Webinar: Mapping The Impact of the Summer Budget in Birmingham

Housekeeping
www.policyinpractice.co.uk
1. Audio check
2. Please ask questions
3. Finish by 11:15
4. Webinar recording

Today’s Agenda
1. Introduction
2. The challenge in Birmingham
3. The approach with Policy in Practice
4. The outcomes for residents
5. The software that makes it happen
6. Next Steps

About Policy in Practice
Consultancy
SoftwarePolicy

Over to Peter

Peter Carter, Policy in Practice
• Delivered process
improvement in Revs and
Benefits for local authorities
• Practical delivery of welfare
reforms with Policy in
Practice
• Delivered DHP policy with
Welfare Reform Club

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

Today’s agenda
The Challenge in Birmingham
How to co-ordinate limited support, as demand
increases?
The Approach with Policy in Practice
A detailed Impact Assessment for all reforms, today
and tomorrow
The Outcomes for residents
Better targeted support that has a tangible impact
on behaviour

Who will Welfare
Reforms hit hardest?

Challenge: Birmingham City Council
www.policyinpractice.co.ukwww.policyinpractice.co.uk
“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.” Chris Gibbs, Birmingham City Council
Challenge: Understand the impact of all welfare
changes, to better co-ordinate activity.

Birmingham City Council
• Size: Over 1m residents
• Diverse: Population, Geography & Affluence
• Unemployment: 10.9% vs 6.2% 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 active local
councillors

Challenge: Enhance the existing
support offer within Birmingham
• Established partnerships
– RSLs, Third sector and private landlords
• Welfare Reform Group
– Multi Agency Committee chaired by Cabinet
Member
• 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

Your local authority is:
• Partner among other stakeholders
• May be a Social Landlord
• Implemented 2013 Welfare Reforms
• Universal Credit is live or imminent
• Residents face further reductions in support
• Reduced budgets to deliver support now and in the
future
The combined impact on households is typically
changing, complex and confusing.

Quick poll:
How are you making
these decisions today?

Challenge: Leeds City Council
www.policyinpractice.co.ukwww.policyinpractice.co.uk
“I can’t see whether the people being clobbered
by reductions in council tax support, or under-
occupation are the same people that have been
clobbered by other reforms.”
Steve Carey, Leeds City Council

data + software =
actionable insights

Policy in Practice’s Approach
1. Use local data and
insights to inform better
decision makingYour SHBE data
Our Universal
Benefit Calculator
A detailed impact
assessment - who is
impacted and how?
2. See the impact of
specific and cumulative
reforms at an aggregate and
household level
3. Inform targeted and
tailored local welfare
support

Rich data about each household
Understand the cumulative impact of these 5 current welfare reforms
Plan to mitigate against the effect of these additional 4 future welfare reforms
Model how these 4 additional indicators will affect residents
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Household
details
Under-
Occupation
Local Housing
Allowance
Council Tax
Support
Benefit Cap at
£26k
6. 7. 8. 9
Benefit Cap at
£20k
Tax Credit
Changes
Future CTRS Universal Credit
10. 11. 12. 13
Other income /
expenditure
Support and
Arrears
Cumulative
Impact
Barriers to
Work

Preliminary findings
paint a stark picture

69% of 147,000 households are of
Working age
29%
20%
5%
33%
13%
In work
Not in work
Not in work, carer
Not in work, disabled
Not in work, lone
parent

The Summer Budget will double the
impact of welfare reform on
residents
£9.73 £18.44

Four times as many household
will face a ‘high’ impact

Specific
reforms
have
different
impacts

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
Tax Credit
cuts?

Proactive steps can
mitigate the impact

A lower Benefit Cap will affect 10x as
many households
756
7,285
At £26,000 At £20,000
Recommendations:
Check exemptions on specific
households, for example:
• Households in receipt of ESA
may be in the support group
• Children in receipt of DLA
• They or their partner may be
in work, and eligible for tax
credits.

