Guidance

LA Welfare Direct Bulletin 9/2018

Updated 3 December 2018

Contact

Queries about the:

• technical content of this bulletin, contact details are given at the end of each article
• general content and distribution of this bulletin, contact [email protected]

Who should read

All Housing Benefit staff

Action

For information

Editorial

A very warm welcome to the inaugural LA Welfare Direct, which replaces the HB Direct newsletter and General Information Bulletin. We plan to publish this new publication on the first working day of each month and you’ll find all the usual and latest general information within, including updates and reminders. The main benefit of this replacement for you, we believe, is that you’ll hopefully find it easier in the future to locate previously published articles you need to see now that you will only have one set of publications to refer to. We will also issue a lighter mid-monthly version should we need to communicate to you before the main version comes round again. All that said, do feel free to feedback to the editor ([email protected]) if you have any thoughts on improving the bulletin further.

Going forward, colleagues who head different business areas within Housing Delivery Division (HDD) will provide the Editorial each month. We hope that, this way, you will become familiar with the wide range of on-going HDD/LA related business that’s happening within the Department for Work and Pensions to help LA services; regardless of whether we have any more official updates for you in that area. It also gives more of us within HDD the opportunity to engage with you on a more regular basis.

The world of Housing Benefit (HB) continues to be a world of change. The latest speed of processing statistics show stability in performance despite this. I am grateful to you all for your continued focus on customer service despite the pressures we are all facing managing change in an environment of reducing resources. New claims are falling but there continues to be a high volume of changes of circumstance. 96% of all claims processed are changes and only 4% new claims.

Our endeavour remains to support performance through strong communications to keep you informed and help you plan, ensuring any new burdens we impose are funded; helping maximise debt recoveries and through continuous improvement in the way we share data to make this as efficient and effective as possible. A couple of examples of the latter are covered in this edition; the Customer Information System automation should see a reduction in manual processing and ensure that more of the alerts you receive are valuable. The rollout of the Verify Earnings and Pensions Alerts also provides Real Time Information on earnings meaning overpayments are detected and corrected quickly without debt building up. The feedback to date has been excellent. We continue to work on how best to integrate the Alerts.

Another strand of our approach is listening to feedback and ideas from you. We have regular engagement and consultation with the Local Authority Welfare Steering Group and Practitioners’ Operational Group as well as consultations such as that which informed the recent announcements on supported housing. The Insight Survey is a further opportunity for your voice to be heard. The next wave will be looking at how Discretionary Housing Payments are working. This will provide valuable evidence feeding into the next Spending Review.

Finally, what better way of influencing the Department for Work and Pensions than coming to work with us? We continue to have a range of secondment opportunities across Great Britain. The secondees who have worked in our team have provided invaluable insight and delivered key projects. Why not get in touch and find out more.

As I left for the office this morning, there was a definite autumnal crispness to the air. This is my favourite time of year, not least, as I look forward to the opportunities to meet with LA colleagues at the IRRV conference in Telford in October.

Clare Elliott
Head of Housing Delivery Division

Update: Supported housing

1. We wish to draw your attention to the publication on 9 August 2018 of the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP’s) and Ministry of Housing and Communities Local Government’s formal response to the October 2017 consultation on future funding for supported housing. This sets out our decision to maintain Housing Benefit (HB) for all supported housing (including short-term) and introduce a new oversight mechanism to ensure quality of provision and value for money across this vital sector. 

2. We will maintain HB for all supported housing, reflecting the needs of the vulnerable people who rely on it and the need for continued supply across the sector. We are determined that oversight of quality and value for money must be achieved across the supported housing sector.

3. Ensuring quality accommodation for vulnerable people whilst spending tax-payers’ money correctly is a priority for government. We recognise the level of commitment and high standards demonstrated by most providers in this sector, but we need to ensure standards across the whole sector. We will continue to work with providers, local authorities (LAs), membership bodies and resident representatives over the coming months to put together a sound and robust oversight regime. This will cover short-term, long-term and sheltered and extra care accommodation, and will build upon our draft National Statement of Expectation, published last October. Government is fully committed to getting this right.

4. Alongside this enhanced oversight we are keen to have a full and clear picture of the supported housing sector, including the important role of housing related support. We will therefore undertake a review of that element in order to better understand how housing and support currently fit together. As part of this it is important that you continue to identify short-term specified accommodation (as now) on your IT systems as published in Circular HB A4/2018 and IT supplier guidance.

