me and I really really struggle to see how Walsave can justify putting people's homes at risk over generally relatively small debts. There is not one single other loan provider who would lock down someone's housing benefit if the customer failed to pay. In fact I'm pretty sure it would be considered an unethical practice.<br>As I say, I cannot fault the staff, I think Walsave is an excellent facility and I genuinely appreciate how lucky I am to be able to access your service, but I cannot shake my deep concern about the ethics of this particular practice and I would be interested to know what the Housing Benefit service feel about this also. We hear in the media, a lot about people not using HB appropriately, and spending the money elsewhere, but I feel that by locking down people's rent, you're actively forcing that situation as you're preventing the funds from getting to where they're meant to be! Housing benefit should not be considered as part of someone's cash budget, that money does not belong to the individual claiming it. It is there to pay for accommodation and nothing else, and yet, Walsave appears to ignore and dismiss this fact, and are taking it upon themselves to decide what these funds should be allocated for, something I feel is quite an aggressive and I extreme action.<br>Also, can you answer the phones please, I've been trying all day 😅👍 x
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