Guidance

LA Welfare Direct Bulletin 5/2019

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

The last time I wrote the rotating editorial of LA Welfare Direct was November 2018. In it, I focused on our proactive investment in projects that reduce local authority (LA) administrative costs and fraud and error. I’ll provide a brief update on some of these first but I’ll also focus on the other aspect of what I lead on in Housing Delivery Division; data security.

We are actually in a period of peak delivery for many of our projects. Customer Information System (CIS) interest marker automation is in the process of national rollout and the replacement of the Data Hub with the Transfer Your File solution is also underway. And, very soon, you’ll see improvements to the way you view CIS information too, with the rollout of the ’Searchlight’ project.

I realise that not all delivery implementation is perfect. Indeed, as I write this, my team is working to understand issues that have come about through a CIS interest refresh. However, as I’ve flagged before, please understand that we are working with aging IT infrastructure. This will inevitably cause problems that sometimes take longer than I’d prefer to fix. But I do hope that the outcomes of the projects, in terms of the savings and improvements they provide, compensate for the teething problems.

In terms of data security, this has been a very big year as I’m sure you’ll be aware. Not only have LAs and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had to adapt to the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) but the ending of PSN and .gsi have also had impacts. As a consequence, my team has never been busier in terms of the questions they are receiving from LAs on these and other data security questions.

As you can probably imagine, some of the questions are quite complex to answer; particularly ones that require legal advice. My team relies on the advice of DWP’s internal legal team and, given the volume of queries they are receiving, this can take time. The most important thing to me is that we get the right answer, that maximises the amount of data sharing we can do within the law, rather than a speedy answer that perhaps errs on the side of too much caution.

In that regard, in the next month or so, I anticipate that my teams will be issuing communications which will provide answers to some common questions we receive from LAs. Specifically, we hope to clarify whether the Universal Credit and HM Revenue & Customs data we already share with you can be used for additional purposes.

Paul Selby Deputy Divisional Manager (Housing Delivery Division)

Update: Searchlight

As advised in previous editions of the LA Welfare Direct and on Glasscubes, DWP is replacing the front screens local authorities use to access the Customer Information System (CIS) data with Searchlight.

Newcastle and North Tyneside LAs piloted Searchlight and worked closely with DWP to help inform guidance and resolve some technical issues identified. Following the pilot, we are pleased to be able to update you with the planned rollout schedule for all LAs.

Current planning is to split LAs into two tranches and roll Searchlight out over a 2-week period:

• tranche 1 to rollout week commencing 13 May 2019
• tranche 2 to rollout week commencing 20 May 2019

As originally advised in the frequently asked questions on Glasscubes, rollout was originally planned to begin the week commencing 29 April. However, DWP has identified some key functionality that LAs use on CIS is not currently available on Searchlight. DWP are therefore developing, testing and adding this functionality before rollout to all LAs starts; hence the delay.

Registration to use Searchlight is through EAS (Employee Authentication Service) and changes will be in place from Monday 29 April to enable OAs (Organisation Administrator) and SAMs (Service Access Manager) to give their CIS users the correct Searchlight permissions, as per standard EAS-R guidance available on Glasscubes.

Formal Searchlight user guidance and the live URL will be provided by the DWP ahead of rollout.

We will continue to keep LAs updated via the usual communication channels but, in the meantime, if you have any queries you can email: [email protected].

Access to Searchlight

It is expected that Searchlight will be the access platform for any strategic replacement for the Housing Benefit Debt Service (HBDS). To prepare for this we need to establish how many of your Debt Recovery staff will have access to Searchlight and how many new users will be needed. We are currently contacting LA HBDS Champions to obtain this information.

If you have any queries about this you can contact: [email protected].

Update: Transfer Your file update

As advised in previous articles in the LA Welfare Direct and on Glasscubes, DWP has developed an in-house replacement for the Data Hub called Transfer Your File (TYF).

TYF was due to start rolling out to four pilot LAs the week commencing 22 April 2019. Unfortunately, due to some technical issues this has now been delayed. Once the issues have been resolved, we will commence rollout with the pilot LAs. The remaining LAs will rollout in 3 tranches as follows:

• tranche 1 – week commencing 13 May 2019
• tranche 2 – week commencing 20 May 2019
• tranche 3 – week commencing 27 May 2019

LAs will be notified of their go-live date a week before they are due to rollout and will be provided with details of the minimal implementation activities they need to undertake.

