§ 38. Mr. Bostonasked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance if she 1676 is aware that some landlords and their agents, in sending notices of rent increases to tenants, advise them to apply to the National Assistance Board for a grant to cover the increase or the whole rent, and that because of this advice, some tenants are being persuaded to pay increases which might not be payable if referred to a rent officer or rent assessment committee under the Rent Act 1965; and whether she will seek discussions with the National Assistance Board to deal with this practice by landlords and their agents.
§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance (Mr. Norman Pentland)The Board is naturally concerned that National Assistance recipients should not be persuaded to pay rent increases which are not properly payable under the Rent Act, 1965. They are instructing their officers to advise recipients on the action they should take in such circumstances.
§ Mr. BostonWill my hon. Friend accept that his Answer is warmly welcomed? One suspects that the aim of the notices, being sent round mainly to elderly people, is more to try to obtain rent increases which may be unjustified than to try to help persons obtaining National Assistance grants.
§ Mr. PentlandThe position concerning the Rent Act, 1965, is that the National Assistance Board's local officers will advise a National Assistance recipient of the action he should take if his rent is increased and the larger rent demanded by the landlord has not been determined by the local rent officer. The Board's officers are being given guidance about circumstances in which recipients should be advised to apply to the rent officer for a fair rent to be determined.