Guidance

LA Welfare Direct Bulletin 11/2019

Updated 4 March 2024

Contact

If you have queries about the:

• technical content of this bulletin then 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

I have the pleasure of writing the editorial for this month’s bumper edition. You’ll see there is a clear focus on the word support, which is very much at the forefront of everything we do across Housing Delivery Division.

Within our Performance Development Team (PDT), we are currently supporting local authority colleagues across a variety of topics such as Verify Earnings and Pensions, offering support and guidance to those who are striving to increase performance. In this edition you’ll find some updated guidance in this area. Another piece of work my team has recently undertaken is a review of the Payment Deduction Programme (PDP), which has seen us working closely with Debt Management colleagues to fully understand the process; both from an internal and external perspective. We are confident that by working together we can bring about real improvements to this product, which I know is a valuable tool for local authorities (LAs) in the debt recovery space.

Finally, there has been a revamp of the Data Matching Tools Guide (DMTG), which started its life as an idea generated from within my team, and has since grown into an informative and useful guide to help you manage the variety of data matching tools that are available to you. I would encourage you to share this amongst your teams.

I will end with a reminder that my consultants are on hand to provide management consultancy to LAs. Previous engagements have resulted in excellent feedback from our customers, and our support visibly and demonstrably increases performance in those we engage with. By identifying and sharing good practices, we can work together to maximise on every opportunity to improve the customer journey and the efficiency and effectiveness of the Housing Benefit process.

You can get in touch with us at [email protected]

All the very best.

Jonathan Bottomer Head of Performance Development Team Housing Delivery Division

Deadline extended: Discretionary Housing Payment mid-year monitoring returns 2019 to 2020

1. As originally requested in bulletin LAWD10/2019, this is a reminder for local authorities (LAs) to complete their Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) returns for the period 1 April 2019 to 30 September 2019.

2. Whilst the completion of these returns is voluntary, the more returns we receive the more this helps us to better understand expenditure of DHPs across English and Welsh LAs.

3. These returns continue to improve the department’s understanding of how DHPs are being used to support people affected by the Welfare Reforms.

4. We have extended the original deadline from 18 October 2019 to 15 November 2019, to allow time for those who have yet to complete and return the excel sheet attached separately to the LAWD10/2019 as Appendix A DHP monitoring form [Excel], or alternatively Appendix A DHP monitoring form [open document format]

5. We would like to use this opportunity to extend our thanks and appreciation to those LAs who have already submitted their returns.

6. Returns or queries should be sent to [email protected]

Updated Verify Earnings and Pensions PDF guidance and frequently asked questions

7. We’re aware that the content of bulletin HB U1/2019 has caused a number of LAs concerns regarding some of the advice contained within the Verify Earnings and Pensions (VEP) guidance and frequently asked questions as found on Glasscubes.

8. We have clarified the position with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) where a claimant requests a copy of the HMRC income data held by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

9. It has been agreed with HMRC that where the claimant (as the data subject) has specifically requested sight of the income data held, the PDF print can be issued in order to meet this request. However, it must be accompanied with a cover note with the approved wording (agreed with HMRC), as provided at Annex 1.

10. Under no circumstances should a VEP PDF print be issued to a claimant without the cover note. This advice applies where the claimant has:

• requested a full Right of Access Request (RAR), (previously known as a Subject Access Request (SAR)), from the department

• made a request to an LA to gain access to the HMRC data used within the Housing Benefit (HB) calculation.

11. Where a full RAR is received (for all data held on the claimant) you should refer to the relevant RAR guidance.

12. The cover note can also be found on Glasscubes in the ‘VEP-Real time information service folder’.

13. If you have any queries regarding the content of this article you can email [email protected]

Issues with the Automated Transfer of Local Authority Systems

14. The Automated Transfer of Local Authority Systems (ATLAS) supports the reduction of fraud and error in HB and Local Council Tax Reduction schemes, by providing claimant and benefit data where the appropriate indicators are set on the Customer Information System (CIS). It also removes any re-keying errors by allowing the direct input of ATLAS data into LAs’ systems, reducing official error. Approximately 19 million ATLAS notifications are issued to LAs every year.

15. DWPs Housing Delivery Division (HDD) partnered with a group of LAs to collect information and investigate where authorities were identifying issues with the ATLAS notifications. Thank you to all who invested resources in this exercise.

16. LAs raised 20 issues around CIS, the Pension Service Computer System (PSCS), Disability Living Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance files. The majority of the issues were addressed/solved with the deployment of guidance and improved systems such as PSCS Uprating, Transfer Your File (TYF) and CIS Interest refresh.

