Universal Credit Digital Service 14 March 2017 Gwyn Gascoigne – Head of Income Management

Agenda Universal Credit – the numbers so far Full digital Service – The Midlands Partnership Working Communications Strategy Arrears Management & Reporting Other Preparations Constant Review Questions

Universal Credit – the numbers so far DWP state 450,000 UC claimants live and 12,000 new applications a week emh homes has 150 UC claimants 84 APA’s have been requested 112 are reducing arrears or have a clear account 35 already have court orders Arrears on UC cases are 16.6% against 2.82% across all cases

Full Digital Service – The Midlands Currently in Corby, Daventry, Harborough and Melton Erewash moves to full service in May 2017 Affecting all new claims and changes in circumstances to the 6 legacy benefits emh homes has around 5500 properties in Erewash 3288 residents are working aged and could be affected arrears could increase by £2,484,408 based on 8 weeks arrears

Partnership Working Money Advice partnership with Erewash BC Secured almost £11k to deliver service from December to 31 March 2017 Negotiating funding arrangements from April onwards In 12 weeks customer gains were almost £30k – more than covering the cost of the service Partnership agreed with Working Links – support provider to help people into employment Covering all 4 major Midlands based counties (Derbyshire / Leicestershire / Northamptonshire / Nottinghamshire) DWP preferred provider for employment support in these regions

Communications Strategy Website – to provide updates on the latest information particularly in Erewash – bite size videos to be developed Letters to residents 2 weeks before full service goes live with our pocket guide Attending resident group meetings in Erewash to advise on impact and what to do Facebook and Twitter – using local Facebook groups to post messages and our twitter account Promoting our partnership arrangements for money advice and employment support via local scheme notice boards Stakeholder fact sheet being developed to support with signposting

Communications Strategy Bespoke staff training being developed for all service providing areas Using our email footers and calling cards to promote key messages Local community events – promoting money advice and UC Use existing customer profile information to support targeted emails / texts on UC Further promotion of our self service portal – to access rent statements etc Key information to be provided as part of the allocations process Monthly meetings with key partners to co-ordinate activities

Arrears Management & Reporting Orchard Housing Management software UC, Under Occupation, Benefit Cap, DHP and APA recording functionality Limited capacity presently to manage arrears cases differently – further system development discussion due in May Further development of our Self Service Portal due on the summer Reporting currently via a spreadsheet – reporting functionality in our next update Planning to report on arrears by UC full service and arrears overall to monitor the impact

Other Preparations Reviewed our pre tenancy risk assessment Considering other partnership arrangements to offer low cost internet service provision, digital support and tenancy support Already notified DWP of all existing claimants rent variation Promoting rent in advance Promoting Direct Debits Piloting re-occurring payments via debit cards with allpay

Constant Review New information is published weekly by the DWP and others Changes announced to under 22’s being exempt from housing element of UC Families with 3 or more children will remain on legacy benefits Test and Learn will also be our approach We will continue to benchmark our performance and practices with others Further roll out in the Midlands in North West Leicestershire, Blaby and Leicester due in Feb / March 2018 and Northampton in July