The Group Manager – Financial Services presented the report explaining that there were two reports on the agenda concerning Universal Credit and Localisation of Support for Council Tax.  The Benefits Team currently issued Council Tax Benefit and Housing Benefit, which were two separate benefits although many claimants received both.  Council Tax Benefit was changing to Council Tax Support which would be administered and funded by the Council from 1 April 2013.  Housing Benefit would become part of Universal Credit which would be administered and funded by central Government and phased in from October 2013 over 4 years.  Since the last Services Select Committee meeting, the Working Group had held two meetings to deliberate and consider options as part of the scrutiny process.

The Chairman of the Universal Credit Working Group advised that Housing Benefit was a joint service with Dartford Borough Council and distributed around £54M to 11,122 households within the District and Borough, administered by the Benefits Team which includes 27 full time equivalent (FTE) staff employed by this Council.  The changes were going to bring a number of challenges for staff and those in receipt of housing benefit.  Challenges that would be added to by the introduction of the Localisation of Support for Council Tax and new rules on under occupation of social housing and local housing allowance.  In the meantime this was not helped by the receipt of lots of different information on how it was all going to work.  However there was some certainty on when it would start to have an impact on the Council.  In October Universal Credits would initially replace the Job Seekers Allowance rolling out to the Council by April 2014.  The Working Group had considered whether it would be worth volunteering as a pilot, but had taken the view that as no funding would be given for doing so it would create too much work and strain on the benefits department.  Especially as there were already 70% more calls and post.  Another reason for this decision was the Council already had a kind of pilot in place with the HERO (Housing Energy Retraining Options) Project, which already delivered free face to face contact and could possibly be adapted to a pilot study. The Group were looking at all the financial implications, how claims would start to be redirected to the DWP, the time periods for all the changes, numbers of claims and implications for the Council.  Two main areas of concern were how to build in resilience to the service and protect more vulnerable residents with diminishing funds.  The Working Group hoped to come back with final recommendations to the Committee meeting in September. 

The Vice Chairman of the Universal Credit Working Group advised that the impact on the Council would come from its responsibility to the homeless, as the changes could see a marked increase in homelessness or risk of homelessness from people not understanding or being able to manage the new system, and were therefore looking at ways to soften the impact.  Another Member of the Group pointed out that there would also be a reduction in the administration fee received for running the benefits service which would have a resource impact as well. 

The Director of Corporate Resources (Deputy Chief Executive) advised that there were a number of on going changes at Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) adjusting for the reforms, and the 70% increase in work was due to some of the requirements placed on the Council in advance of the changes.  The customer was losing the face to face contact and it would be a difficult and challenging time for them.  A Member compared the situation to when Student Loan administration was centralised.

Resolved: That the report be noted.