17. Unfortunately, 7 of the issues raised lacked evidence to support an investigation and requests for evidence was not forthcoming. Therefore, we have now closed these incidents.

18. HDD is committed to support LAs in delivering their services in the most effective way possible. If LAs experience any ATLAS issues they should contact the Local Authority Security and Support Team (LASST), with a description of the issue and evidence to support a thorough investigation.

19. You can contact LASST on 01253 689422 or email [email protected]

LA calls to Debt Management

20. As you may be aware, HDD’s PDT has been undertaking an end-to-end review of the PDP. We’re confident we’ll be in a position to share our findings from this review once workable solutions have been considered, where appropriate.

21. In the meantime, the difficulties LAs are currently experiencing in contacting Debt Management have been acknowledged and they’re working hard to remedy the situation at the earliest opportunity. Debt Management have secured additional resource and plans are in place to increase available capacity.

22. In the meantime, Debt Management are asking LAs to refrain from calling while they work to improve the situation, unless the matter is urgent.

23. Debt Management apologise for the current difficulties you are having in getting through to them, which is affecting all stakeholders, and thank you for your continued patience.

24. This request is with immediate effect and we will provide a further update once the review has concluded.

25. More generally, note that Debt Management cannot advise on matters such as when recovery will start, how much will it be and when is it ending. Information like this is not available due to the fluctuating nature of Universal Credit (UC) and is determined by the circumstances on the last day of the assessment period. You should refer to circular HB A6/2016 (paragraph 22) for further clarification.

Standard approach to the timings of payments and schedules from the Debt Management Accounting and Finance Team

26. As part of the PDP review PDT identified that there was no set timing for payments and schedules. We have worked with Debt Accounting and Finance team within Debt Management and they have now provided a set timetable.

27. Both the payment from DWP to LAs and the corresponding schedules will be issued by the 3rd Friday of every month, so this could be between the 10th and 15th working day. They will endeavour to ensure both arrive on the same day, but if not you should not contact them until after the 15th working day.

Queries to the Debt Accounting and Finance team about payments and schedules

28. For queries with the:

• total payment (not individual cases) contact [email protected]
• receipt of payment schedules contact [email protected]

29. Housing Benefit queries that Debt Accounting and Finance team can answer:

• BACS credit does not match HB file received
• LA change of bank account details
• LA change of email address

30. Debt Accounting and Finance team cannot answer general queries relating to:

• making balance adjustments
• claimant refunds – note: LAs should not be issuing claimant refunds
• whether debts have been set up/returned to LAs, deductions made and debt balances
• stopping recoveries

Other work that Debt Accounting and Finance team complete:

31. The team currently monitor the [email protected] inbox and will only action emails received that relate to the clerical ‘work around’ for Capita and Civica IT users. This work around has been implemented for LAs under Capita and Civica IT suppliers that require a genuine revision of debt held within Debt Management.

The Self-employed Earnings Review 2018-19 report

32. The Self-employed Earnings Review (SER) provided LAs with information to support a review of self-employed cases where HB claimants (and/or their partner’s) declared earnings had remained unchanged for 12 months or more.

33. Following a successful trial with 3 volunteer LAs, the SER was proposed to LAs nationally and 365 LAs opted into the review. HDD provided £4.6million to LAs to undertake this important counter-fraud and error work.

34. DWPs Fraud, Error and Debt Analysis (FEDA) team’s final analysis of the SER concluded that the exercise achieved a weekly net reduction of £1,017,000, resulting in an estimated total net AME (Annually Managed Expenditure) saving of £63million:

• 30,000 cases with a decrease in entitlement with a total weekly reduction to entitlement of £1,232,000, resulting in an estimated £73 million decrease in AME expenditure
• 10,500 cases with an increase in entitlement with a total weekly increase to entitlement of £215,000, resulting in an estimated £10 million increase in AME expenditure

35. The final SER report is attached as a separate Appendix to this bulletin.

36. Despite the short timescale in which the SER was delivered, the willingness of the LAs involved to fully engage with the review helped ensure that this massive saving to the public purse was achieved. DWP would like to thank all participating LAs for their invaluable support and hard work in making SER such a success.

37. If you have any queries about the content of this article or the report you can email [email protected]

Temporary absence outside Great Britain

38. Changes to the temporary absence outside Great Britain rules were made in July 2016. See circular HB A7/2016 for further details.