5. If you have any questions regarding the content of this article you can send an email to [email protected]

Removal of PDF option: Universal Credit full and live service Local Council Tax Reduction

6. This is to inform you that the generation of the PDF versions of the Universal Credit (UC) Local Council Tax Reduction (LCTR) and HB stop notification files in the Data Hub will be switched off from 29 October 2018. The XML versions of these same files will continue to be produced, unchanged.

7. The PDF version was always intended to be a temporary solution, to allow the LA Software suppliers time to develop an automation solution.

8. The automation solution allows you to upload the UC LCTR and HB Stop Notice XML files directly into your LA systems, as you do with your ATLAS (Automated Transfer to LA System) files. Your LA Software suppliers have informed us the automation solution has been released to all LAs.

9. If you have not yet started using the automated solution, we would encourage you to start doing so before the PDF functionality is switched off.

10. A list of questions and answers (Q&A) is also included in Annex A for your information.

11. If you have any questions regarding the automation process, please contact your LA software supplier. Any other questions relating to the content of this article should be emailed to [email protected]

Update: Customer Information System (CIS) Interest Automation

12. An article was published in June’s HB G6/2018 regarding the setting and general maintenance of the Customer Information System (CIS) HB and Council Tax Reduction (CTR) interests.

13. Since then Housing Delivery Division’s (HDD) LA Data Sharing (LADS) Delivery Team have continued to work with your LA Software Suppliers to develop and introduce the automated process for the setting and general maintenance of the CIS HB and CTR. The new system is on track to be delivered from November 2018. This will involve LA HB/CTR systems having direct access to DWP CIS using new and improved software capabilities.

14. Please be assured that this project will deliver significant improvements for LAs in the maintenance of the CIS HB and CTR interests, reducing nugatory alerts, and ensure more genuine change alerts are received.

15. We are currently testing connectivity between your Software Suppliers and DWP and will be writing out shortly to each LA IT contact asking for their support to deploy security certificates and undertake connectivity testing between LA and DWP computer systems.

16. We will continue to keep you updated with progress. In the meantime, if you have any questions you can email [email protected]

Update: Rollout of the Verify Earnings and Pensions Alerts service

17. The Verify Earnings and Pensions (VEP) service (previously known as WURTI) was delivered to all LA sites during 2017; introducing the ability to access HMRC’s Real Time Information (RTI) database which holds payroll data from employers and pension providers.

18. The next stage of delivery has now begun, with the introduction of the VEP Alerts service, which commenced rollout to LAs from 18 June 2018. The VEP Alerts will help to reduce fraud and error in the existing non-passported HB caseload as notifications will be issued directly to the LA when a claimant or their partner starts work or starts to receive a work’s pension. LAs will also be notified when there are changes to a claimant’s or their partner’s income.

19. The service is being delivered to all LAs in 5 tranches, over 4 months. To date 282 authorities have implemented the service with the remaining 99 sites due to receive the service from 28 September 2018 (this includes Northern Ireland sites).

20. The introduction of the VEP Alert service means RTI referrals are being replaced, as Alerts will provide real-time notification of changes in income, rather than provided at a point in time.

21. Alerts are generated on an ongoing basis throughout the day and are prioritised to ensure LAs are notified of the highest value changes. This priority changes each day so that it is the highest value alerts that are processed on an ongoing basis.

22. To introduce the service, Project Implementation Managers have liaised with LA Single Point of Contacts (SPOCs) to prepare sites to operate the service. This has included telephone call conferences to demonstrate the operation of the service. Project representatives also liaised with 10 LA sites to test the design of the Alerts before rollout commenced.

23. Part of the success in delivering the service has been the co-operation of the SPOC taking the time out to take the appropriate action to prepare sites getting ready for go-live and assessors and team leaders being given time away from the day-job to attend teleconference calls to up-skill themselves in how to use the service.

24. Feedback from LAs regarding this approach has been positive, with all teleconference calls being well attended.

25. Once rollout is complete the project will continue to request feedback so that the service can continue to be enhanced to meet LA requirements.

26. Feedback from some of the offices already using the Alerts service includes:

We prefer the Alerts service to RTI referrals as the information is current which makes the assessment easier

Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

Really useful getting the data in real time which means that benefits can be assessed promptly avoiding overpayments. Feeling very positive about the service and look forward to when the alerts data is integrated into our HB IT system. Wish we had had this years ago!

Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council

Information is certainly being received in real-time, almost instantly as soon as the claimant is first paid by their employer. This had therefore minimised the size of HB overpayments. I feel that the VEP Alerts provide a much more streamlined approach to dealing with the changes in real-time, meaning LAs can process this information more quickly, efficiently and effectively

East Devon District Council

27. Further articles will be provided on any enhancement to the VEP service as these are developed.

28. If you have any questions in the meantime you can email [email protected]

Discretionary Housing Payments mid-year monitoring return 2018 to 2019

29. Thank you for providing your end of year 2017 to 2018 Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) monitoring returns. The information was published as an official statistic on 12 July 2018.

