Smarter and kinder arrears management
The UK’s social housing sector is at a tipping point. Arrears are rising, residents’ trust is fraying and housing providers themselves are under immense pressure to deliver financial stability and social support.
The rising complexity of tenants’ circumstances, ranging from fluctuating incomes to cost-of-living pressures, means that income teams face challenges far beyond simple rent collections.
As such, traditional enforcement-led strategies, which rely heavily on chasing arrears and applying penalties, are becoming increasingly ineffective.
Rather than resolving the underlying problems, these approaches often exacerbate financial hardship, strain tenant relationships and place unsustainable demands on already-overstretched income teams. This creates a cycle where arrears persist, residents’ dissatisfaction grows and the potential for proactive, supportive engagement is missed.
In this context, AI-powered income management is emerging as a transformative solution, offering social housing a smarter and fairer way forward.
Rising arrears & declining satisfaction
According to the English Housing Survey 2023-2024, 15 per cent of social renters reported being in arrears at some point within those 12 months. This trend was particularly concerning for younger tenants, with 25 per cent of those aged 25-34 reporting arrears, compared with just three per cent of those aged 75 or above.
These trends were further reflected in our own Access PaySuite Rental Arrears Index 2024, which showed that the average proportion of social housing units in arrears per local authority had risen from 35 per cent in 2019 to 41 per cent in 2024. Meanwhile, over the same five-year period, the average value of outstanding rent per local authority rose from £1.8 million to over £3.1 million.
This data highlights not only the scale of financial risk but also the human cost, with tenants increasingly struggling to balance their housing payments with everyday expenses, intensifying pressure on both residents and income teams.
Furthermore, the Local Government Association’s poll on residents’ satisfaction highlighted a significant decline. According to the poll, only 57 per cent of residents were satisfied with their local council, a decrease from 62 per cent in the LGA’s previous poll. Among other things, this decline reflects broader concerns about the quality and responsiveness of LGA councils’ services, including housing.
Combined, these statistics paint a concerning picture for social housing. Rising arrears and declining satisfaction aren’t isolated problems but interconnected challenges that demand a comprehensive and empathetic response.
AI-powered, proactive and resident-centric
In response to these challenges, AI-powered income management offers a paradigm shift.
Leveraging real-time data and advanced analytics, housing providers can identify early warning signs of financial distress before delivering timely and tailored interventions. This data-led, proactive approach moves beyond traditional enforcement, instead focusing on understanding and addressing the underlying causes of arrears.
For example, AI has the rapid processing power to identify and highlight the subtle changes in payment behaviour, such as missed partial payments or late patterns, long before arrears become critical. This foresight enables income teams to intervene early, offering a tailored support that meets tenants where they are.
This proactive, personalised engagement benefits everyone. Tenants receive timely support that respects and reduces the stress of their situation, fostering trust and ultimately strengthening landlord-resident relationships. Whether it’s a flexible payment plan, targeted financial guidance or signposting tenants to external support services, interventions can be designed around individual circumstances, not a one-size-fits-all enforcement script.
On the other hand, income teams are freed from the repetitive task of chasing late payments, allowing them to focus more on complex cases where human empathy and nuanced judgement matter most.
The result is a more resilient, responsive system that balances financial performance with social purpose.
Access PaySuite’s Income Management Evo software exemplifies this approach. Combining AI-driven insights with digital engagement tools, Income Management Evo helps housing providers to prioritise their cases based on risk, automate routine communications and track outcomes in real time.
AI can’t predict the future but it can provide income teams with actionable intelligence, highlighting where early interventions might have the greatest impact. This allows housing providers to act decisively and support tenants before their financial difficulties escalate.
The impact of AI-driven insights goes beyond individual interventions. Over time, these tools enable housing providers to understand broader trends across their resident population, such as identifying patterns in arrears linked to seasonal income fluctuations, benefit delays or wider economic pressures.
This aggregated understanding allows housing providers to refine their policies, design more effective support programmes and allocate resources to where they will have the greatest impact.
Crucially, AI has the potential to foster more collaborative dialogue between tenants and housing teams. By providing clear, accessible insights into payment plans and options, residents can engage proactively with their finances rather than feeling ambushed by enforcement actions.
This transparency and clarity helps shift the relationship from one of compliance to partnership.
Balancing financial performance with social purpose
AI-driven income management doesn’t just improve arrears performance, it reshapes the purpose of income teams. By shifting the focus from punitive enforcement to proactive support, housing providers can work towards stronger financial outcomes while maintaining their social mission.
AI enables housing providers to respond to the growing diversity of tenants’ circumstances. Whether supporting tenants facing fluctuating incomes, families affected by benefit delays or elderly residents on fixed incomes, technology allows interventions to be tailored, timely and fair.
The result isn’t just more effective arrears management, but also stronger trust, better engagement and a sense of shared responsibility between a housing provider and its tenants.
Ultimately, AI for rent is not just about technology adoption for the sake of keeping up-to-date; it’s about relationships, empowering tenants and equipping housing teams to deliver more effective, compassionate outcomes for communities across the UK.
Jamie Symons is the head of product and engineering at Access PaySuite, part of the Access Group.