If you have any questions please email: [email protected].

Reminder: Discretionary Housing Payment end-of-year monitoring returns 2018 to 2019

As originally requested in bulletin LAWD4/2019, this is a reminder for LAs to complete their Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) end-of-year monitoring returns for the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019. The monitoring returns form for 2018 to 2019 has been updated as the department also asks LAs to provide the total number of DHP applications and awards.

Thank you to all those LAs who have already submitted their return. The department values your input and continues to find this information extremely useful.

The more we receive helps us to better understand expenditure of DHPs across English and Welsh LAs. Therefore, for those authorities who have yet to provide their return, we would be grateful if you would complete and send the form to: [email protected], by 17 May 2019.

LA1 and LA2 Capital Valuation requests: Change to contact details

The postal address for sending Capital Valuation requests to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) has changed.

The new address to send LA1 and LA2 forms to is:

VOA - DWP VALUATIONS
BP5202 Dunstanburgh House
Benton Park View
Longbenton
Newcastle
NE98 1ZZ

This change takes immediate effect. Any valuation requests which are posted to the old address in Durham will be automatically forwarded to the new address during the period of transition.

If you have any queries, please contact: [email protected].

Overview of LA Funding Group and work undertaken

The purpose of this article is to raise awareness of the remit of LA Funding Group and work the group has undertaken during 2018 to 2019.

The LA Funding Group is a strategic DWP and LA/LA Associations (LAAs) consultation group that sits alongside the LA Welfare Steering Group (LAWSG) and feeds into that group. The aim of the group is to discuss and consult with LA representative bodies and LA Chief Finance Officers (CFOs) on matters relating to funding provided by DWP to LAs.

Terms of Reference

The group’s remit is to review and identify more effective methodologies to support LA funding in the delivery of Housing Benefit (HB) and Universal Credit (UC). To increase collaboration with LA CFOs and to explore some of the wider consequences of government policies and how they impact on LAs. This group informs DWP funding decisions on how much funding should/can be provided and determines robust and fair allocation models. The group also discusses financial issues raised by LAs and LAAs.

Outcomes

In 2018 the Group decided that the existing methodology for allocating HB Admin subsidy was unsustainable because the allocation methodology used HB caseload data prior to the roll out of UC in 2014 to 2015. This did not reflect caseload changes resulting from labour market and economic factors.

The group worked together to review options and decided that:

• we should move to a work led allocation methodology when HB caseload stabilises after moving to UC. The work-led model estimates the volume of HB new claims and changes each LA’s HB caseload generates and allocates funding accordingly
• an interim allocation methodology would be introduced in 2019 to 2020 which used more up-to-date HB caseload data and uses the volumes of UC cases with a housing element to estimate the impact of UC on HB costs. To protect LAs with large variations in funding allocations transitional arrangements will be applied for 2 years; moving fully to the new methodology in the third year

During 2018 to 2019, 2 separate reviews were undertaken to estimate the cost of:

• HB/Local Council Tax Reduction (LCTR) delivery
• the impact of UC and the level of UC New Burdens paid to LAs

The cost of delivering HB/LCTR during 2017 to 2018 is estimated to be £700 million, a reduction of 27% since 2012 to 2013. The revised cost base has been used to review the level of HB savings in the UC Business Case.

Forty-seven LAs worked with DWP to estimate the increased cost on HB administration resulting from UC. As a result of the review UC New Burdens payments were increased for 2019 to 2020. DWP also used the analysis to improve the methodology for allocating the UC New Burden funding across the 371 LAs. The methodology for allocating New Burdens is similar to that used to estimate the impact of UC on HB Admin subsidy allocations and more aligned to the volumes of HB claimants moving from HB to UC.

Another decision of the group was to include a more detailed breakdown of the HB administration subsidy figures in the LA Funding Schedule for 2019 to 2020. The additional information included made the schedule more illustrative and useful for LA financial planning and has received positive feedback from LAs.

Current topics for discussion

During 2019 the group has plans to discuss issues relating to HB Debt, supported accommodation subsidy and DHP funding allocations.

Membership

Membership includes representatives from Housing Delivery Division (HDD), other areas of DWP such as UC, Housing Policy Division, LAAs and CFO representatives from authorities spread across England, Wales and Scotland.