39. A claimant survey has found that this important change and the requirement to report a change of circumstance, is not widely sign-posted on LA websites. Therefore, we ask that LAs review their websites to ensure claimants are made aware of the change, and their responsibility to report a change of circumstances, where appropriate.

40. If you have any queries you can contact [email protected]

Housing Benefit Matching Service: New self-assessment earnings rules

41. Over the last 12 months HDD has been steadily building a ‘portfolio’ of Housing Benefit Matching Service (HBMS) self-assessment (SA) rules to support LAs in identifying fraud and error.

42. Activities so far have seen LAs funded to review their self-employed caseload where no change to self-employed income (or that of their partner) had occurred in the last 12 months. While September 2019 saw the launch of the HBSA002 rule which identifies those claimants who had not declared SA earnings. Both of which are reporting a high level of successful outcomes.

43. This guidance is to further inform LAs of 2 new rules which will be added to the SA portfolio and will be delivered through the usual HBMS route in November 2019.

44. The new rules are HBSA003 and HBSA004:

• HBSA003 will identify HB claimants and/or partners who have declared self-employed earnings to the LA which differs from self-assessed declarations to HMRC resulting in a potential overpayment of HB

• HBSA004 will identify HB claimants and/or partners who have declared self-employed earnings to the LA which differs from self-assessed declarations to HMRC resulting in a potential underpayment of HB

45. The tax year used for the data match will be 2017 to 2018 SA earnings to HMRC.

46. HDD worked with a number of LAs to carry out extensive testing, which was crucial to the development of the rules in this complex area of self-assessment. We would like to use this opportunity to thank those LAs who took part.

47. HDD is confident that these rules have been built to provide LAs with the best results possible. However, we intend to continue testing them over the next 2 to 3 months, with LA participation, to ensure they are working to the right requirements.

48. If you wish to take part in this testing, please send an email to [email protected]

Further guidance

49. More detail on the rule definitions have been incorporated into the existing HBMS Rules Guide which can be found on Glasscubes.

50. If you need further support or can take part in further testing you should email [email protected]

Data Sharing Forum

51. The Data Sharing Forum (DSF) enables discussion, promotion and development of data sharing between central and local government, with the aim to transform services.

52. The objectives of the forum are:

• collaborative – bringing together those involved in data sharing between central and local government, staying open to working across organisational boundaries and creating the space for ideas to be shared

• relevant – adapting and improving constantly to ensure it continues to provide for the needs of members

• effective – identifying data sharing initiatives and opportunities with potential and progressing them in order to produce a positive result for services and partnerships

53. The DSF is based around a series of quarterly virtual meetings (held via Skype) with the aim to bring together representatives with a wide range of involvement in data sharing from both the service and digital areas of DWP, LAs, other government departments and external bodies.

It aims to give a strategic overview of the data sharing landscape and to identify areas for connection and collaboration. It also aims to provide a space to share resources, good practice and advice to create a platform to present current or upcoming data sharing initiatives for discussion, investigation and review.

54. Recent topics that have been discussed at the DSF are:

• Devolution – in June speakers from the Scottish Devolution Team gave an overview of Devolution, focusing on how data sharing between Scottish Government and DWP works now and how it might develop
• Greater Manchester Combined Authority presented on data sharing in the context of LA devolution, looking at Manchester’s progress and their plans for the future, as well as DWP’s involvement
• Digital Economy Act – In September a presentation was given on the Digital Economy Act, and particularly how it will enable future data sharing initiatives and its relevance for DWP

55. The next DSF is 3 December 2019. The topic is data sharing to enable homelessness prevention.

56. If your authority is currently working in this space and would like to present an initiative, are interested in hearing about current initiatives or would like to become a member of the data sharing forum please contact [email protected]

TYF – Stage 2

57. Over the last few years, DWP has been reviewing the way it shares data with partner organisations, with the aim of improving security. For example, we have been moving towards most data shares being carried via secure file transfer mechanisms such as TYF. While most data sharing between DWP and LAs is now done this way, some data sharing is still done via secure email. We are now going to start the process of moving these remaining secure email data shares to TYF.

1. The specific files we are looking to change to being shared via TYF are:

DWP to LAs:

• troubled families (only used by 150 LAs)
• NINO/Risk Score Reviews (RSR)
• Housing Benefit Matching Service (HBMS)

LAs to DWP:

• troubled families
• Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE)

59. New roles will be added to the Employee Authentication Service (EAS), which is the user verification tool for TYF, to support the new transfers.

