A lower benefit cap is being rolled out from 7 November 2016. Policy in Practice has been helping local authorities across the country to determine who will be impacted. In this webinar we shared some of the recent work we're doing with London Borough Croydon to help them identify potential exemptions, and prioritise both financial and employment support to affected households. We were joined by Asha Vyas, Head of Enablement and Welfare, LB Croydon, who shared background and details about the key strategies the council is now following, as a result of the work with Policy in Practice. View the slides to learn: 1. How we proactively identified which households will be affected by the lower benefit cap, and by how much. 2. How the most vulnerable households were segmented into 6 different groups, and what the characteristics of those groups are 3. What different strategies the council is now executing for each of those groups to mitigate the impact of the lower benefit cap 4. How our work builds on the DWP benefit cap scans and how it can help you identify potential exemptions

1. Policy in Practice
Webinar: Minimising the
impact of the lower benefit
cap
Tuesday 8 November 2016

2. Housekeeping
• Audio check
• Please ask questions
• Polls and a survey
• Finish by 11:30

3. Speakers
Giovanni Tonutti
Policy in Practice
Deven Ghelani
Policy in Practice

4. Agenda
• Introduction to Policy in Practice
• A brief history of the benefit cap
• Case study – London Borough of Croydon
• Six strategies to mitigate the impact of the lower benefit cap
• A comment from Croydon
• Recap – identifying and engaging residents

5. We make the welfare system
simple to understand, so that
people can make the decisions
that are right for them

6. www.policyinpractice.co.uk
SOFTWARE
individual impact
CONSULTANC
local impact
POLICY
national impact

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8. The impact of welfare reform policies
Governments may know how one policy affects many people. We can show
how all policies combined affect one person.

9. Poll 1: Who’s affected in your area?

10. 101010
The lower benefit cap
The single biggest challenge posed by
welfare reform to date

11. A brief history of the benefit cap
• Policy designed to limit the amount of most welfare benefits that a single
household can receive
• Introduced between April and September 2013, set at £26,000 for all UK
households
• Lower limit effective from Monday 7 November 2016, rolled out over 13
weeks
• Limits how much money a working age household can receive in benefits to
£20,000 a year across the UK or £23,000 in London
• Will have significant impact on low income residents
• And on the local authorities supporting them

12. Who is affected?

13. Our findings show 5x as many households
will be impacted

14. Towns and cities outside of London are
particularly affected

15. The information available is fluid
• DWP listings of affected households in 2013 tended to overestimate the
number of capped households, missing exemptions
• DWP methodology appears to have improved, based on WPLS, which joins
admin data across DWP, Housing Benefit and HMRC
• DWP released their initial scan data in May / June, with a second scan in
October that removed some exempted households
• Households affected at £26k have already had the cap lowered, with rollout
to newly affected households over 13 weeks, with London and larger cities
impacted later
• Letters to claimants say they may be affected and that their local authority
will be in touch
• We find many households are unaware of what this means for them, what to
do next and local authorities struggle to engage people

16. Without a coherent strategy, the impact will
be severe for …
1. Families: they’ll be less able to sustain a tenancy
>> risk of evictions and homelessness
>> £8,000 per homelessness application
2. Local authorities: they’ll have longer homelessness lists
>> increase in temporary accommodation and its associated costs
>> £415 per week per capped household in TA
3. Housing associations: they’ll have a reduction in housing benefits
>> risk of higher rent arrears, and evictions

17. Case study: London Borough of Croydon
Strategic priorities for the council:
• keeping people in their home
• improving household resilience and wellbeing
• reducing indebtedness
Achieved by a proactive approach and smart use of data
Contact Mark Fowler / Asha Vyas to learn more about their Benefit Cap
Strategy Team

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“Working with Policy in Practice we’ve developed
information that supports, informs and helps us monitor the
effectiveness of our strategies.
“By better understanding the levels of risk and the
concentrated areas where those residents live, we believe
resources from inside and outside of the council will be
better targeted and more effective.
“We’re deeply concerned about the amounts families will be
losing and without a proactive, preventative approach we
fear for the longer term impact on residents.”
Mark Fowler, London Borough of Croydon

19. Poll 2: What are the biggest
challenges you face when working
with capped households?

20. 202020
Over to Giovanni

21. Turning data into actionable insights
CROYDON’SDATA
SETS
Housing Benefit
Council tax
payments
Council tax
arrears
DHP data
HB
overpayments
DWP scans
POLICYINPRACTICE
Universal
Benefit and
Budgeting
software
IMPACTASSESSMENT
Detailed
information
about who is
impacted by
which reform,
and how