Meetings and future communications

The group meets as required depending on matters arising but usually every six to eight weeks. The group aims to provide quarterly or bi-annual updates via the LA Welfare Direct to raise awareness of the activities and outcomes of the group.

If you have any questions about the content of this article you can email: [email protected].

Corporate Appointees

Changes have been made so that a claimant’s National Insurance number (NINo) can be included on their Corporate Appointee payment files. This was introduced from April 2019 and will apply to all new cases that are identified. This is only for claimants who are under Corporate Appointeeship or Deputyship.

Where the claimant has Corporate Appointee prior to April 2019, the LA will need to make the UC service centre aware of this and ask them to set a ‘CAB’ marker on the UC Account. This will then act as a system prompt to include the NINo on the payment file.

Change to contact email address for benefit cap templates

The email address for sending benefit cap templates (as detailed in circular HB A10/2016 (paragraph 14)) has changed as from 1 April 2019.

The new email address is as follows: [email protected].

This address should be used for all further correspondence with this team.

Publication of HB Speed of Processing statistics

We published HB Speed of Processing (SoP) statistics and associated data for the quarter 3 (Q3) period October to December 2018 on Wednesday 24 April 2019. Here are some key points.

New claims

The average time taken to process new HB claims in Q3 of 2018 to 2019 was 20 calendar days, this is 2 days lower than it was in Q3 of 2017 to 2018.

In Q3 there were 150,000 new HB claims. This represents a decrease of 38,000 (20%) since the last quarter and a decrease of 86,000 (36%) since Q3 of 2017 to 2018.

Changes of circumstances

The average time taken to process changes of circumstances to HB claims for Q3 of 2018 to 2019 was 8 calendar days, this is one day lower than in Q3 of 2017 to 2018.

For Q3 there were 1.9 million changes of circumstances to HB claims. This is a decrease of 390,000 (17%) since last quarter and a decrease of 340,000 (15%) cases since quarter 3 of 2017 to 2018.

To note

In Q3 of the financial year 2018 to 2019, 93% of HB claims processed were change of circumstances on existing claims and the remaining 7% were new HB claims.

The roll out of UC Full Service has now been completed, and this is the last quarterly SoP statistics which includes some claims prior to the rollout. We are monitoring the impact of this.

LA Welfare Steering Group and Practioners’ Operational Group

The next meeting of the Practitioners’ Operational Group (POG) will take place on 8 May 2019. Agenda items will include topics on the CIS Automation and ‘move to UC’.

The summary minutes for the LAWSG April 2019 meeting have been published.

The summary minutes for the POG March 2019 meeting have also been published.

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

Secondment opportunities in HDD

Working with LAs, as one of our major stakeholders in welfare reform, 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.

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.

HDD comprises 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 £139 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.

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.

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

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

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 2 years. The posts would usually 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.

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
• send your CV by email to [email protected]

HB decisions with the Upper Tribunal

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

• CH/2261/17: Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy. Claimant appeal dismissed. Nelson followed
• CH/645/17: Capital. Interest in property. Remit. More findings of fact needed
• CH/713/18: Commerciality and contrivance. Remit. Insufficient reasons given for decision
• CH/2234/17: Continuous cruiser licence for houseboat not eligible
• CH/2111/18: Absence from Great Britain. Period of absence includes day of departure
• CSH-372-18: – Overpayment of HB – LA paid HB to the wrong landlord – overpayment recoverable – tribunal did not err in law

Decisions of the UT are published on their website.

If you have any queries about cases before the UT Judges or courts, contact us by, either:

• email at [email protected]
• fax on 0113 232 4841

New Legislation

The following Statutory Instruments (SIs) have been laid:

• 2018 No. 532 The Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 17, 19, 22, 23 and 24 and Transitional and Transitory)
• Provisions (Modification)) Order 2018, made on 9 May 2018

The following Statutory Rule (SR) of Northern Ireland has been laid:

• 2019 No. 879 The Equality Act (Age Exceptions for Pension Schemes) (Amendment) Order 2019, coming into force on 15 May 2019

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

What’s new on our HB pages on www.gov.uk

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

Link	Subject
LAWD4/2019	LA Welfare Direct Bulletin 4/2019
S10/2019	S10/2019: Payment for the Verify Earnings and Pension alerts service 2019 to 2020

Read other LA Welfare Direct bulletins.