In addition to the report presented by the Group Manager – Financial Services, the Committee received a presentation from the Vice Chairman of the Universal Credit Working Group.  He reported that since the last meeting of the Committee they had appointed Cllr. Firth as Chairman and himself as Vice Chairman and had already held a number of meetings.  He reported that the system would be rolled out from 1 April 2013, which only left a year to prepare.  It was being brought in to address inadequacies in the current benefits system which appeared to penalise people for working and causing them to be better off by remaining on benefits.  There were so many different benefits that could be claimed, and not everyone knew what they were entitled to and didn’t always know how any wages may affect those benefits. However Universal Credit would automatically adjust this.  There were potential problems though.  Under the new system only the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) would administer the Universal Credit, but the Council would be responsible for the Council Tax Discount.    The Working Group had received a presentation from the Benefits Manager which the representative attending from the DWP had asked to take away with him, so it appeared the Council’s Officers were very clued up.  Another potential problem was the ‘digital by default’ expectation that all applications would be carried out online.  The target was 80%.  The group had made enquiries as to whether the Job Centre would provide a worker in Edenbridge or Swanley to help people apply. 

Universal Credit would be paid monthly in arrears, the idea was to make it like a salary.  This would also have an impact, as many people would be used to budgeting fortnightly.  There would also be penalties for under occupation, and tenants would receive the money for their rent directly with them responsible for paying the landlord which would be another learning curve for many people that could potentially cause some issues.  A possible consequence would be people falling into arrears and as the Council was responsible for emergency accommodation this could have a cost impact.  In response to a question asking whether many had bank accounts, he responded that 97-98% of those in receipt of unemployment benefit had bank accounts, but yes there was the issue of those without.  Another potential issue was the fact that the money would only be paid to one individual within the household, giving one person ultimate power to administer the benefits within the household and the potential issues that could arise from that. 

In response to a question, he replied that the DWP had not finalised a lot of the finer detail, but this was primary legislation and much of what he was reporting was unchangeable.  There was also a potential issue of staffing within the Revenues and Benefits section.  There would be no role for some of them once the DWP took over administration of the Universal Credit system   An issue the Council would have to face was how to use or retain staff, whether it would be possible to relocate them, how to keep enough staff in place during the transitions when they knew there would not be a job for them at the end of the process.  The transition period was from 2013 to 2017.

The Director of Corporate Resources and Deputy Chief Executive reported that many staff already realised that they needed to make different career choices and some were leaving the organisation.  With no prospects it would be even harder to recruit more staff and there was also the training issue, or cost implications of agency staff, and therefore this was already having a significant impact on the service provided.  The DWP had made it clear early on that they would not consider TUPE arrangements. 

A connected issue was the Council Tax Support Localisation policy which was a massive issue affecting all authorities.  In essence the Government was taking a top slice of 10% from funding. There would be protected groups, including the elderly which made up 52% of claimants.  Therefore the remainder would bear a reduction in support of about 30%.

It was agreed that there were a lot of unanswered questions but that the Council seemed to be ahead of the game in the fact that they were asking them.  It was hoped that the Council would be able to participate in a pilot scheme. 

The Chairman thanked Cllr. Horwood for an excellent presentation and for the excellent work the Working Group had carried out so far.

            Resolved: That the report be noted.