safeguarding against the negative impacts of welfare reform pdfs/presentations/wrlondon/sarah...
TRANSCRIPT
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
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.