60. We plan to begin testing in December 2019 and the intent is to rollout to all LAs by March 2020.

61. We will be sharing further details and updates on Glasscubes and via LA Welfare Direct in the coming months.

62. In the meantime, if you have any queries please contact [email protected]

New version of the Data Matching Tools Guide

63. Following feedback from LAs, we have updated the DMTG originally launched in October 2018, and made it more accessible and streamlined. The new version will be placed on Glasscubes in PDF format as DMTG.pdf on Monday 4 November 2019.

64. This guide brings together information about all the Data Matching Tools (DMTs) available to LAs and provides more detail on each of the tools to enable your LA to:

• consider how you optimise DMTs to make it work for you, creating efficiencies

• use all available DMTs to prevent and detect fraud and error – maximising opportunities to award the right benefit to the right claimant

65. It will be fully reviewed annually, however we will update the guide as and when required to ensure it continuously meets user needs.

If you have any questions or feedback about the new version of the guide you can email [email protected]

HB/CTB decisions by the Upper Tribunal

66. Decision Making and Appeals (DMA) Leeds is aware of the following HB cases that have been decided by the Upper Tribunal (UT):

• CH/182/18: Appeal dismissed as issue raised by claimant did not affect actual entitlement for the period in question

• CH 805 2019: Remitted – OP of HB - procedural unfairness – evidence relating to whether OP was a result of an official error not before First-tier Tribunal (FtT)

• CH/1905/2017: Dismissed – Issues concerning the impact of dishonestly obtained leave to remain in the UK, upon entitlement to HB and Tax Credits which is dependent upon such leave – FtT considered the public policy principle that a person should not benefit from his/her wrong had potential application. The tribunal did not take the simplistic approach of saying that because deception could be identified it necessarily followed that the principle should apply. By the time the case came before the tribunal it had the benefit of the SSHD’s decision which the tribunal was able to and was entitled to take into account as informing as to the claimant’s dishonesty. Had it not been for that, the outcome may well have been different

• CH/28/2019, CH/31/2019, CH/34/2019 & CH/36/2019: All linked - Service charges – Tribunal failed to make a deduction for general counselling or other support services.

67. A selection of decisions of the UT are published on their website. Do be aware that there is an undefined time lapse between decisions being issued and their appearance on the website.

68. If you have any queries about cases before the UT Judges or courts, please contact us by email at [email protected]

HB cases awaiting decision by the UT

69. DMA Leeds have not been made aware of any new HB/CTB cases that are awaiting decision at present.

New Legislation

1. The following Statutory Instruments (SIs) have been laid:

• 2019 No. 1302 The Social Security (Iceland) (Liechtenstein) (Norway) (Citizens’ Rights Agreement) Order 2019, made on 8 October 2019
• 2019 No. 1303 The Social Security (Switzerland) (Citizens’ Rights Agreement) Order 2019, made on 8 October 2019
• 2019 No. 1314 The Social Security (Capital Disregards) (Amendment) Regulations 2019, came into force on 31 October 2019
• 2019 No. 1357 The Jobseeker’s Allowance and Universal Credit (Higher-Level Sanctions) (Amendment) Regulations 2019, coming into force on 27 November 2019

71. The following Statutory Rules (SRs) of Northern Ireland have been laid: * 2019 No. 195 The Social Security (Capital Disregards) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2019, came into force in October 2019 * 2019 No. 201 The Jobseeker’s Allowance and Universal Credit (Higher-Level Sanctions) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2019, coming into force on 27 November 2019

72. Copies of SIs can now be downloaded

What’s new on our HB pages

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

Document type	Subject
LAWD10/2019	Editorial Housing Benefit Matching Service management reporting Free School Meals (England and Wales only) Discretionary Housing Payment mid-year 2019-20 monitoring return LA Welfare Steering Group and Practitioners’ Operational Group Secondment opportunities in Housing Delivery Division HB Decisions by the Upper Tribunal New Legislation What’s new on our HB pages
LAWDLite10/2019	Support for refugees Young Carer Grant (Scotland only)
S11/2019	Rents for Social Housing from 2020 to 2021 for local authorities in England

Annex 1

Cover note wording for VEP PDF prints to claimants

Please note: Information regarding your net wage or pension is provided to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) by your employer or pension provider.

The gross income figure has not been provided by HMRC. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) use taxable pay and certain items not subject to tax but subject to National Insurance (for example, ‘Net Pay’ pension contributions) to carry out the calculation of the gross income figure.

The supply of earnings and income data, by HMRC to DWP, as used for social security purposes is permitted by Section 127 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012.

The information supports verification of new claims and changes in circumstances; ensuring accuracy of the Housing Benefit award and protects against developing overpayments.