A total of 3,454 people on Universal Credit (UC) in North Tyneside are in rent arrears with more people seeing financial help, a new welfare report has revealed.
Rent arrears have increased across all council tenants, however those on UC have the highest average with £805, almost £400 more than other tenants not claiming.
The council attributes the pandemic as a major cause for financial hardship among tenants. The report claims 1,428 council tenants said Covid-19 adversely affected their ability to manage financially at least once, and nearly a tenth (9.8%) or tenants claimed Covid-19 caused them to struggle on more than one occasion.