22. 6 target groups in Croydon
Potential
exemptions
GROUP 1
168 Already
capped
households
GROUP 2
226
Quick wins
GROUP 3
227
Temporary
accommodati
on
GROUP 4
81
Lone parent
households
GROUP 5
115 Households
potentially on
Universal
Credit
GROUP 6
77

23. 168 cases were identified as capped by the DWP who could potentially qualify
for an exemption
These cases ranged from Carer’s Allowance, DLA or in the ESA Support
Group, to households working enough hours to qualify for Working Tax Credit
Key take away:
Local authorities should verify these exemptions before making contact
Group 1: Potential exemptions

24. Households already capped are the first group to be affected.
So far they have managed to support their finances by budgeting, without
seeking support from the council
A further reduction in HB, however, could become impossible to sustain without
support from DHPs
Key take away:
Contacting these families to inform them about the imminent reduction in their
entitlements should be a priority.
Group 2: Already capped

25. 160 households affected by the cap are already in-work.
If they can increase the number of hours worked to the WTC threshold they
may be exempt.
Other 67 households that are not currently working, but who show low barriers
to work (i.e. no disability, no caring responsibilities, no young children).
Key take away:
This group of 227 households represents the ‘quick wins’: if employment
support to these households is delivered in a timely manner, significant
financial hardship could be avoided.
Group 3: Quick wins

26. In the borough, 81 temporary accommodation households will be affected by
the cap. The costs implications are considerable.
In Croydon, we estimate that the costs to the authority for temporary
accommodation for all households capped could rise to £1.1m
Key take away:
Local authorities could prioritise the use of DHPs to make up this shortfall by
awarding payments to all households capped living in temporary
accommodation
Group 4: Temporary accommodation

27. 115 lone parents with children under 5.
The strategy should focus on removing those barriers to work, by ensuring
access to child care.
Group 5: Lone parents
Key take away:
A geographical analysis can help local
authorities verify whether child care
facilities in the neighbourhood have
sufficient capacity to accommodate
these children.

28. 77 households identified by the DWP scan not in the HB data.
These households may have moved to another authority, or no longer by
impacted by the cap, but a proportion will be on Universal Credit.
Without sufficient data, planning and delivering targeted support to claimants in
need on Universal Credit becomes a whole other challenge.
Croydon have agreed to securely share the UC award notices with PIP to see
how this information can build on the analysis.
Key take away:
Local authority and housing associations should request the data on UC
claimants affected by the cap from DWP, and visit affected households to learn
more about their circumstances, and deliver a holistic system of Support.
Group 6: Universal Credit

29. 292929
Over to Asha Vyas
Head of Enablement of Croydon

30. Poll 3: What are the biggest
challenges your residents in capped
households face?

31. 31
Recap:
Act now to help your residents - use
data to target support

32. Turning data into actionable insights
Your data sets*
Our software
Full impact
assessment on
your residents
1. Use local data and
insights to inform better
decision making
2. See the impact of specific
and cumulative reforms
at an aggregate and
household level
3. Inform targeted and
tailored local welfare
support

33. Prioritise capped households

34. Identify who they are

35. Pinpoint support
212 households meet criteria (↓15)

36. Engage them with a personalised
benefit cap calculation

37. Evaluate Effectiveness

38. Return on Investment
Out of all current and newly capped cases:
• 81 are in temporary accommodation
• 212 of these households are at ‘High’ or ‘Severe’ risk of eviction.
The average cost of temporary accommodation across London is £3,530 / year.
This is conservative, the cost is significantly more for capped households and
the average cost of homelessness is £8,000.
• 212 x £3,530 = £750,000 is at risk
• 168 potential exemptions identified, and 227 ‘quick wins’ is a start!

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Questions?

40. Next steps
Complete the automated survey immediately after this webinar to:
1. Book a call to discuss how we can do this analysis for you
2. Request our Benefit Cap white paper
3. Join our newsletter mailing list to keep updated on our work

41. www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Thank you
Giovanni Tonutti
giovanni@policyinpractice.co.uk
Deven Ghelani
deven@policyinpractice.co.uk
0330 088 9242
hello@policyinpractice.co.uk