1. Welfare reform – informing activities Saddleworth and Lees District Partnership Corporate Research & Intelligence Team April 2013

2. 2 Introduction This briefing contains information to help District Partnerships develop further activities to mitigate the impacts of welfare reform in their areas. It contains 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. 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 Please note that in Saddleworth West and Lees, the bottom proportion of this ward appears to be an area impacted by the changes to welfare reform. This is not the case in reality and is a result of the shape of the geographic boundary the data is provided in.

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5. 5 Percentage of out of work (all) claimants

6. 6 Percentage of Jobseekers Allowance claimants

7. 7 Employment Support Allowance and Incapacity Benefit claimants

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9. 9 Percentage of children living in poverty

10. 10 Percentage of children living in poverty in workless households

11. 11 Percentage of children living in poverty in working households

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

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

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

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19. 19 Saddleworth and Lees 42.6% of households are Comfortably Off, 29.1% Wealthy Achievers: highly prosperous Largest types (in size order) are: o Wealthy established couples o Stable empty-nester couples o Retiring suburbanites o Families and single parents, some financial uncertainty o Comfortably affluent families

20. 20 Saddleworth and Lees All three wards have around 5% Hard-Pressed households: these groups may have unmet need if poverty-based services are over-focused on the more deprived wards. Saddleworth West and Lees is predominantly Moderate Means and Comfortably Off households, with “Families and single parents, some financial uncertainty” the largest type.

21. 21 Saddleworth and Lees Saddleworth North and Saddleworth South are almost identical in profile, with 1/3 rd of households Wealthy Achievers, and almost half Comfortably Off.

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

27. 27 Some groups won’t be shifted

28. 28 Facebook and web services

29. 29 Debt The following maps show areas where residents are already experiencing problems with debt which may be made worse by welfare reform and areas with relatively high credit card usage. 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. 30 CAB Debt clients

31. 31 Credit refusal

32. 32 Difficulty with repaying loans

33. 33 Debt Consolidation

34. 34 Credit card ownership

35. 35 Credit card regular usage

36. 36 Paying off cards

37. 37 Mortgage vulnerability

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

39. 39 Targeting activities All three wards have similar characteristics, and as such the same methods will be appropriate throughout. However, be aware that as Saddleworth West and Lees has more of a social mix, reaching some of the more deprived sectors might need different strategies to Saddleworth as a whole. Acting via community groups will tend to be successful, as will appealing to environmental/worldwide/community issues. Whereas most areas might acknowledge green issues but not act on them, households here will tend to take action if they are told there is a greater good.

40. 40 Targeting activities Saddleworth & Lees is overall the most digitally engaged of areas, with only 30% in the bottom 2 engagement categories (i.e. less likely to engage), and strong levels of internet accessibility. There is likely to be a receptive market for channel shift on the more “functional” services, but little appetite for social media. This community is also extremely receptive to most forms of marketing, with Local Government marketing relatively acceptable. Mail sent by name and emails are both likely to have good outcomes, but leafleting is likely to be less well received.

41. 41 For further information please contact: Susan Kirkham at susan.kirkham@oldham.gov.uk or on 0161 770 5186susan.kirkham@oldham.gov.uk Jon Taylor at jon.taylor@oldham.gov.uk, or on 0161 770 1455jon.taylor@oldham.gov.uk Martin Burroughs at gis@oldham.gov.uk, or on 0161 770 1694gis@oldham.gov.uk