Targeting Support: Who Will Welfare Reforms Hit Hardest?
Speakers: Deven Ghelani, Policy in Practice, Guy Chaundy, Birmingham City Council
Event: Inclusion's IntoWork2015 Convention, Wed 15 July 2015, Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London.
The speakers told attendees how data insights are helping reshape the distribution of scarce support resources for two large councils in England.
By analysing data they are collect the councils have gained valuable knowledge about the cumulative impact of welfare reforms on individual households in their respective areas.
What's more, those councils have also forecasted what the likely impact of future welfare reforms will be.
This means they know which households are most vulnerable to cuts, and which will be better off under Universal Credit.
Crucially, these insights allow them to therefore deliver support campaigns where they're most needed.
Deven Ghelani is the director of Policy in Practice, an organisation founded to ensure that policy works for people on the frontline. He was joined by Guy Chaundy from Birmingham City Council.
2. About Policy in Practice
• We make the welfare system
simple to understand, so
people can make the decisions
that are right for them.
• Work with Birmingham, Leeds,
Serco, DWP and many others.
• Recently secured investment
from Sean Williams and Big
Lottery.
• Looking to build long term
partnerships, to support
people into work, and toward
independence
Consultancy
SoftwarePolicy
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
3. Targeting Support:
Who will Welfare Reforms hit hardest?
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
• Context: How can we co-ordinate
support across Birmingham City Council?
Approach: A detailed Impact Assessment
for all reforms, today and tomorrow
• Outcomes: Better targeted support that
has a tangible impact on behaviour
5. Context: Birmingham City Council
The Scale of Birmingham
• Size: Over 1m residents
• Diversity: Population, Geography & Affluence
• Unemployment: 5.9% vs 2.5% nationally;
30,000 JSA claimant count, 2nd highest
• Housing: 56% o/occ, 24% social, 20% PRS
• Politically Active: Largest Local Authority in
Europe, with 40 wards and 120 active local
councillors
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
6. Context: Birmingham City Council
The Local Authority is also:
• A partner among other stakeholders
• A large Social Landlord, with 63,000
properties
• Universal Credit is live
• Reduced budgets to deliver support now and
in the future
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
7. Support within Birmingham
• Established partnerships with RSLs, Third
sector and private landlords, with Strategic
District Housing Panels in each of the 10
Districts
• A single Welfare Reform Multi Agency
Committee chaired by Cabinet Member, with
a sub group focusing on UC implementation
– A single portal for feeding back issues on UC to DWP
within the formal monitoring process
– Shared training and learning sessions with JCP work
coaches from each of the 12 sites
– However…
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
8. However...
• We need to understand the impact of all welfare
changes, to better co-ordinate activity.
www.policyinpractice.co.ukwww.policyinpractice.co.uk
Chris Gibbs,
Birmingham City Council
We want the council to move beyond sticking
plaster solutions. If we can promote work and
independence by understanding who is impacted by
welfare reforms and working closely with partners,
we will have more resources available for people
that still need our support. We have an obligation to
protect and support the most vulnerable
9. Our approach:
Using local data insights effectively
SHBE
Universal Benefit Calculator
See the impact of specific and cumulative
reforms at an aggregate and a household level
A detailed impact assessment for Cabinet members that
informs targeted and tailored local welfare support
Any
Questions?
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
10. benefit
cap
Under-
occupying
LHA cap
Council
Tax
Reduction
CTRS
Tax
Credit
cuts
lower UC higher UC
Better off
in Work
# of households affected
by multiple reforms
No impact
1
reform
2
reforms
AA1 0 0 7 20 TBC 9 16 32 8 21 7
AA4 1 0 59 38 TBC 21 25 55 10 44 25
AA11 1 19 45 99 TBC 68 61 143 47 113 47
AA16 0 0 0 0 TBC 0 1 1 1 0 0
AB1 0 16 25 74 TBC 30 46 99 36 70 34
AB2 2 39 89 224 TBC 37 123 246 109 189 96
AB3 0 31 41 140 TBC 38 88 134 78 128 55
AB4 0 75 166 341 TBC 106 190 456 148 327 163
AB5 3 129 73 336 TBC 136 180 432 150 318 155
AB6 14 266 630 1355 TBC 406 899 1456 834 1354 575
AB7 17 629 346 1839 TBC 780 1038 2235 822 1636 838
AB8 43 442 1083 2662 TBC 1140 1306 2786 912 2119 1346
AB9 51 968 979 3466 TBC 1481 1614 3103 1411 3085 1676
Who has been
impacted by reforms
to date?
What will be the
impact of
Universal Credit?
Who has been hit by
multiple reforms?
The depth of our analysis goes
even deeper, to household level
Explain a complex picture to Cabinet
Detailed picture of welfare reform at household level
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Tax
Credit
cuts?
11. Preliminary Findings – Universal Credit
• Universal Credit with full transitional protection would bring
the local economy £1.6m each month – an additional
£30/month for each working age household on average.
