Rent-flex - a scalable digital service for the UK social housing sector to engage tenants impacted by Covid-19 by personalising their rent schedules to improve their ability to cope with income and expenditure shocks.

rent -flex是一种服务产品，它为社会住房租户提供机会，为未来一年制定个性化的租金支付时间表，并与房东达成一致。租客可以在预算压力最大的时候少付房租，在其他相对轻松的月份多付房租，利用租金弹性来平滑现金流，避免在资金特别紧张的时候（比如圣诞节或学校漫长的暑假期间）申请贷款。没有利息，也没有向租户收取任何其他费用，居民可以根据自己的情况随时调整。之前的一项非数字化试点表明，弹性租金计划成功地吸引了租户，为他们提供财务和预算支持，以帮助他们应对当前的困难，并帮助他们提前计划，以比消费信贷更具成本效益的方式顺畅现金流。这对租客和房东都有长期的积极影响，因为遇到财务问题的租客向房东提供了早期预警，房东的追债流程得到了改善。2019冠状病毒病大流行揭示了英国社会住房部门对迅速上升的房租拖欠的脆弱性，迫切需要制定更高效和有效的机制，让受影响的租户参与进来，提高他们应对收入和支出冲击的能力。社会房东也有大量长期健康状况不佳的租户，而且租户集中来自黑人和白人社区：由于大流行病，这两个群体被确定为风险更大的群体。例如，在Optivo中，25%符合租金弹性方案的租户拥有BAME身份。鉴于大量家庭受到Covid-19的负面影响，社会住房部门的传统债务追讨机制（如向境外追讨欠款）和执法行动（包括以法院为基础的收回财产的程序）可能难以持续。开发数字灵活租金解决方案以帮助受Covid-19影响的家庭，为在租户和房东之间建立长期、积极的信任关系的基础上，开发一种新的、改进的租金管理和收取方法提供了机会。一是为租户提供个性化的租金支付时间表，以换取租户对财务困难的改善参与和沟通，从而允许更早、更低成本的干预措施。该弹性租金计划由一个联盟开发，涉及：\*Well Thought Ltd（品牌和营销专业知识）\*负责任信贷中心有限公司（非营利性研究低收入社区的信贷和债务，深入了解需求和参与障碍）\*Optivo住房协会(主要的社会房东，在伦敦，东南部，砂浆工程有限公司（一家新的金融科技公司，提供最先进的数字解决方案）和HACT（一家创新机构，为英国社会住房提供面向未来的解决方案、项目和产品）。

Rent-flex is a service product which provides social housing tenants with the opportunity to develop personalised schedules of rent payments for the year ahead and agree these with their landlord.Tenants can underpay on the rent account when budget pressures are at their greatest and make overpayments in other months when things are relatively easier, using rent-flex to smooth cash-flow and avoid taking out credit at times when money is particularly tight (such as Christmas or during the long summer school holidays). There is no interest, or any other fee charged to the tenant and residents can re-flex at any time as their circumstances change.A previous non-digital pilot indicates that rent-flex is successful in both engaging tenants in order to provide them with financial and budgeting support to assist with current difficulties and helps them plan ahead and smooth cash flow in a much more cost-effective manner than consumer credit. This has long-term positive impacts for both the tenant and their landlord, whose debt collection processes improve because of the early warning provided to them by tenants experiencing financial problems.The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the vulnerability of the UK's social housing sector to rapidly rising rent arrears and there is an urgent need to develop more efficient and effective mechanisms to engage impacted tenants and improve their ability to cope with income and expenditure shocks. Social landlords also have large numbers of tenants who have long term health conditions and concentrations of tenants from BAME communities: both groups which have been identified as at greater risk because of the pandemic. For example, 25% of tenants eligible for the rent-flex scheme within Optivo have BAME identities.The traditional mechanisms for debt collection in the social housing sector, such as outbound chasing of arrears, and enforcement action including court-based processes to recover possession of properties, are likely to be unsustainable given the large numbers of households negatively impacted by Covid-19\.The development of a digital rent-flex solution to assist Covid-19 impacted households offers an opportunity to develop a new, improved, approach to rent management and collection built on a longer-term, and positive relationship of trust between tenants and their landlords. One which provides for personalised rent payment schedules to be provided to tenants in return for improved engagement and communication of financial difficulties, allowing for earlier, and less costly, interventions.The rent-flex scheme has been developed by a consortium involving:\*Well Thought Ltd (brand and marketing expertise)\*The Centre for Responsible Credit Ltd (not for profit research into credit and debt amongst low income communities yielding insights into needs and engagement barriers)\*Optivo Housing Association (a major social landlord with over 45,000 properties in London, the South East, and Midlands)\*Mortar Works Ltd (a new Fintech company providing state of the art digital solutions) and\*HACT (an innovation agency providing future oriented solutions, projects and products for UK social housing).