South East Wales Regional Partnership Board Welfare Reform Update Nick Jones, Service Director (Operational Finance), RCTCBC 3 rd April 2014

Welfare Reform - Update Scope of Presentation  Discretionary Housing Payments  Universal Credit & Local Support Services Framework  Single Fraud Investigation Service

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP’s) Background  A discretionary scheme funded by DWP (in place since 2001)  Allows LAs to give additional help to Housing Benefit claimants in financial difficulty  Viewed by UK Government as a solution to welfare cuts, but welfare cuts are in £ billions Funding and Spend  Wales received £7M in 2013/14  DWP made extra £20M available across UK for LAs on a bid basis..(3 Welsh LAs applied)  Welsh LAs will spend their full allocation by 31/03/14  2 SE Wales LAs have ‘topped up’ DWP allocation from their own resources  Appendices to report give show some analysis of how LAs have utilised DHP

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP’s) Impact on Resources  Demand for DHP has risen by 260%  This has put pressure on benefits service areas  By 31/12/12 over 10,500 DHP awards made in SE Wales area (50% of Welsh total) Short-term funding from WG  In Jan ‘14 WG provided add. £1.3M to supplement DWP core funds  Funds had to be utilised by 31/03/14 WG ‘challenge’ on DHP decision making  Perceived inconsistency in LA decision making (WG officials and AM’s)  Meeting held with WG officials (WLGA & LAs) in Jan to discuss issues  But…LAs must operate within DWP guidance 2014/15 Funding  Welsh LAs will get £7.9M

 April sites will be live in UK, delivering UC to limited client group (Shotton will be last - going live on 7 th April)  Summer claims from couples across existing sites will commence  Autumn 2014 –claims from families across existing sites will commence –Subject to testing, additional sites will be expanded into NW England  2015 –Further expansion across NW England –No plans to extend UC anywhere in Wales (except Shotton) until late 2015  2016 –any new claims for existing benefits that UC will replace, will start to be accepted as a UC claim  2016 (Q4) to 2017 (Q4) –vast majority of existing caseload will migrate to UC Whilst expansion is taking place DWP will continue to develop the IT systems to be used Universal Credit - update

Universal Credit – Implications for LAs after 2017  LAs will still have to deal with HB claims for Pensioners, 50% of caseload, until 2018 because of delays to the single-tier pension  DWP decisions on the later stages of UC roll-out will be informed by the development of the enhanced IT system  Work is currently underway on Transition and Migration planning - WLGA and LA’s represented on UC Business Design Authority & Operational Assurance Group

UC Local Support Services Framework (LSSF) - Update  Revised LSSF ‘Update and Trialling Plan’ published December Recognises opportunities to trial elements and learn ahead of full UC roll-out  LSSF to test 5 key areas -Partnership, Digital Inclusion, Finance models, Triage, Financial Inclusion/Personal Budgeting  DWP plan to engage with LAs interested in trialling/testing LSSF -April/May ‘14 – Webinars take place -mid June ‘14 - Expression of Interest – workshops, followed by submission -end of June ‘14 - DWP advise successful LAs

Single Fraud Investigation Service (SFIS) - Update  Background –SFIS will centralise all welfare benefit fraud investigations currently undertaken by DWP, LA’s and HMRC into one organisation based with the DWP  Latest Position –DWP advised that national implementation will start in summer 2014 and full roll-out national phased implementation commencing in Oct ‘14 through to Mar ’16 –Apr ’14 – DWP SFIS Roadshows to support roll-out and to cascade information to LAs  Implications –HR implications on staff transfer – DWP view it is not TUPE transfer –Timeline for transfer and identification of employees ‘in-scope’ –HB Administration subsidy – reduction –Uncertainty on responsibility for ‘low value’ fraud post SFIS –Residual counter fraud responsibilities for LAs  Next Steps –DWP HR reps begin to make contact with LAs –LAs to identify a single point of contact for DWP –Staff and Trade Union engagement