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Croydon Welfare Right Team
Free confidential advice
Providing a comprehensive service
What we will cover
• Welfare Rights Team introduction
• demographics on Croydon
• the structure of USDL in Croydon and some of the
partners (and what they provide)
• how much DWP funding and how it has been spent
• stats from June 2015 to date across the borough of
digital UC claims (any emerging trends)
• how we have provided budgeting and employment
support to UC claimants specifically and those
affected by welfare reform
Croydon Welfare Rights Team has been providing
a comprehensive service to residents and
employees of Croydon for 19 years.
We provide a free confidential welfare rights
service to all Croydon council employees and to
Croydon residents.
We provide a full casework service
Clients may drop in or book appointments to see us
or we can arrange home visits for those who are less
mobile.
Services we provide
• Benefits advice Quarterly newsletter
• Form completion Referrals
• Presentations Case work/follow up
• Telephone advice Take up campaigns
• Tribunal/appeal representation Debt/money advice
Croydon Demographics
Croydon Demographics
Croydon is the most populated borough in London
• 365,000 population
• 160,000 households
• 44,000 HB claimants
Croydon Benefit statistics to August 2015
Croydon Croydon London Great Britain
(numbers) (%) (%) (%)
Total claimants 28,410 11.6 10.7 12
Job seekers 4,740 1.9 1.8 1.6
ESA and incapacity benefits 13,130 5.4 5.3 6.3
Lone parents 3,670 1.5 1.1 1.1
Carers 3,100 1.3 1.2 1.6
Others on income related
benefits680 0.3 0.2 0.3
Disabled 2,670 1.1 0.8 1
Bereaved 420 0.2 0.1 0.2
Main out-of-work benefits† 22,220 9.1 8.5 9.2
Working-age client group - main benefit claimants (August 2015)
By statistical group
Source: DWP benefit claimants - working age client group
Universal Credit roll–out in Croydon
As part of the national rollout of Universal Credit,
Croydon council was selected to commence the
phased rollout of digital implementation from June
2015. It is only the second authority nationally to
commence the digital rollout, London borough of
Sutton being the first. It is still only one of four live
digital sites nationally.
Universal credit roll-out
There are 2 types of UC rollout; live and digital
• Live; single people and couples without
dependants who would have claimed Job
Seekers Allowance. Residents in temporary
accommodation housed by councils are exempt
• Digital; all customer groups, all benefits, all
tenancy types.
Universal credit preparation
In preparation for digital rollout of UC, the council
engaged with residents and landlords to
communicate the changes and what they mean in
practice.
Engagement sessions were held in May 2015 and
all the council’s housing tenants were written to.
Social landlords, care providers and other third
sector organisations???
Universal Support delivered locally (usdl)
• Anticipating that some of our residents would
need support through the migration process, the
council developed a triage process and referral
criteria in partnership with Croydon’s Job Centre
Plus (JCP) to identify residents at highest risk of
crisis. Personal budgeting support (PBS) is then
provided
USDL
As UC is claimed from the DWP, the engagement
process for residents begins at their local JCP.
Work coaches at JCP work with residents to
determine those with medium and high support
needs, who give their consent, and refer to the
council’s Enablement and Welfare service. The
criteria for support is:
USDL
Medium support need High support need
Section 21 has been served by
the resident’s landlord for rent
arrears
Resident is at imminent risk of
eviction; a bailiff warrant has
been served
Resident has a high level of
rent arrears
Residents of the council’s
emergency or temporary
accommodation
Resident is a care leaver Resident has support issues;
mental health/vulnerability
USDL and the enablement and welfare
service
The Enablement and Welfare service is part of the
Gateway and Welfare directorate and its ‘whole
family’ approach is used to provide a holistic
tailored support package that joins up all support
needs and co-ordinates this with any support being
provided by the council’s adult’s and children’s
social care service. This can include:
USDL – enablement and welfare service
• Budgeting support
• Debt advice
• Income maximisation
• Support making payment arrangement for debts
to the council
• Support in finding suitable, affordable homes
• Homelessness prevention
• Referrals to food banks
USDL enablement and welfare service
The enablement and welfare service has a team
dedicated to providing support to residents through
a holistic package of services including officers
from:
• SNAP support needs assessment placement
• JCP
• Welfare rights and debt service
• Croydon Gateway Benefits and Revenues
• Early help services
Universal Credit support
Since June 2015, 2 FTEs have provided personal
budgeting support (PBS). Long term, this will be part of
support provided by any service; income officers, troubled
family and early help workers, key and support workers
Low Medium High
General budgeting advice
Section 21 served Eviction risk; bailiff warrant served
Support through transition
High level of rent arrears
Temporary accommodation
Care leavers Support issues; mental health/vulnerability
As at 19th February 2016:
• 2132 claims have been made for UC
• 733 awards have been made
• 463 residents with UC awarded have housing
costs
• 183 referrals have been made to the council
for personal budgeting support
• 44 residents had high support needs
• 139 residents had medium support needs
outcomes delivered for those residents
referred for support are:
Outcomes delivered Number of
residents
Debt advice and/or budgeting
support
94
Income maximisation 39
Arrangements made on debts to
the council
24
Affordable homes found 11
Evictions prevented 19
Referrals to food banks 34
Outcomes so far - As at 06 March 2016
• 2104 claims have been made for UC
• 1079 awards have been made
• 654 residents with UC awarded have housing costs
• 291 referrals to Croydon for personal support
69 high support needs
222 medium support needs
Customers referred for support
Support referrals June to November 2015 Number of
customers
Debt advice and/or budgeting support 108
Income Maximisation 41
Arrangements on internal Debts Made 28
Homes found 12
Evictions Prevented 23
Food Bank referrals 40
Personal Budgeting and Support
Referrals
Type of referral Number
High 69
Medium 222
Total referrals as at 26th April 2016: 291
Month on month trend
UC Numbers - referrals Jan Feb Mar
Forecast Total High/Med p/mth 19 35 62
Forecast High 5 9 16
Forecast Medium 14 27 47
Forecast Low 107 162 285
Actual Total referrals p/mth 42 52 73
Actual High 10 10 15
Actual Medium 32 42 58
Actual Low84 146 275
PBS stats up to 31/03/16
291 referrals
Lone parents 43%
Families 3%
Single 33%
Couple 21%
DHP Spend up to 31/03/16 (2015/16 fund)
£51,900 on UC PBS referrals
Outcomes of the Personal Budgeting
Support
Outcomes Number of customers
Debt Advice 35
Income Maximisation 44
Arrangements on internal
debts made
33
Homes Found 14
Evictions Prevented 26
Food Bank Referrals 43
Budget Planners 99
CDS/DHP spend
We have helped 41 customers with discretionary funds via Personal
Budgeting support .