£32,028
£18,189
£26,956
£15,959
Couple with children Couple without
children
Lone parent Single
Earnings required for UC to fall to zero
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Please note:
These shows preliminary
findings for Leeds and
Birmingham Councils – not
to be shared
12. Preliminary Findings – Benefit Cap
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
756
4,305
7,553
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
£26,000 £23,000 £20,000
NUMBER OF BENEFIT CAP CASES
• A reduced Benefit Cap would more than quadruple the
number of capped households
Average Loss
£60.22 / week
Please note:
These shows preliminary
findings for Leeds and
Birmingham Councils – not
to be shared
13. •85% of self-employed households have earning
below the Minimum Income Floor.
•There are 2,518 18-21 year olds on housing benefit
•The number of households in the ESA WRAG Group
•The number of households affected by changes to
Tax Credits
Some key findings in one large city:
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Please note:
These shows preliminary
findings for Leeds and
Birmingham Councils – not
to be shared
14. Better Outcomes:
A better Council Tax Scheme and operational plan for UC
The council has now approved an innovative Council
Tax Support scheme aimed at supporting jobseekers
into work. The scheme is based on the analysis of
schemes provided by PiP.
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Better partnership working
Better preparation for Universal Credit
Better targeted support
Better personalised support
15. VS
Support that leads to savings:
Targeted and Tailored Support – letters that engage people
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
16. How do you show the impact to the person in a meaningful
way?
JSA
Child Tax
Credit
ESA
Housing
Benefit
Working Tax
Credit
Income
Support
Engage people and change behaviour
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
17. What have we learned?
• Local Authorities face difficult choices
– £12bn of cuts with reforms aimed at changing behaviour.
– The combined impact on households is changing, complex and confusing.
• The risk is that households won't get the right support
– Councils need to better co-ordinate support with partners.
– This includes financial support and support toward independence.
– Without better co-ordination, and support into employment, there won't be
enough support available to go around.
– This will cost the council and taxpayers through impacts on other services.
• Birmingham Council, with Policy in Practice have developed an approach
that will help you to
– Better co-ordinate support and prepare for reforms
– Explain a complex picture, both to cabinet and to the end user
– target and tailor support effectively
– Have a tangible and measured impact on behaviour
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
19. Next Steps
• Visit our stand
• Pick up the Leeds CC case study
• Follow us on Twitter
• Learn more on one of our Webinars
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Hi, I’m Lisa from Policy in Practice. Our mission is to reduce poverty. We do this through simplifying the welfare system.
Story:
About Policy in Practice: It’s how you communicate policy that matters [Policy – UC report, FIC; Consultancy – USDL evaluation and I will explain; Software – Live demo
The current context – Universal Credit, alongside other changes designed to make savings
We know three changes
We don’t know the rest… (infographic)
Policy: Universal Credit and its aggregate impact
Practice: How useful is this? The real question - What does this mean for me?
One – a system that illustrates the impact (choose a case to show how UC is different, and why)
Two – how this can help you to better target support – based on a case study in Leeds, and now Birmingham
Summary
There is uncertainty, but you can plan for it:
Identify not only who is affected, but how they are affected
Engage people by showing them how the reforms will impact them (both self-service and targeted) and showing them wiifm
Evaluate your activities by trialling different approaches, learn what works and share with others
To start off with, I’d like to tell you a bit about Policy in Practice. We were founded by Deven Ghelani, who was part of the team that developed Universal Credit at the Centre for Social Justice. When UC was adopted, he saw this as a unique opportunity that not many people have in the policy world – to have your idea actually be put into practice – so he had two options: to move on to the next policy report, or to try make Universal Credit work. He founded Policy in Practice to address the gap between policy and practice.
We do a variety of different things to achieve this. We do policy research, which is mostly what I will be talking to you about today. We also do consultancy work, mostly for local authorities, to help them better understand the impact of welfare reform, or to help them develop their own schemes. We also have a range of outcome-based software tools, like our Universal Benefit and Budgeting calculators that help our clients to be more effective in supporting customers and deliver policy intent.
Before joining Policy in Practice, my personal background was working in frontline services, for charities like Turning Point and Centrepoint, supporting people with substance misuse issues and homeless young people. I have also done some volunteering at a homeless day centre in Manchester. In those roles I dealt with the benefit system on a daily basis and found it a challenge, to say the least. While at Centrepoint, I helped one of my young people get a job at the local Co-op. The impact on her was incredible. She developed a routine and gained a great deal of confidence. However the impact on her finances was very difficult. Her JSA and HB stopped the day she started working, even though she wouldn’t get paid for another month. She accrued rent arrears and had to be referred to a food bank to get through that first month without either benefits or pay. It seemed like the system was punishing her for trying to improve her situation.
Our assumption on ESA will factor into this.
HB and Tax credits (because we don’t know their income last year) from their data. ESA, CB, Base Element from our data
1,000 more @26k under UC
3,907 more @ £23k under UC
We can put in place support on 1:1 basis – in the future, we won’t be able to do that.
3rd Sector Commissioning strategy, Future Advice Model.
In contrast, the current benefit system is very complex. We have a range of benefits offered by 3 different agencies all with their own set of rules. From a recipient’s perspective, this means multiple applications, providing evidence to more than one agency, and managing multiple claims and payments. The complexity of the system is confusing for people, sometimes even for professionals who deal with it on a daily basis, which can hamper the take up of benefits.
Take up can be as low as 60% in the case of Jobseeker’s Allowance, or 64% in the case of Working Tax Credit. That means that around 40% of people entitled to those benefits are not receiving them.