I understand that with the introduction of the Formula grant, scaling down and dampening procedures mean that it is no longer feasible to give a pound for pound value of the impact of numbers of benefit claims on a council's grant share.

The next settlement is due January 2008 and the formula will change but be settled then for 3 years. I would be interested to know if any welfare rights units are modeling the current formula or intend to model the 2008 one - to put a value on the welfare benefit impacts.

Regards
Pam C

We've done this in great detail in the past and have looked at this for the new formulae.

It is possible to assess the effect of benefits on an authority's grant settlement even with the subsequent amending algorithms; the question is how much use is it?

The main benefits related factors (I've put some in below) are very much more historic than in the past. If what you want to do is to demonstrate the value of benefits work done some years ago, then fine. If, however, you want to say "Give us more", or "Let us keep", resources and we'll give you more money next year; that would be very hard to justify.

You'll see that there are very different periods referred to below and these also seem likely to be constant, for at least some of the factors, over the settlement periods.

Children of IS / IB- JSA claimants averaged over a period between August 2000 and August 2002

The average number of people aged between 18 and 64 (inclusive) receiving Income Support in 2002, 2003 and 2004, plus, the average number of people aged between 18 and 64 (inclusive) receiving Income Based Jobseeker’s Allowance in 2001, 2003 and 2004, plus the number of people aged between 18 and 64 (inclusive) receiving the Guarantee element of Pension Credit in 2004.

The average number of people aged 65 or over in receipt of attendance allowance over a period between May 2003 and May 2005.

The average number of people who are, or whose partner is, aged 60 years and over and receiving Income Support in 2002, 2003 and 2004, plus, the average number of people receiving Income Based Jobseeker’s Allowance in 2001, 2003 and 2004, plus the number of people receiving the Guarantee element of Pension Credit in 2004.

The average number of people aged 18 to 64, in receipt of disability living allowance, over a period between May 2003 and May 2005.

The proportion of working age population who are unemployment-related benefit claimants who have been claiming for more than one year, averaged over 36 monthly counts between May 2002 and April 2005.

The proportion of working age population who are unemployment-related benefit claimants who were male and aged under 25 averaged over 36 monthly counts between May 2002 and April 2005.

The average number of people receiving Incapacity Benefit and Severe Disablement Allowance, over the period 2002 to 2004.

This is a message for Gareth (or anyone else who can help)

A few years ago you were able to give a notional figure for the value, in terms of settlement, of each successful claim. Are you able to give an indication now?

In Monmouthshire we have been involved in a pilot project that has included benefits advice and take-up. We want to fully explain the wider impact of the benefits gains in order to secure ongoing funding and this information could be very persuasive. Our clients are older people so the gains are mainly AA, PC and CTB.

Hope you can help.

Shona

If you look at the NAWRA website there is a report there which we commissioned and which, in chapter 4, has got some interesting statistics on the impact of benefits on the local economy - could be of some use to you ...

I will, thanks for such a speedy response.

There are figures available on the effect of (eg) each AA/DLA award for over 65s. But as I understand it, these figures are then subjected to other balancing calculations which can significantly reduce the headline figure so it can be misleading to claim that each extra AA award equals another £X000 in government grant to the local authority.

However either way, increased AA/DLA take up can only help a local authority's financial situation. In my book Practising Welfare Rights (Routledge 2005), I have highlighted various impacts, including the interesting research finding by Noble et al, that because of the way that people spend AA/DLA, it can be the equivalent of 25% of a local authority's adult social care budget.

Also another word of caution. It can be all too easy for the local authority to be seduced into skewing activity towards take-up of AA at the expense of less directly financially attractive, but in other ways vital, options such as improved benefit take-up by young people or people in low paid jobs.

Shona

I haven't looked at the Welsh LG settlement scheme at all this year. It's one of the things that I intend to do post April. My understanding is that they are also trying to reach a more settled, less volatile, formula. The trouble is that damping variations also reduces any quick gains from campaigns or investment in extra resources.

Thanks to all contributors so far.
Cheers. Pam.