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Are you ready for reforms?
We’re looking to do a quick piece of work to try and analyse the readiness of advice services and their local authorities with regards to current and forthcoming welfare reforms (e.g. Universal Credit, Local Housing Allowance, localisation of social fund/council tax benefits, etc).
Essentially, we’re looking to look at what approaches different boroughs are taking to working with local advice providers, particularly with respect to any existing advice partnerships, and hopefully we will be able to highlight the value and need for local independent advice provision.
In terms of some of the top-level issues, we’re trying to build a picture of:
• How, if at all, are the local authority working with local advice providers/partnerships to try and ensure local residents are assisted through the reforms?
• How is your advice service/partnership responding to these challenges and are there particular aspects you are focusing on?
• Are there particular factors in your area that make the challenges more difficult (or even less difficult)?
• Are there examples of good, or bad, practice that you think would be worthwhile sharing?
I’d be really keen to hear your experiences, whether through the forum, or if you want to pass on details in confidence, email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
The intention is to produce a report in the next couple of months, which I will of course share with you. All contributions will be anonymous, so please feel free to share the good, the bad or the ugly, as it were. Thanks for your help.
Some initial findings indicate that the package of welfare reforms has encouraged some local authorities to become much more proactive in engaging with local advice providers, especially where existing advice partnerships are in place.
There is a joint concern about how to communicate concise and correct information to affected citizens, with a particular attention apparently being paid to what people are calling “problem-noticers” or “negoatiators” - that is people such as housing workers, social workers, community groups, schools etc. Understanding that such people are not in a position to give traditional benefits advice, there are efforts to highlight to them what it going on and what they can do to signpost people to appropriate forms of assistance and advice. Thus, drafting checklist fact sheets or making information available online are being incorporated into efforts to provide such information.
A couple of boroughs are aiming to take primarily employment-led approaches to dealing with the benefits cap in particular, so that people moving into 16/24 hour low paid work will be exempt from restrictions, although this obviously doesn’t help those who, for whatever reason, are unable to enter such employment. Again, there have been some attempts to coordinate local authority input with that of local advice providers around things such as better-off calculations and explanations of in-work benefits.
However, the one area I haven’t really heard much about is what individual advice services are doing to prepare for the reforms. So if you do want to share what’s happening in your area or your agency, then please do let me know - it’s clear that whilst the welfare reforms are going to be exceptionally challenging for those affected and those who advise them, it’s also becoming clear that this could be an opportunity to firmly show that local independent advice services are of great value to local authorities/residents and should be funded accordingly.
There is a joint concern about how to communicate concise and correct information to affected citizens .
There is a bit of a dilemna of “when” to communicate.
My understanding is that if you start early, then some people will ignore the message on the grounds of aint gonna happen till April 13. (maybe the govt will change its mind type of thinking ?)
If you start later… folks simply havnt got time to adjust to the big changes eg get that job, move to smaller.
I think you wont see much until December…..
There is a joint concern about how to communicate concise and correct information to affected citizens .
There is a bit of a dilemna of “when” to communicate.My understanding is that if you start early, then some people will ignore the message on the grounds of aint gonna happen till April 13. (maybe the govt will change its mind type of thinking ?)
If you start later… folks simply havnt got time to adjust to the big changes eg get that job, move to smaller.
I think you wont see much until December…..
I completely agree and this is something that has been commented on by others. A few housing officers have said that they have sent out literally thousands of letters to tenants potentially affected by the benefit cap next April, advising them to get in touch for early discussions about how to manage expected shortfalls. Yet the response has often been in low double figures.
Then there is the need to strike a balance between informing people and not creating a mass panic as well.
The point about people guessing/hoping that the government will change their minds is an interesting one - it’s been fairly well evidenced on issues such as repossession and debt that people ignore mounting problems until they reach crisis point, on what I assume are similar assumptions. Given the fact that we’re fairly certain these reforms will take place, I wonder is there a way to overcome some of this behaviour at all?
Thanks for your thoughts Martin, and thanks to those who’ve got in touch by email as well. Please do share your thinking, however long or short, to help us build a comprehensive assessment of where we are and what needs thinking about.
I get worried about worrying people too early. I saw a client in the Bureau recently who was working herself up into a stew about the bedroom cap (she has significant mental health problems and lives in a 2 bedroom flat). She is already signed up for exchanges to downsize both here and in the town where her boyfriend lives 30 miles away, with a possible view to moving in with him when they have known each other a bit longer. She is on ESA and couldn’t make good the deficit in her rent.
This woman has been terrified by the council’s letter and wasn’t sleeping. Yet it is highly likely that well before April she will have moved and the problem won’t happen. Two-bed properties are at a premium round here.
But I do have to say that I can see no evidence of a rush to talk to us either.
I’ve been worried about the perspective of some organisations as well. For example a lot of housing associations have been worrying about welfare reform for a long time but their emphasis has been on payments directly to them stopping not on the income levels of their tenants.
I get worried about worrying people too early. I saw a client in the Bureau recently who was working herself up into a stew about the bedroom cap (she has significant mental health problems and lives in a 2 bedroom flat). She is already signed up for exchanges to downsize both here and in the town where her boyfriend lives 30 miles away, with a possible view to moving in with him when they have known each other a bit longer. She is on ESA and couldn’t make good the deficit in her rent.
This woman has been terrified by the council’s letter and wasn’t sleeping. Yet it is highly likely that well before April she will have moved and the problem won’t happen. Two-bed properties are at a premium round here.
But I do have to say that I can see no evidence of a rush to talk to us either.
I don’t disagree but I do think informing her that the cap is coming in isn’t unwise. She may simply be getting into a pickle about moving in with her b/f in a different town for one thing. If she’s relying on CCG’s (or whatever is decided on a local basis soon) to move, she might find this difficult. If, post April 2013, she was moving across local authority boundaries, it’s not even certain which borough she would apply to for a CCG, in order to be able to move, as far as I know.
I agree that we don’t need to be talking to lots of people at this stage, but I do think we should be thinking of ways to easily spread information locally, whether by working to train other local community organisations about the changes, or by producing consistent information about local CTB/SF schemes, or by looking at combining/signposting other areas such as financial or digital literacy, debt/money advice, or employment and skills.
I’ve been worried about the perspective of some organisations as well. For example a lot of housing associations have been worrying about welfare reform for a long time but their emphasis has been on payments directly to them stopping not on the income levels of their tenants.
The fact that direct payments will stop and benefit caps will kick in, on top of LHA caps, shows why HA’s, local authorities and independent advice services need to work together to both inform local residents but also analyse changes and advise on social policy more broadly. In an ideal world of course…...