Reason Amount
DHP £25,981
CDS £15.163
HRA Fund £10,756
Total £51,900
RISKS AND MITIGATIONS
RISKS AND MITIGATIONS
Residents of the council’s temporary
accommodation have previously claimed housing
benefit from the council for their housing costs and
this has been paid direct to their housing rent
account, 2 weeks in advance. With the introduction
of UC, this ceases and housing costs are claimed
from DWP with payment being made to the
resident, 4 weeks in arrears.
Risks and mitigations
• Residents claiming UC must have a rental liability on the
5th week of their claim. Due to the transient nature of this
customer group, residents may have been moved to
more suitable accommodation before the 5th week.
• This is most likely to affect our residents in need of
supported housing who may be placed in temporary
accommodation until supported housing is available. As
supported housing is exempt from UC, the 5 weeks
housing costs in temporary accommodation is then lost.
• This has affected 35% of residents to date with an
average loss of £155 per week.
Risks and mitigations
• Previously Single customers under 35 in temp
accommodation and living in shared/or 1 bed
accommodation were awarded 90% of the 1
bedroom LHA rate. Under UC they will only
receive 90% of the shared bedroom rate
• This is a difference of £73 per week and the
forecasted impact for 2016/17 is a loss of £329k
Risks
The table below reflects the current assumptions on the
financial impacts. The below are a full year affect:Impact Annual
financial loss
Increased rent arrears for temporary accommodation residents
£1m
Assumption that 35% of temporary accommodation residents fail to claim UC due to moving after 4 weeks, at an average loss of £155 per week
£174k
Change in LHA rate for temporary accommodation residents under 35 years old
£354k
Loss of management fee of £40 per week for temporary accommodation residents
£1.2m
Loss of housing benefit overpayment income £2.4m
Additional requests of Croydon’s discretionary scheme and Discretionary housing payment
£750k
Total annual financial loss £5.98m
Mitigations
The PBS referral process is reliant on residents declaring
their support needs through engagement with their JCP
work coach.
Only 7% of residents placed in temporary accommodation
that have claimed UC had been referred.
• Proactively engage with all temporary accommodation
residents to encourage them to request referrals
• Lobby for the automatic referral of this customer group
Operational impacts
• Notification of changes in entitlement to DWP
legacy benefits has been automated for
reassessment of entitlement to council tax
support (CTS), administered by the council. This
automation is not in place for notification of
changes in entitlement to UC. This leads to
overpayment of CTS and manual processing of
changes.
Operational Impacts
• The council is currently notified when a customer
is to be impacted by the benefit cap. Once the
customer is in receipt of Universal Credit, there is
no mechanism to notify the council removing the
ability to proactively identify this customer group.
• ?????
Resources
• It is forecast that by March 2017, 11,280
households that would previously have claimed
Housing Benefit from the council will have
claimed Universal Credit.
• Due to the requirement for the council to
continue assessing entitlement to CTS, this
equates to a loss of 25 hours per week in
processing time.
Resources
• Based on referrals received during the first 6
months of the rollout, the forecast number of
referrals for personal budgeting support during
2016/17 is 1,993.
• Based on the time spent on each referral to
support residents in achieving a successful
outcome, by June 2016 it was forecast that 9 ftes
would be needed to provide this support.
Resources - how much DWP funding and
how it has been spent
• The council will receive funding from DWP in
2016/17 totalling £131k. This would only fund
3ftes. If the council chose to fund the additional 6
posts, this would be at a cost of £230k.
Characteristic of the Awards of Universal
Credit made
612 Customers Had housing costs
419 Customers Have children
65 Customers Are not fit to work
422 Customers Have earning
50 Customers Are carers
Volume of households forecast to claim
Universal Credit over the next year
Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Households
claiming UC
198 348 762 822 1014 954 900 1050 840 882 666 792 696 750
TRENDS – GOING FORWARD
• Numbers are still lower than expected going borough wide.
• We only went extended roll-out with Purley &
Thornton Heath wards in April, so the numbers will increase.
• In terms of personal contact with customers, which group or type of person typically requires
more support and hand holding?
• There isn’t a specific group as most of the problems are pre UC.
Freephone Hotline
0800 731 5920
Freephone Hotline
0800 731 5920
Monday: 2 – 7pm
Tuesday: 3 – 4.30pm
Wednesday: 11 – 2pm
Friday: 9 – 12noon
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