THE vast majority of Clacks Council tenants on Universal Credit are unable to pay their rent on time, according to official papers.

A staggering 85 per cent of council tenants who are in receipt of the controversial welfare benefit are in arrears, with the local authority owed more than £550,000.

Council reports also suggest that households could be two months behind on rent, even if they are able to negotiate all of the DWP requirements.

The figures will be discussed at a full meeting of elected members at Kilncraigs tomorrow (Thursday, June 27).

Overall, council tenants' rent arrears decreased by more than 13 per cent, when compared to last year, but the impact of Universal Credit (UC) remains a huge concern as more people are moved to the benefit.

The report added: "It should also be noted that there are still some issues around the roll out of UC within Clackmannanshire.

"At this point last year there were 697 tenants on UC, this has now increased to 1,043 with 85 per cent of these in arrears, totalling £550,028.

"As more claimants go onto UC it is having an adverse effect on the overall arrears figure."

And the documents revealed: "Despite having the Scottish flexibilities, we still see accounts where claimants have done everything required of them [and still] end up being in 6-8 weeks of arrears before any payments are made direct to us from DWP."

Officers penning the report went on to say that his will continue to be an issue as more and more claimants are migrated to the new system.

The council papers added: "There are also inconsistencies with some accounts having received payments quite quickly which puts tenants in lower arrears than others."

Altogether, the council is currently owed £773,936 in rent, with £550,028 of that total attributed to 884 UC claimants in the area.

While the proportion of UC claimants in arrears is high, it has actually decreased over the past few years.

In 2016-17, there were 117 fewer people in that situation – representing 92 per cent of all claimants who were council tenants.

However, council papers added: "In addition, there was also a 50 per cent increase from the previous year in UC accounts at the final notice stage.

"We are reviewing processes around this specific element... The DWP has now created a dedicated third-party deduction team to deal with the UC caseload and has now allowed local authorities to make multiple applications at once and return information back within six weeks."