30. These monitoring returns are very important in improving DWP’s understanding of how DHPs are being used to support people affected by the welfare reforms.

31. You are now asked to provide information in relation to the period 1 April 2018 to 30 September 2018. We are again, only seeking details of DHPs paid during this period: please do not include any DHP spend, which is committed, but is due to be paid after 30 September 2018. Further details can be found in the DHP Guidance Manual and the ’Guide to completion’ tab of the DHP monitoring form attached separately as Appendix A.

32. In line with the approach taken on previous occasions, the monitoring form asks for the value of DHPs paid, broken down into welfare reform impacts and the purpose of the award, for example, an award made as a result of the implementation of the lower benefit cap with the intention of helping the claimant secure and move into alternative accommodation. If information relating to the purpose of the award is not available, LAs are asked just to record the total DHP paid in respect of the Welfare Reform listed.

33. We would also like to confirm that the DHP monitoring returns should include payments made to both HB and UC (Housing cost) claimants.

34. Please complete and return the excel sheet monitoring form by Friday 12 October 2018 to [email protected]

LA Insight Survey: Wave 36 starts soon (England and Wales only)

35. In conjunction with this monitoring we will also be asking for your responses to the LA Insight Survey Wave 36, which will also focus on Discretionary Housing Payments.

36. This survey will inform the Spending Review in early 2019 and represents a major opportunity for LA to have significant input into the future of DHPs. We will be sending out an online survey to all English and Welsh authorities, with a smaller number of LAs also being invited to expand on their views in a follow-up telephone interview.

37. The main period of fieldwork will start in this month and will be conducted by our contractors, NatCen. Please look out for an email from NatCen with a link to the survey.

38. If you haven’t received your email invitation by mid-October 2018 please contact Andrew Luty on 0114 204 4143 or [email protected].

39. Your input via this survey is invaluable to us and more recently, impacts have included influencing the ongoing supported housing policy and delivery discussions, improving DWP led workshops for LAs. We have also gathered feedback on operational issues and challenges within specific policies such as HB backdating.

40. Finally, thank you to everyone who took part in Waves 34 and 35 of the LA Insight Survey. We’re planning to publish the findings on GOV.UKin the coming months.

Considering becoming a unitary authority or forming a new council?

41. HDD is currently working with a number of LAs that are either joining together to form a new unitary authority or to create a new council.

42. The Secretary of State for Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government has approved these changes and legislation has been passed to allow these to happen.

43. We’d just like to ask any other councils considering putting forward proposals to change the make-up of their council by either becoming a unitary authority or forming a new council with a neighbouring authority to contact DWP using this email address [email protected].

44. We can then discuss the implications of the proposed creation on DWP business particularly HB admin subsidy allocations, payments of HB admin subsidy, data sharing arrangements, and the costs and timelines involved if changes are required to DWP IT systems.

Publication of HB speed of processing statistics

45. We published HB Speed of Processing (SoP) statistics and associated data for the quarter 4 (Q4) period January to March 2018 on Wednesday 25 July 2018. Here are some key points:

New Claims

The average time taken to process new HB claims in January to March 2017 to 2018 was 22 calendar days, this is one day higher than it was in January to March of 2016 to 2017.

There were 232,000 new HB claims. This represents a decrease of 7,000 (3.0%) since last quarter and a decrease of 57,000 (20%) since January to March of 2016 to 2017.

Changes of Circumstances

The average time taken to process changes of circumstances to HB claims for January to March 2017 to 2018 was 4 calendar days, this is the same as it was in January to March of 2016 to 2017.

There were 6.1 million changes of circumstances to HB claims. This is an increase of 3.83 million (170%) since last quarter and a decrease of 476,000 (7%) cases from January to March of 2016 to 2017.

To note

In January to March of the financial year 2017 to 2018, 96% of HB claims processed were change of circumstances on existing claims and the remaining 4% were new HB claims.

There are increases in the number of change of circumstances and decreases in processing time for these in January to March each year. The average time taken to process change of circumstances tends to decrease in February and/or March. This may be due to the increase of resources to deal with bulk change of circumstances and, often, uprating activity at the end of the financial year.

The rollout of UC full service means that new HB claims are no longer accepted in some UC areas. This may have an impact on the SoP figures at the LA level; namely that the number of new claims will fall in these areas and the processing days for new claims may change. We are monitoring the impact of this.

