localisation of council tax benefit - councils set up to fail?

Interesting editorial blog in Guardian saying that Capita (which runs benefit system for many councils) says it won’t have time to update operations in time for launch in April 2013.

Also says that Local Government Association has asked to be given complete freedom about who gets benefit and that new system be delayed for a year, with Conservative group leader Gary Porter saying that he will ‘go nuclear’ if association doesn’t get these changes -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/local-government-network/2012/feb/17/local-government-welfare-reform-warning?CMP=twt_gu

What is likely to happen, at least in the short term, is that Councils have no option but to put in place a local scheme that looks and feels (and more importantly work on the IT system) exactly the same as the old CTB scheme.

Many Council’s are seriously considering absorbing the 10% cut themselves and not passing it on to claimants, again at least not in the short term.

My own working estimates for my Authority is that the cut will be in the region of £1,000,000. If we pass that on to claimants, the likely impact in reduced Council Tax collection rates and increased recovery costs is likely to vary between £600,000 and £850,000 depending upon which group we decide to hit hardest. On that basis it might be best all round if we do not pass on the cut and at least have some ability to control how the reduced funding is managed. (Although it will inevitable mean that some services are hit somewhere)

I’m fairly horrified at how little council members (and even officials) know about these changes

I was at a meeting of DCLG and software suppliers a week ago and the big 3 back-office software suppliers were all saying much the same.  This is hardly surprising given the ‘unfinished’ state of the DCLG proposals for England.  The intention, as I understand, is that where LAs have not put a scheme in place by April 2013 there will be a default scheme which they will have to operate for one year.  This scheme, and the older persons scheme, will be ‘broadly similar’ to existing schemes.  Whether deciding to continue the existing scheme is ‘putting a scheme in place’ is an interesting question.

Wales issued its consultation about 10 days ago which closes on April 5th and Scotland has its consultation still listed as forthcoming.

Given the difficulties and complexities of integrating local schemes into advice software, and we’ve done this before in the pre-1988 schemes, are bad enough; add to this:

Different schemes in 3 countries
Potentially 3 different schemes in each LA
The first draft regulations unlikely to appear until 7 or 8 months before the implementation date

and you will understand the scale of the task facing IT suppliers.

I’m building in some ‘typical’ schemes into our Future Benefits Model (FFBM) so that we can model the effects of those schemes, and varying parameters, on overall claimant impacts and it’s already clear that it’s ‘orrible.

The timetable links to the whole UC / PC change schedule as well and there are, in my humble opinion, already too many single points for failure in their roadmap.

Interesting times!