Agenda item

To receive an update on the three schemes that were implemented or revised as a consequence of on-going welfare reform.

The Sub-committee considered the update report on the three schemes that were implemented or revised in April 2013 as a consequence of on-gong welfare reform.

Also provided was an update on the Full Services Universal Credit that was implemented in North Tyneside on 2 May 2018.

Discretionary Housing Payment Fund – (DHP)

The Discretionary Housing Payment Fund provided by the Department of Work and Pensions supports people in financial need who have a shortfall in their rent and housing benefit (or Universal Credit including the housing element). 

There was continued work with the Citizens Advice and refer claimants for budgeting nad debt advice which was working well and customers are engaging with support offered at the onset of a claim. If issues are dealt with at any earlier stage the need for DHP support may diminish as their financial circumstances improve.

Working with tenancy sustainment officers, housing advice team, other housing providers and the Community and Voluntary Sector, ensures those in most need are identified quickly and helped to claim as soon as possible.

The DHP policy is reviewed on an annual basis to ensure payments were directed to those in most need.

In 2018/19 there was £529, 964 allocated and the whole grant was spent.

Of the claims received816 claimants received support (74%), with 290 claimants made an unsuccessful claim (26%).

In the financial year 2019/20 £449,390 had been allocated, which was around £80,000 less than we received for the financial year 2018/19.

The reduction of £80,000 means funding will have to be limited to shorter periods of time or less amounts paid to individuals and to date the remaining unallocated was £169,263.

Local Council Tax Support Scheme

The number of claimants to the scheme had continued to reduce and at the end of June 2019 the number of claimants to the scheme was 17,523 split between 9,481 working age and 8,042 pensionable age claimants.

As at end of June 2019 the amount of Council Tax Support awarded since 1 April 2019 was £14,582,442 and due to changes to support the in year collection has been more challenging, however, it was expected that the collection rate to be unaffected at 98.5%.  The Committee was assured that residents who had difficulty in paying, were supported through flexible payment arrangements and access to debt advice and budget management where required.

Funding for Citizens Advice continued to provide outreach sessions to ensure residents had easy access to advice on debt and benefit entitlements.

Local Welfare Provision

For the period 1st April 2019 to 30^th June 2019, there were 439 applications for Local Welfare Support, with all applications received a full screening.

There had been 214 crisis applications eligible for further practical support (49%). This included applicants receiving food, utility support, baby items or baby food, essential household items, or clothing.

Spend for the period in respect of immediate practical support amounted to £2,311, this was in addition to the annual grant to the Food Bank of £26,500. 

Universal Credit

There were 8,153 claimants on UC and of these 3,992 were required to look for work.

Since April 2019 Citizens Advice have been contracted direct by the Department for Work and Pensions to deliver the Help to Claim Service.

The Help to Claim Service replaced the previous support for UC claimants under the Assisted Digital Support which was managed by the Education to Employment team and Personal Budgeting Support managed by Citizens Advice. Although both of these offers had been successful and the DWP took the approach to contract this support to Citizens Advice.

Since Full Service UC was rolled out in North Tyneside there had been a reduction of 3,734 in the number of working age residents claiming Housing Benefit, representing a 34% reduction in working age caseload.

The impact of Full Service UC continued to have an effect on Housing who have 2,527 tenants on Universal Credit as at 15^th July 2019, which 1,912 (75.66%) of these were in arrears. It was noted however that 71.27% of those on Universal Credit were already in arrears when they moved onto UC.  The average arrears for those on UC was £778.90 compared to an average arrears of £427.84 for all tenants. 

AGREED that the Welfare Reform – Financial update be noted