Agenda item

Members heard evidence from two witnesses in relation to the Committee’s review on universal credit.

Ellen Salkeld – Income Manager at Catalyst

Ms Salkeld provided the Committee with an overview of housing support, how prepared Catalyst were for universal credit and their experience on universal credit so far. In summary, she explained that universal credit was a long running process in terms of implementing full migration to the service. Although the sector was taking steps to prepare for migration, the impact was enormous and and could cause services to be overstretched. Universal credit affected mass groups of customers at once, but there had been a delay in the amount of time taken to roll out the service.

For every claim with universal credit, support still needed to be provided with other types of benefits such as support with council tax.

In Ms Salkeld’s opinion, the initial six months of transferring to universal credit were difficult was customers for a variety of reasons. However, after six months customers tended to adjust well and there were many advantages and disadvantages of the service. There were issues with roll out and some people required a large amount of support in making applications for universal credit claims. At Catalyst, 10 percent of customers were on universal credit and generally arrears were low. It was not all doom and gloom as the government had taken steps to mitigate the risks associated with the transition process. Ultimately, the impact on each household was still the same.

Stuart Coleman – Head of Housing Management at The Barnet Group

Mr Coleman provided the Committee with a background, identified key risks and potential recommendations on the roll out of universal credit.

The Barnet Group was a small housing provider with around 10,000 units around Barnet. At the Barnet Group, universal credit went live in May 2018. It was due to go live initially in October 2017, then February 2018 and then May 2018 but there were delays. The main reason for the delay was to allow more time for The Barnet Group to prepare. Mr Coleman also prepared a presentation and handouts were made available to Members at the meeting.

In summary, a project was undertaken to look into the best way to roll out universal credit. There were challenges identified with the roll out of universal credit and a large amount of research was undertaken. A relationship with the DWP was developed and bench marking data was collated in order to create a model. From the research collated a five year plan was created, findings were presented to Barnet Council and actions were put into place. A number of partnership meetings were undertaken both at a regional and operation level and communication with tenants was significant during this period.

Mr Coleman explained that communication should range from the basics including how to make a claim and raising awareness of the service and information on how to make a claim. At Barnet advertising on raising awareness on universal credit was undertaken for a year.

Mr Coleman suggested a number of recommendations that could be useful and assist with the smooth transition of moving residents to universal credit. Some of the suggestions included; having a universal credit coordinator post, ensuring close partnership working with job centres and housing benefit teams, process in place or ensuring early identification and intervention and implementing coding to report on arrears accrued before and after a customer goes onto universal credit.

Mr Coleman informed the Committee that it was identified after five months into the roll out of universal credit that the wards with the high poverty indexes were most affected by the changes. There were however no strong correlations in terms of age/gender and the vast majority of claimants had been single people.

The main impact on claimants included; difficulties in accessing and managing their universal credit journals due to a lack of IT skills, changes in the behaviour to be able to budge monthly rather than fortnightly and high risk around the use of advanced payments and continued impact on the benefit cap. The risks included over collection, increased arrears and bad debts.  Mr Coleman emphasised that it was important to ensure that there was a strong working relationship with Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) and early intervention was key.

Committee discussion

All the points raised were noted by Members and Members were grateful for the witnesses’ attendance.

It was confirmed that a universal credit coordinator at The Barnet Group had been in place for approximately 1.5 months prior to the roll out of the full service of universal credit. In addition, the landlord portal had been significant as the universal coordinator was able to use the portal to confirm rental levels and ensure that the DWP had accurate up to date information. The Barnet Group had three named officers/managers at the DWP who they regularly corresponded with.

In response to a question about how vulnerable tenants were engaged in the process, especially people with health concerns. It was accepted that this was an important issue and in these circumstances a change of the method in the type of engagement needed to be considered. For example, if a claimant was not responding to letters, then texts ought to be considered, if there was no response to text, then visits in person ought to be considered. The engagement types needed to be mixed up and tailored to meet the claimant and conversations needed to be normalised to ensure that the claimant had autonomy. Prioritising and monitoring cases closely and having personal budget support sessions were helpful in supported vulnerable tenants.

In response to a question on how the process be streamlined and lessons could be learnt from the relationship with the DWP, witnesses explained that the introduction of welfare reform officers could be useful. There needed to be a cohesive relationship with named officers between the local authority and DWP and consistency was key. Although the CAB was taking on a considerable amount of additional work in supporting claimants, there were funding arrangements in place. Funding and sharing knowledge and priorities were both key factors for the CAB to support universal credit claimants.

It was reported that the main type of claimants transitioning to universal credit were in. In order to manage and prepare for worst case scenarios, there was a five year forecast.

In response to how individuals were identified as vulnerable. It was emphasised that early intervention was key and it was important to recognise individuals as people and not numbers. It was important to look at a claim on a case by case basis and not to assume why a claimant had fallen into debt. Services could not be applied in a holistic way. It was important to find a middle ground and consider having a risk indicator.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the witness be thanked for their valuable evidence and attendance.

2.    That the Committee noted the evidence heard and put before it.