Reduction of the Benefit Cap
Weekly benefit cap amount
169 161 115 85 76 114 23 12 1
2,263
951 955
756
1,003
1,153
200
3 1
£0-20 £21-40 £41-60 £61-80 £81-100 £101-150£151-200£201-300 £301+
NumberofCases
Weekly Benefit Cap Amount
£26k £20k
Recommendation:
Take proactive steps
• Focus intensive outreach and
support on those most severely
impacted by a lower benefit
cap

Recommendations:
• 4,808 households have a high welfare reform impact, but low barriers to work.
• Supporting these households into work could help to alleviate financial hardship
for those families and for the council.
Targeted employment support

Future Reforms: Tax Credits
90% of households that will see a reduction to their tax credits have children.
The largest proportion of households affected live in the private rented sector.
Tax Credit changes affect mostly those in receipt of Working Tax Credit. Households
affected will lose £24 per week on average.
Recommendation:
• Take proactive steps to broaden your support offer
• Reach out to households less well known to the council, who will be affected

Future Reforms: Universal Credit
Recommendations:
• Take proactive steps to support people who will be better off in work, and working
more, while taking different actions to help those negatively impacted.
• Take action to help those already in arrears.

ESA WRAG premium to be removed for new claimants
• 5,852 households in the Work Related Activity Group would lose the WRAG
premium, worth £29.05 per week
Changes affecting young people
• 85% of HB recipients aged 18-21 are out of work and may lose automatic
entitlement to HB
• 4,042 young people aged 18-21 will be expected to ‘earn or learn’ (includes non-
dependants)
The minimum income floor affects most self-employed people
• 65% of self-employed households have earning below the Minimum Income Floor
in Birmingham.
The third child rule
• 15,598 working-age households have two children. These households would not
be eligible for additional support through tax credits if they had a third child after
April 2016.
Other reforms

If you had these insights
too, what would you do
differently?

Here’s what some of our
customers are doing

Birmingham City Council
• Identify households most vulnerable to welfare reforms, and map
local support onto local needs
North Hertfordshire Council
• Accurately forecast the cost of their council tax reduction scheme
• Helped them to eliminate a £500,000 underspend
Leeds City Council
• Develop an innovative approach to local support, introducing
targeted conditionality, and justify this decision to cabinet
Lewisham Council
• Target communications to affected households, and triple the
effectiveness of home visits and interventions
Newcastle City Council and Your Homes Newcastle
• Detailed impact assessment now, and the start of a big data hub
to track the impact of reforms, effectiveness of interventions

Rich data for each household
Household details Under-Occupation Local Housing Allowance Council Tax Support
• Reference number
• Household Type
• Tenure
• Economic status
• Earnings
• Savings
• Under occupied (y/n)
• Under occupied (amount £)
• LHA cap (y/n)
• LHA cap (amount £)
• Not protected (y/n)
• Not protected (amount £)
Benefit Cap at £26k Benefit Cap at £20k Tax Credit Changes Other
• Could get WTC (y/n)
• Receiving DLA (y/n)
• Benefit cap 26k (y/n)
• Amount (£)
• Could get WTC (y/n)
• Receiving DLA (y/n)
• Benefit cap 20k (y/n)
• Amount (£)
• Reduced (y/n)
• Reduced amount (£)
• Earnings below NMW(y/n)
• Pay to stay (y/n)
• Free school meal eligibility
Universal Credit Support Cumulative Impact Barriers to work
• Needs protection (y/n)
• Needs protection (£)
• In work conditionality (y/n)
• Min income floor (y/n)
• DHP (£/no)
• CTRS (£/no)
• Income Reduction 2015 (£)
• Impact 2015 (no/l/m/h)
• Income Reduction 2016 (£)
• Impact 2016 (no/l/m/h)
• Disability (0/1/2)
• Caring responsibilities (0/2)
• Parenting
responsibilities(0/1/2)
• Barriers to work
(low/medium/high)

What outcomes would
you like to achieve?

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

Next Actions?

Next Actions
You can:
• Request a case study and report
• Request pricing details
• Ask to speak with one of our clients
Next webinar:
Behavioural Change, Wed 14 Oct at 10:30

Peter Carter
07805 254371
peter@policyinpractice.co.uk
@policy_practice
Thank you

Timeframes: six to eight weeks
Kick off meeting:
• We agree upon the core deliverables, and outcomes you are hoping to achieve.
Data requirements:
• We can send you a template data sharing agreement that has worked well for our
clients.
• A detailed list of data requirements from your SHBE and CTRS records.
Review preliminary findings:
• We want you to get maximum value from the analysis
Final report:
• We can deliver a final presentation in person to your project board
• You can request a report
• If you want more information, or talk about your own particular circumstances

Webinar: Mapping The Impact of the Summer Budget in Birmingham

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