Welfare Reform Update

1. Welfare Reform Update John de la Rue East Midlands IRRV 15th August 2013

2. LAs and Welfare Reform • April 2013 • CTRS • Social Sector rent restrictions • LHA limited to CPI • Social Fund • Crisis loans (£133.3m) • Community Care Grants (£141m) And the rest ... • Increased DHP funding • Benefits Cap • Universal Credit

3. LAs and Welfare Reform • April 2013 • CTRS • Social Sector rent restrictions • LHA limited to CPI • Social Fund • Crisis loans (£133.3m) • Community Care Grants (£141m) And the rest ... • Increased DHP funding • Benefits Cap • Universal Credit

4. CTRS Yr1

5. CTRS Yr1 and beyond Approach to Yr1 • 82% (of 326 LAs) reduced entitlement • 18% made no change • 72% introduced a minimum payment • 46% went for DCLG 8.5% • 40% opted for 10 to 20% cut • Remainder are at 20% + • 34% introduced a discretionary fund Questions for Yr2 • Collection rates for CTRS debt • Option to change and align with CTax • Option to leave aligned to HB • Option to align with wider Welfare Reform agenda

6. The bedroom tax • April 2013 • 14% or 25% reduction in HB • Only applies to working-age claims • Exemptions for foster carers, and parents of disabled children and armed forces personnel • Increased DHP funding available • Emerging issues • Shortage of suitable social sector housing • Increasing rent arrears • Tenant behaviour • Non-engagers • Payers-and-stayers • Movers • Increased and co-ordinated DHP activity • Pressure on Social Housing providers • Shifts in HB caseloads “Trying to define ‘significantly adapted accommodation’ for exemption purposes ... would be difficult and expensive to deliver effectively, especially within Universal Credit. It would either be too broad brush or leave out many other, equally deserving cases. We therefore recommend increasing the DHP pot ... this approach would enable local authorities to make decisions at a local level about which cases should be prioritised for financial help to meet any shortfall caused by this measure. This approach may produce inconsistencies in the way individual cases are treated across different parts of the country.” DWP Sept 2011

7. The Benefits cap • 2 tranches: • Working age • Private and public sector tenancies • Temporary homeless tenancies • DWP’s decision implemented by LAs • Limits amount of out of work benefits in payment to £350/£500. • HB reduced to apply the cap until Universal Credit is introduced • If applying the cap reduces HB to nil, leave £0.50 in payment so that a DHP may be considered. • Certain exemptions including meeting the qualifying conditions for WTC • Grace period of 39 weeks The following incomes are included: • Bereavement Allowance • Carer’s Allowance • Child Benefit • Child Tax Credit • ESA (except support Comp) • Guardians Allowance • Housing Benefit • Incapacity Benefit • Income Support • Jobseekers Allowance • Maternity Allowance • Severe Disablement Allowance • Widowed Mother’s Allowance • Widowed Parent’s Allowance • Widows Pension

8. LGA ~ The Local Impacts of Welfare Reform (Aug 2013) • Households on benefit will be £31 pw worse off (£1 in £7 of household income) • Reasonably even spread across LAs (except London) • Likely to have the largest impact on areas with high levels of Benefits dependence • NE, Lancashire, Central NW, Birmingham, the Black Country, parts of London and coastal towns • 59% of cuts fall on working households • Impact can be mitigated by moving or finding work (but this is dependent on jobs and houses) • 1.71 million households will be affected by HB cuts • 1.18 million of these will be ones where no-one works • Highest impact in London and coastal towns • 31.5% of households in Blackpool • Relatively few are looking for or finding work • Estimated that 155,000 may find work • Estimated that 115,000 may move home • 270,000 may therefore mitigate the impact of cuts • Heavily dependent on local jobs and housing market

9. LGA ~ impact of HB reforms

10. DWP Nov 2010

11. Local Support Services Framework (Feb 2013) • Building on existing support • Tailored and specialist support • Home visits • Verification • Identifying cases for payment direct • Tackling homelessness • Urgent support • Support for new features of UC • Triage and reorientation • Online assistance • Money advice • Alternative payment arrangements • Work related support • Mental health issues • Learning difficulties • Drug or alcohol addiction • Homelessness • English language limitations • Literacy difficulties • Prisoners and detainees • 16 and 17 year olds • Non EEA including refugees • Physical disabilities • Working abroad • Domestic violence victims • Sensory disabilities • Severely indebted • Over 18 care leavers • Gabling addiction • MAPPA claimants • Numeracy difficulties • Troubled Families programme • Rural isolation

12. The UC claimant journey and local support (Feb 2013)

13. Universal Credit (Aug 2013) • October 2013 • UC on track for 2017 • 6 additional JCPs to take new UC claims from single unemployed claimants • 10 in-work conditionality pilots • Improved access to digital services • Funding will be maintained to manage the full administration of HB in 2014 and 2015 • Local Support Services Framework • “continue to develop certain items where production is underway” • Test aspects within the pathfinder and new UC areas • Develop new opportunities over the next 18 months • Another version in October 2013 and fully updated in October 2014

14. DWP Nov 2010

15. Welfare Reform & customers

16. Welfare Reform & LAs

17. Questions