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