Welfare reform – informing activities West Oldham District Partnership Corporate Research & Intelligence Team 29 January 2013/ April 2013

2 Introduction This briefing contains information to help District Partnerships develop further activities to mitigate the impacts of welfare reform in their areas. It contacts sections on: Impact of Welfare Reform - with maps showing areas where residents in receipt of a range of benefits likely to be affected by welfare reform live Debt – with maps showing areas where residents are already experiencing problems with debt which may be made worse by welfare reform Targeting messages – with information that can be used to help District Partnerships tailor their communications to residents in their area and including information about internet use

3 Impact of Welfare Reform maps The following maps show areas where residents are claiming particular benefits and may be affected by welfare reform. The maps include: Out of work benefits claimants – these residents are likely to be affected by the introduction of Universal Credit (to be phased in in Oldham from July 2013) and by other welfare reform changes to one or more of the benefits/ credits they receive Work capability assessment – some claimants have already been or will be moved from Incapacity Benefit (IB) to Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and then possibly to Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) Disability living allowance (DLA) / Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – DLA will be replaced by PIP in a phased approach starting with new claims in ‘M’ postcodes in Oldham from April 2013 then from June 2013 in the rest of Oldham Children living in poverty – these maps show where the impact of freezing Child Benefit and changes to tax credits are likely to have been/ will be felt most Housing Benefit changes – highlights the areas where the impact of Local Housing Allowance and Under-occupation (‘bedroom tax’) changes are likely to be felt most Council Tax Benefit – shows areas where the impact of changes to Council Tax Benefit are likely to be felt most

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9 Percentage of children living in poverty

10 Percentage of children living in poverty in workless households

11 Percentage of children living in poverty in working households

12 Percentage of households claiming Council Tax Benefit and and/or Housing Benefit

13 Claim rates for Registered Provider households claiming Council Tax Benefit and and/or Housing Benefit

14 % of households receiving Council Tax Benefit and and/or Housing Benefit by tenure

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19 West Oldham Half (49.6%) of households are Moderate Means, four out of ten (39.3%) Hard Pressed Largest types (in size order) are: o Poorer Asian families o Families and single parents, some financial uncertainty o Poor singles living in Asian areas

20 West Oldham Alexandra has the worst poverty profile, with the majority of households Hard-Pressed, and hardly any households better than Moderate Means Medlock Vale has a similar spread of household types to Alexandra, but with lower proportions Hard- Pressed (although this is still around 1/3 of the total) Coldhurst is split evenly between Hard-Pressed and Moderate Means. “Poorer Asian families” make up 1/3 of the total, reflecting the ethnic mix of this area.

21 West Oldham Werneth is relatively less deprived than other wards in West Oldham. “Poorer Asian families” within Moderate Means still dominate, followed by “Poor singles living in Asian areas”.1 in 6 households are Hard-Pressed, which is high but substantially less than elsewhere in West Oldham.

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26 Potential issues relating to impact of Welfare Reform on West Oldham’s residents online applications only monthly payments direct to claimants increases in levels of homelessness and destitution

27 Some groups won’t be shifted

28 Facebook and web services

29 Debt The following maps show areas where residents are already experiencing problems with debt which may be made worse by welfare reform. The maps include: CAB debt clients Credit refusals Difficulty in repaying loans Debt consolidation Current difficulties and future vulnerabilities Credit card ownership Credit card regular usage Paying off cards Mortgage vulnerability There is also a chart showing the proportion of residents aged 16+ without a current, credit union or building society account by ward.

30 CAB Debt clients

31 Credit refusal

32 Difficulty with repaying loans

33 Debt Consolidation

34 Credit card ownership

35 Credit card regular usage

36 Paying off cards

37 Mortgage vulnerability

38 Residents aged 16+ without a current, credit union or building society account

39 Targeting activities This area is extremely non-responsive and negative towards marketing, especially Werneth (2/3 consider all marketing unacceptable), and local government marketing is seen as particularly negatively. As such, traditional advertising routes may be of little value: it is recommended that advertising, if any, should demonstrate its relevance to the customer extremely quickly before it is discarded. Alternative methods such as working with community groups (especially religious groups) may be of more value. This may be difficult to establish as so few people are members of such groups, but once established links could be used repeatedly to good effect.

40 Targeting activities As there is a strong “Family First” theme, this may be the best lever for change in these communities. Appealing to the wider good will tend not to be effective. In terms of digital inclusion, roughly 50% of households are not likely to use web services, although there is a sizeable proportion that will use social networking (20-25%), and this could be a valuable tool in these communities. There is very little transactional web use, and it would not be expected that this area would have high take-up of online services.

41 For further information please contact: Susan Kirkham at or on Jon Taylor at or on or Martin Burroughs at or on