association of directors of adult social services

Association of Directors of Adult Social Services

18 April 2013

Welfare Reform : Managing the New Reality

John Hocking, JRHT Executive Director

History

Joseph Rowntree, Stephen Rowntree, Seebohm Rowntree, Arnold Rowntree & Oscar Rowntree (from left to right) 31 May 1923


Seebohm undertook “The Rowntree Surveys” of 1899,1936 and 1950

To investigate “the conditions which govern the life of the working classes in provincial towns, and especially the problem of poverty”


Joseph established JR Village Trust in 1904 to “alleviate the condition of the working classes by provision of improved dwellings and organisation of village communities.


Aerial Shot of New Earswick


Joseph Rowntree Foundation Website


Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust Website


Our Joint Work Programme

Poverty, Place, An Ageing Society


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Our Work Programmes and Aims

Our aim:To identify the root causes of poverty and injustice

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Our aim:To support resilient communities where people thrive

Our aim:To respond positively to the opportunities and challenges of an ageing society

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Still DevelopingDerwenthorpe


The current Benefit/MIS Gap pre Welfare Reform Act


MIS

Safety net benefits as a percentage of MIS requirements


Welfare – in context of

• The Economy : job market changing

• Increase in the low paid self employed and part time

• In work but poor

• Rising housing costs

• Political Priorities


Wages and House Prices in York

• Average salary £22,100 and £11,700 for tenants of social housing

• Average house price £203,000

• Average social rent £76

• Affordable (80% market value) £140

• Most social landlord business plans based on rent increases against predicted decline in average wages and significant fall in benefit income


Protecting the Pensioners

• Predicted growth in pensioners

• Largest slice of the Welfare Budget

• Largest contributors to under-occupation

• Council Tax protection

Political Priorities


Welfare Reform Summary

• Disproportionate impact on youth and those of working age

• The cap and bedroom tax : forced migration

• Phased and complex

• No assessment made of overall impact

• Overall £30bn withdrawn for individuals and neighbourhoods

• Food banks will be busy


Welfare Reform – some gory details

• Council Tax– 2.4m families will pay an average of £138 more in council tax– 1.9m claimants will have to find an average £140 per year– 730,000 families claiming CTB are also in receipt of Disability Living

Allowance

• Bedroom Tax– Apply Local Housing Allowance size criteria for PRS to Social Housing

• 1 bed for a couple• A person 16 or over• Two children same sex• Two children different sex under 10

• PRS Rules not applied– Max four bedrooms and shared accommodation rates for under 35s– Pensioners exempt along with your armed services


The Cumulative Impact is Unknown

• DEMOS estimates of impact of 15 benefit related cuts to the disabled

• Over next five years 2013 to 2018:

– 3.7m disabled people would experience some reduction in income

– £28bn as a group

– At least 1,000 to 5,000 will experience 6 cuts total £23,300

– 99,000 experience quadruple cuts and

– 120,000 experience triple cuts of around £6,300


And the rest………

• WRA is one of a number of changes

Localism Act

• Re-defining the purpose of social housing to one of meeting temporary need

• Social Housing fails the aspiration test


Legal Aid : University of Warwick Study

• 64% of civil legal aid practitioners at risk of redundancy were specialist advisors

• 98% of these worked in areas of law covering housing, debt and money, employment or welfare benefits

• North hardest hit

English Authority Budget Cuts

•Examines national evidence of the scale and distribution of the cuts across local authorities highlights impact on most deprived authorities

•Evidence from senior local government officials on strategic response

•Assesses pattern of reductions and how they relate to deprived communities

•Looks at the future

Serving deprived communities in a recession

What are the early impacts of English local authorities budget cuts since 2010?



Main Focus of Cuts

• Environment, transport, leisure and culture main areas for cuts

• Services to older people were among the three areas most affected in 15% of local authorities, with learning disabled adults close behind at 13%. Types of service day care and domiciliary care

• 33% cutting youth services due to it’s non statutory nature. Connexions most widely cited


Impact for the Future:

• Hollowing out of research capacity across the sector more difficult for local authorities to understand impact and outcomes of service provision in the future

• Equality impact assessments but no requirement for local authorities to assess impact on socioeconomic groups means assessing impact on people in poverty has been lost

• Difficult to predict long term consequences particularly for preventative services


Future Service Provision

• One stop shops and shared services between local authorities and other agencies. Easier access to services

• Some services will be provided by volunteers or will be community owned

• Different relationship between local authorities and service users

• More emphasis on putting more responsibility onto service users, ie use of internet, self assessment or challenging behaviour

• Danger of services becoming stigmatised and residualised and service delivery more intense and expensive

Impact on Public Opinion

• What percentage of the UK’s population is dependent on the Welfare State?– 20.3m families receive some kind of benefit (64% of all

families)– 8.7m pensioners– 9.6m families benefits make up more than half their income

(30%) 5.3m are pensioners– Changes to child tax credit will take out 1 to 3m families

• Family size : 8% of claimants have more than 3 children (194,220).

• UK spends about the same as European average on unemployment and disability related benefits, 12% per head tan France and 81% less per head than Germany


Welfare Myth Busting


Generations who have never worked : Finding Unicorns easier

• JRF December report on where the three generations of the same family that have never worked. Unable to find them

• Under 1% of workless households might have two generations who have never worked (15,000 households in the UK). No evidence of a culture of “worklessness” often results of multiple problems

• Benefit fraud in 2011-12 0.8% or £1.2bn

• 18% of working aged households were workless of which only 2% had never worked


Who Suffers?

• IFS Report:

– 2.8m workless households of working age, 2.5m will see their entitlements reduce by an average of £215 a year in 2015/16

– Of 14.1m working aged households 7m will see their entitlement reduce by an average of £165 per year

• JRF council tax benefit 2.4m low income families will pay an average of £138 more in council tax in 2013-14, 78% live in non working households average additional payment will be £132 for those in work and £140 for those out of work


Managing in the New Landscape when faced with a centralisation of power and devolution of blame:

Remind ourselves what we are aiming for :

•Living wage

•Affordable housing options to buy and let

•Affordable choices for care

•Sustainable neighbourhoods / healthy residents


We can:

• Build cheaper good quality homes in mixed development

• USE HRA surpluses intelligently

• Neighbourhoods for ageing society : reduce hospital admissions and set up joint funding

• Let go and stimulate community response : risk and regulation

• Increasing disposable income and tackling debt through high interest free zones

• Build neighbourhood response to loneliness

• Create integrated low cost service hubs

association of directors of adult social services

Documents

new earswickwelfare

busywelfare reform

new realityprotecting

new realitywages

new realityaerial

new realityseebohm

ageing societywelfare

benefit incomewelfare