Safeguarding against the negative

impacts of welfare reform

Sarah Lawton Private Sector & Prevention Manger

Welfare Reform Act Central Governments principles of the Welfare Benefit reform

Housing benefit seen as ‘overly’ generous Creating a fairer system for low-income working families To ensure people on benefits are not living in accommodation that would be out of the reach of most people in work Will achieve savings of around £1 billion by 2015/16

Assessing the impacts of welfare reforms

Established a central database of all affected households in

the borough

Established the individual financial impact for each

affected household

Cross checked data with Adults & Children’s

Services data to identify vulnerable

households and ‘Troubled Families’

What are the concerns? Welfare Reforms will lead to increased poverty- especially child, fuel

and food poverty

The ‘layering’ effect of changes has not been fully assessed whereby

individuals and families are affected by more than one change which

has an accumulative negative impact

Individuals will find it difficult to budget on a monthly basis

as will be necessary with Universal Credit and that the

transition period will be particularly challenging

What are the concerns? continued There will be greater temptation for individuals and families to use loan sharks or payday loans, which will lead to more debt. Individuals and families may need to move away from their home area to find affordable housing and or work and this will lead to isolation and consequential health problems. Rising debts and poverty will increase stress and mental health problems such as depression.

Deprivation and poor health Despite relative its affluence Kingston has pockets of deprivation

More disadvantaged groups tend to suffer poorer health

Kingston’s food bank has reported a sharp rise in numbers needing

emergency food aid

Now distributing up to 1.7 tonnes of food a month

Welfare Benefit changes & the economic downturn the link to stress and ill health • Some families will be under increased stress • Stress affects general wellbeing and health in a number of ways

We need to ask how can we help and mitigate any negative impacts, particularly for those most at risk, and encourage healthier lifestyle choices

Project & Partnership approach

‘One Kingston’ Welfare Reform Project – strategic approach

Housing Welfare Reform Project and Contact Programme

Cross agency co-ordinated approach to addressing Welfare Benefit

Reforms & Localisation changes to Social Fund

Crisis and Community Care solutions (Kingston’s approach to Localisation of Social Fund)

DWP solution was more generous and cash based Key message to Kingston claimants – no cash, less generous and need a commitment from claimant to make future provision for themselves

Kingston’s solution – to work with partner organisations/voluntary sector

Kingston Foodbank

Kingston Community Furniture

Surrey Save Credit Union

Managing personal budget training courses

Surrey Save Credit Union provide Jam Jar

accounts to help customers manage money

Welfare Reform Team - Contact Programme April-May 2013 collating all data May/June data sorted and prioritized for contact May-Oct 2013 contact programme delivered:

Phone Email Text Home visits/office based meetings Casework

Monitoring outcomes & take-up of options Preparing for introduction of Universal Credit

The Contact Programme

Series of letters

Information packs

Targeted phone calls

Targeted events

Partnership approach to finding solutions inc. cross agency case conferences

JCP co-located worker to help into work

The Contact Programme continued

Joint work with Housing Benefit to profile use of DHP and

introduction of ‘Action Plans’

Introduction of ‘Stay & Pay’ Agreement for bedroom tax cases

New Welfare Reform Moves Scheme established

Local help for local people Joint work with CAB Running Financial Capability sessions in partnership with the

Equality and Community Engagement Team –‘ Manage your Money

– don’t let your Money Manage You’ – basic information about

budgeting, interest rates, bank accounts etc to help people avoid

debt.

Local help for local people Joint work with CAB Running the illegal Money Lending Team week of action in March

which gave information on how to avoid loan sharks and how to deal

with them

Local help for local people Joint work with CAB Running awareness campaigns, mainly through Twitter, about

payday loans and the problems associated with them.

CAB survey evidence in 2012 from similar training Positive results amongst tenants: 78% changed how they managed their money – on average £10pw better off as a result 20% changed their saving behaviour in some way – on average saving an extra £11pw 13% either opened or switched bank account or opened a credit union account

The Bedroom Tax (Social Sector Size Criteria/Spare room subsidy) Working age tenants of Housing Association Property and Council

Housing who have spare bedrooms

Government - tenants should not be subsidised to live in a property

that is bigger than they need

Aim to release bigger properties for rent

77% of people on DLA live in the social housing sector and two

thirds of the people affected by the bedroom tax are disabled

Bedroom Tax and Benefit Cap Initial analysis of data of those affected by the ‘Bedroom Tax’ and those

expected to be Benefit Cap affected has been undertaken.

These numbers are changing frequently as people’s circumstances

change but @ 5 July 2013 it is estimated there were:

691 households affected in total

Of these

298 (43%) of households have children aged under 16

122 households are known to Adult Social Care, Children’s Social Care

or Troubled Families

Kingston go live on Cap from 15th July for 5 weeks

Up to £50 per week

£51-£100 per week

£101-£250 per week

£251-£400 per week

Over £400 per week

96 households

54 households

50 households

17 households

5 households

Households affected are distributed throughout the borough. The top four most affected are: 97 households in Norbiton 54 in Chessington North & Hook 53 in Chessington South 50 in Beverley

cases selected at random

Personal Independence Payments (PIP)

Replaces Disability Living Allowance

Implemented over the next 3 years

Over 3000 Kingston residents are on DLA

DWP estimate that nationally 560,000 claimants will be reassessed and

of those 60% will either get a reduced or no award.

Appeal process - concerns

Further Developments & Funding Issues

Foodbank are developing menu planning to help households eat

healthily on a budget.

Information being gathered on impacts and outcomes

Funding remains a concern - there’s very little or no additional funding

to address these issues

Legal Aid has been withdrawn - CAB have lost 24% of their funding on

social welfare issues at a time when its anticipated demand in this area

will increase significantly

Local Authorities face significant budget cuts

Need to be creative and work together

A healthy approach

Most importantly - People know when & where to ask

for financial advice to help address problems before

they become serious

What difference will it make?

The intention of these different initiatives is to make

sure that people know of their rights and

responsibilities and that they can avoid getting into

difficulties. If they already have a problem we can

help them to resolve it.

The impact of this work is that stress and illness is

reduced and alleviated or avoided.

Thank you

Any questions