Wednesday 1 July 2015 Welfare Reform: the post-election landscape

Welcome and introductions Gareth Bevan Policy Officer National Housing Federation

Today’s speaker Pippa Bell Policy Officer National Housing Federation

A recap – where did we get to? Benefit cap –£350/wk for single adults, £500/wk for couples/families, £26k in total Bedroom tax –Removal of housing benefit for those with “spare” room DHP funding –2015/16 = £125m (2014/15 = £165m) Universal Credit –Merging six in work/out of work benefits into single monthly payment

Universal Credit Feb 2015 – March 2016 National roll out to all JCPs – new claims from single people without children. Tranche 1 (Feb – Apr 2015) 150 JCPs Tranche 2 (May – Jul 2015) 160 JCPs Tranche 3 (Sept – Nov 2015) 180 JCPs Tranche 4 (Dec 2015 – Mar 2016) 110 JCPs May 2016 – Dec 2017 National roll out to all new claims and claimants with change of circumstances Jan 2018 – Dec 2019 Managed transfer of legacy benefit claims incl housing benefit, JSA and IS Link to map

Universal Credit updates Contact with service centre - New phone number to escalate issues (details here)here APA identifier -Should now be landlord provided reference number rather than NINO. 7 day waiting period -Introduced on 3 rd August Applies to whole UC claim incl housing element -Wait served after claim has been made -Applies where single claimant or at least one member of a couple is in the All Work-Related Requirements Group

What next? Full employment and Welfare Benefits Bill -Benefit cap lowered to £23,000 -Remove automatic entitlement to housing support for year olds. Introduce a new Youth Allowance with stronger work related conditionality from Day 1. -Freeze the main rates of the majority of working age benefits, tax credits and Child Benefit for two years from

What next? #1 Benefit Cap £23,000

Policy –Set benefit cap at £23,000 –Exempt disabled people (in receipt of DLA, PIP, ESA) Impact –Will impact in first instance those already hit by current cap –Loss of £546m from 110,000 working age households –Loss of £217m from 41,000 working age housing association households

What next? #1 Benefit Cap Working-age HA tenant households affected Average amount lost by working-age HA tenant households North East3,281£4,040 North West4,438£2,931 Yorkshire & Humber3,682£3,462 East Midlands2,400£3,484 West Midlands4,186£3,413 East of England1,058£1,752 London7,960£6,758 South East5,829£3,384 South West*..

What next? #1 Benefit Cap Difference between housing credit (couple with 3 children) and average rent (inc service charge)NENWY&HEMWMEMLONSESW Bedsit£36.31£39.21£40.30£36.95£36.43£36.95£10.55£28.06£ bed£31.27£34.42£33.69£30.16£27.78£30.16-£2.89£14.68£ bed£24.62£25.39£25.13£21.23£18.58£21.23-£17.04£0.72£ bed£18.42£18.92£20.29£15.59£13.36£15.59-£27.79-£9.66£ bed£12.71£11.09£9.95£2.93£1.26£2.93-£41.17-£23.24-£ bed£3.45£3.82-£1.62-£1.73-£7.53-£1.73-£50.73-£36.31-£ bed-£9.36-£2.36-£10.32-£18.07-£20.21-£18.07-£58.91-£45.53-£22.98

What next? #2 Housing Benefit

Policy –Withdraw automatic entitlement to Housing Benefit for 18-21s –Queen’s speech referred to employment or education Impact year old JSA claimants receiving HB Total weekly award Nominal annual total All tenures19,015£1,976,006£102,752,306 HA tenants (including supported housing)7,527£986,129£51,278,712

What next? #3 £12bn cuts

Policy –Find £12bn cut to welfare bill Impact –Manifesto pledged to exclude 40% from cuts: Protect state pension Protect universal pensioner benefits –£12bn might be cut from the remaining £125bn More details in emergency budget 8 th July…?

What next? #3 £12bn cuts Policy –Find £12bn cut to welfare bill Impact –£12bn might be cut from: Source: IFS

What next? #3 £12bn cuts - Remove child benefit whilst increasing child element of tax credit and UC = £5bn - Reduce tax credits from a lower income group of families = £5bn - Reduce child benefit for first child to the same level as subsequent children = £2.5bn - Abolish child benefit for third and subsequent children = £1bn - Abolish child benefit for third and subsequent children and make all child benefit means tested = £4bn - Cuts of £2bn made in last parliament were offset by rising rents relative to earnings and growth of PRS meant HB bill increased by £1bn - Lower maximum amount of rent that HB will cover (Local Housing Allowance rate) = £0.4bn - Make all claimants pay some share of rent. If set at 10% then saving = £0.9bn - Introduce 10% co-payment for social tenants (and reducing HB by a further 10% for those already affected by bedroom tax) = £1.6bn - Abolish HB for those aged under 25 = £1.5bn - Abolish HB for those aged under 25 but exempting those with children = £0.75bn - Taxing Disability Living Allowance and its replacement PIP = £0.9bn - Taxing Attendance Allowance = £0.6bn -Abolish Carer’s Allowance (those with low incomes – which are most recipients – could claim other means-tested benefits) = £1bn Source: IFS FamiliesHousingDisability

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Wednesday 1 July 2015 Questions