46. Find full details in the Housing Benefit: statistics on speed of processing 2017 to 2018.

LA Welfare Steering Group and Practitioners’ Operational Group

47. Summary minutes for the LA Wefare Steering Group April and June 2018 meetings and for Practitioners’ Operational Group March and May 2018 meetings have been published on GOV.UK.

48. If you have any questions regarding either of these DWP/LA consultation groups you can email the Secretariat at [email protected].

Secondment opportunities: DWP HDD

49. The department is currently undertaking a huge programme of welfare reform. Working with LAs, who are one of our major stakeholders, continues to feature heavily and for this reason we value the expertise and knowledge that LA HB experts can bring to the team. These secondment opportunities provide an opportunity to gain an insight and experience of policy development and workings of central government.

50. HDD has had a programme of bringing HB experts from LAs in to work alongside Data Sharing, Subsidy, Change and Performance teams on secondment. We are now looking to register your interest for further secondment opportunities over the coming months.

51. HDD comprises of approximately 100 staff. The Division is responsible for overseeing the performance of LAs in their delivery of HB (circa £21 billion), allocating HB administration subsidy (circa £215 million) and DHPs (circa £150 million). HDD monitor a range of performance data including how quickly and accurately HB is paid and the prevention and detection of fraud and error. HDD offer support and challenge to those LAs not meeting performance expectations.

52. It also supports a large program of data sharing activity that is paramount in helping LAs pay the correct amount of HB and is heavily involved in managing change activity supporting the welfare reform agenda.

53. This is an exciting opportunity to play a leading role in maintaining and improving stakeholder relationships between DWP and LAs and in designing innovative opportunities for closer working during this busy and complex period of welfare reform.

Personal requirements

54. Candidates should possess the following:

• good understanding of HB procedures and regulations
• good drafting and communication skills
• ability to build and maintain effective working relationships with LAs and other stakeholders
• ability to work with people at different levels in the organisation and to work as part of a team to achieve results
• ability to deliver work at pace and with successful, quantifiable outcomes

Further Information

55. Secondment posts would be offered for 12 months initially but this would be reviewed at the end of the period and could be extended for up to a maximum of two years. The posts would be full time and based across the country, although no moves at public expense would be considered. These opportunities will be determined by business need so your CV will be kept on file and you will be contacted once a suitable opportunity arises.

56. If you are keen to register your interest and are at S01/S02/SO3 and Pay Band level 4 or equivalent, (roughly equates to civil service HEO/SEO/G7 grades) please:

• check with your LA that you could be released; and then
• send your CV by email to [email protected]

HB decisions by the Upper Tribunal

57. Decision Making and Appeals (DMA) Leeds is not aware of any further HB cases that have been decided by the Upper Tribunal (UT) since the last General Information Bulletin was published in August.

58. Decisions of the UT are published on their website.

59. If you have any queries about cases before the UT Judges or courts, please contact us by email at [email protected] or fax on 0113 232 4841.

New legislation

60. The following Statutory Instrument (SI) has been laid:

• 2018 no.932 The Social Security (Treatment of Arrears of Benefit) Regulations 2018, coming into force on 11 September 2018

61. Copies of SIs can now be downloaded from legislation.gov.uk.

What’s new on our HB pages on GOV.UK

1. The following items can be found on the website link shown:

Document type	Subject	Link
HB G8/2018	New publication for communicating with Las Notice: Discretionary Housing Payments mid-year monitoring returns 2018-19 from English and Welsh LAs HB Decisions by the Upper Tribunal New legislation What’s new on our HB pages on GOV.UK	HB G8/2018

Annex A: Q&A Removal of PDF functionality for UC full and live service LCTR

Q1. Why is the PDF functionality being switched off?

A1. The PDF functionality was an interim solution put in place to allow the LA Software suppliers time to develop the automation solution.

Q2. What is the contingency plan for LAs who are not yet using the automation solution?

A2. The automation solution was released to all LAs with the last go-live in December 2017. All LAs are therefore expected to be using the solution by now.

Q3. Where can I find out if the automation solution is available?

A3. Your LA software Suppliers will be able to answer any questions relating to the automation solution. They are responsible for providing guidance on how to use the solution.

Q4. What other options will be available for LAs who are unable to automate?

A4. The UC Files will only be issued in XML format (machine readable format) once the PDF functionality is switched off. It is therefore important for the LAs to start using the automation solution if not already doing so.

Q5. Can I still download and print the UC Files in XML format?

A5. Yes, the XML format files can be printed but, we would not recommend doing this as they are neither user friendly nor easy to read.