1. Southwark Direct Payment Demonstrator Project 31st July 2013

2. Southwark’s vital statistics!
Council Tax households 122,000
CTRS 24,000 of which 19,000 paying for first time
HB Caseload 42,000
30,000 council tenants
4,000 private LHA
5,500 RSL
Benefit Cap 300 starts Aug
Under-occupancy 4500 2

3. Demonstrator project overview
Current set up
6 Demonstrator LA’s across the country
Southwark, Wakefield, Oxford and Shropshire
Torfaen - Wales
Edinburgh – Scotland
3 LA landlords
9 Housing Associations/providers
What we are doing and who it affects
1,474 Southwark Residents (LBS)
525 Family Mosaic Residents
Potential to inform and influence:
Universal Credit design to help our customers
Voluntary and 3rd sector support agencies 3

4. Our approach February 2012 Mapping existing support provision
March 2012
2,000 tenants advised of selection
Exceptions planned – Pensioners exempt from selection
Request for bank details and completion of a ‘self-assessment’ support needs survey
May 2012
Advice Days provided
June 2012
First tenants switched onto DP
June 2013
Project extended by 6 months to investigate Welfare Reforms 4 4

5. To date over £3.5 million has been paid in Housing Benefit directly
‘Scores on the doors’
To date over £3.5 million has been paid in Housing Benefit directly 5 5

6. Referred …… Support to those affected by DP…
191 referrals from Southwark
Unknown risk and needs
Offered a total of 16 separate drop-in sessions
30% of those referred were assessed – of these;
28% felt able to manage DP without support
27% felt able to manage DP with support
16% felt unable to manage DP and accepted support
22% felt unable to manage DP and refused the offer of support
BUT: Overall 80% of those referred have not taken up offer 6

7. Majority of those assessed were not known to services
Outcomes……
Intensive engagement
Gathering a snapshot of needs -15 people
Four door-stop visits each at a different time of day
Outcomes
9 assessments completed – of these;
4 were willing to engage with support
all had an awareness of DP
3 were unaware of upcoming welfare changes
Findings
Support needs (clients may have been assess with more than one support need)
41% Debt/budgeting
28% Mental ill health
14% Literacy/ Learning difficulties
18% Benefit issues
16% Physical health
10% Employment
9% Substance use
7% No bank account
Resource intensive
Majority of those assessed were not known to services 7

8. Observations Support is resource intensive
getting people to engage takes time
People prefer face to face contact
People prefer one to one advice
Drop in ongoing advice sessions / open days not always a success
Income Officer patch increases
From 900 (LBS) /750(FM) households to 500
And in practice only half of the 500 are actually on DP
The switchback process has revealed more support needs where people have found themselves struggling to manage

9. Key challenges for us Q. What is the perception of support?
Rent arrears rise in spite of extra costs
How will the extra costs be funded?
Not clear how UC will manage the switchback process
Lack of automated links with UC will make process unworkable
Key learning from DPDPs is that the close relationship between Landlord and LA is vital to process operation
Data sharing still unresolved
Effective delivery of support, with an outcome that reduces arrears
Levels of support in project are not scalable to BAU
Q. What is the perception of support? 9

10. Any questions? Karen Michael Karen.michael@southwark.gov.uk 10