Guidance

LA Welfare Direct lite 11/20

Updated 11 December 2020

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.

Covid Winter Grant Scheme (England only)

1. On Sunday 8 November 2020, the government announced a significant package of extra targeted financial support for those in need over the winter period. This includes the £170 million Covid Winter Grant Scheme, which will be made available in early December 2020 and covers the period until the end of March 2021.

2. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will provide the grant scheme funding to county councils and unitary authorities (including metropolitan councils and London boroughs) who will administer the scheme and provide direct assistance to support families with children, other vulnerable households and individuals. The grant will be used to support those most in need across England with the cost of food, energy and water bills and other associated costs.

3. Clare Elliott, Head of Local Authority Partnership, Engagement and Delivery (LA-PED) division, wrote to county councils’ and unitary authorities’ Chief Executive Officers and Chief Finance Officers (copied to all local authority (LA) revenues and benefits managers) on 10 November 2020 to launch the scheme, set out the next steps and provide an outline eligibility framework. We have also held the first of 3 all LA calls and begun discussions around delivery and management information reporting arrangements. Detailed guidance will be issued shortly and then published more widely on GOV.UK in due course.

4. We will continue working with authorities at pace to ensure the scheme is ready to be delivered by December and the funding meets its objectives.

Impact on Housing Benefit and Local Council Tax Reduction

5. Payments made to claimants through this grant will meet the definition for Local Welfare Provision in Housing Benefit (HB) regulations for working age claimants, so can be disregarded. As the payments are not listed as income to be taken into account, they can also be disregarded for pension age HB customers.

6. DWP has notified the Ministry of Housing, Communicates and Local Government (MHCLG) to determine the impacts on local Council Tax Reduction and will update you regarding this in due course.

7. Further updates will be placed in future editions of this bulletin.

Use of Searchlight by LAs to support the administration of housing adaption grants

8. The Disabled Facilities Grant (England and Wales only), Disability Adaptation Grant (Scotland only) and Housing Adaptation Grant (Northern Ireland only) are all administered by LAs. These grants help disabled people stay in their own homes by paying for essential housing adaptations.

9. DWP’s Searchlight can be used to support administration of all three of the grants as it gives LAs direct access to the DWP benefit information needed. However, the Local Government Data Sharing Transformation (LGDST) team has estimated that 90% of LAs are not currently using Searchlight to do so.

10. If all LAs used Searchlight to confirm receipt of benefit, it would result in estimated annual savings of £360,000 across all LAs.

11. The LGDST team is now leading on the use of Searchlight by all LAs for administration of these grants to help LAs realise these savings.

12. To support this and future work within this area, the LGDST team ask that all LAs that administer these grants complete this short survey by Tuesday 8 December 2020.

13. If you have any questions you can contact the LGDST team at [email protected]