Disclosure of info to social landlords

Has anyone heard of very recent changes to DWP guidance on working wth representatives / disclosure of info to landlords?

Someone has told us that twice DWP have mentioned that they are no longer able to use “implicit consent” with landlords - changes “today”.

I thought these two documents still held:

“Universal Credit: Housing Costs and Disclosure”: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/549791/universal-credit-housing-costs-and-disclosure.pdf

and

“Working with representatives”:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-with-representatives-guidance-for-dwp-staff

Glenys

I was at a meeting with UC programme team reps only a month a go where they told us that the ‘Housing costs and disclosure’ document had only recently been pulled together specifically in order to assist with the situation of helpline staff not being clear about disclosure rules.  I posted about it here:

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/10235/

However, problems continue, some service centre staff are adamant that they are not to disclose, whether you define your self as a landlord or a customer representative ... (I mix it up a bit depending ...) and even when you ask them to discuss with their manager and refer them to the actual document ... no avail.  You just have to ring back and hope for Glasgow.

Unfortunately DWP have issued guidance to their staff that explicit consent is required for UC Full Service. I’ve been told that for legacy benefits and Universal Credit Live Service implicit consent is still accepted. This is from a DWP presentation on UC Full Service yesterday:

“To make sure UC is secure agents must not share any claimant details with 3rd parties without the claimants explicit consent.

When a claimant needs to call UC – They will need to answer security questions and give permission for the 3rd party to discuss – This is explicit consent

If explicit consent is not given by the claimant agents can be held responsible for breaching Data protection regulations”

Phil

Thanks for this info Phil.
Did they say if this new guidance had been published anywhere?

are DWP no longer accepting HB stencil?
2 of my clients have been told they require full missive from the RSL..
I’m unable to get these docs as I am at a surgery.

Did they say anything about disclosure to social landlords Phil?

This is not governed by Implicit Consent but by Data Sharing regulations.