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.

灵活租金是一种服务产品，为社会住房租户提供机会，制定个性化的下一年租金支付时间表，并与房东达成一致。租户可以在预算压力最大时少付租金，在其他月份相对轻松时多付租金，使用弹性租金来平滑现金流，避免在资金特别紧张的时候（如圣诞节或学校长暑假期间）贷款。没有利息，或任何其他费用收取租户和居民可以反映在任何时候，因为他们的情况发生变化。以前的非数字试点表明，租金弹性是成功的，在两个参与租户，以提供他们的财务和预算支持，以协助目前的困难，并帮助他们提前计划和顺利的现金流比消费信贷更具成本效益的方式。这对房客和房东都有长期的积极影响，由于遇到财务问题的租户向他们提供了早期预警，他们的债务催收流程得到了改善。19大流行揭示了英国社会住房部门对快速上涨的租金拖欠的脆弱性，迫切需要制定更高效和有效的机制，以吸引受影响的租户并提高他们的能力，以科普收入和支出冲击。社会房东也有大量长期健康状况不佳的租户，以及来自BAME社区的租户集中：这两个群体都被确定为因大流行病而面临更大风险。例如，25%符合Optivo租金弹性计划的租户拥有BAME身份。社会住房部门的传统债务催收机制，如向外追索欠款，以及包括法院程序在内的执法行动，以收回财产所有权，鉴于大量家庭受到COVID-19的负面影响，可能无法持续。开发数字租金弹性解决方案以帮助COVID-19，受影响的19户家庭提供了一个机会，可以在租户和房东之间建立长期和积极的信任关系的基础上，制定一种新的、改进的租金管理和收取方法。其中一个方案是向租户提供个性化的租金支付时间表，以换取租户更好地参与和沟通经济困难，从而能够更早、成本更低地进行干预。弹性租金方案由一个财团制定，该财团包括：* 好思想有限公司（品牌及市场推广专业知识）\*The Centre for Responsible Credit Ltd（不以营利为目的，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（一家在伦敦、东南部和中部地区拥有超过45，000处房产的主要社会房东）\*Mortar Works Ltd（一家提供最先进数字解决方案的新金融科技公司）和\*HACT（一家为英国社会住房提供面向未来的解决方案、项目和产品的创新机构）。

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).