Guidance

LA Welfare Direct 7/21

Updated 20 December 2021

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Who should read

All Housing Benefit (HB) staff

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For information

Editorial

So July has arrived, the football and Wimbledon are in full swing and the weather is somewhat mixed; a normal British summer you might say? Not quite for other obvious reasons but let’s hope for better things in the second half of the year. It must be me but as I get older it isn’t just the days and weeks that fly, the years do too!

In this edition of our LA Welfare Direct we signal further improvements to our successful Verify Earnings and Pensions Service with the introduction of non-State Pension alerts. Continuing the theme of making the best use of data we also cover how we will continue to provide our Housing Benefit Debt Service following a decision by the department and HM Revenue & Customs not to pursue our strategic solution, Check Employment Information.

This was disappointing but we are confident the current Debt Service will continue to meet our and local authority needs. Check out the new template though as this will enable the accurate transfer of data.

And finally, as a reminder, please don’t hesitate to contact my team if you require any consultancy support. We’d love to hear from you and, as you know, we don’t charge for this excellent service! Send me an email at [email protected] and we will get back to you for a chat and we can take it from there.

All the best.

Jonathan Bottomer
Head of Performance Development

Verify Earnings and Pensions Service: Introduction of fluctuating non-state pension alerts

1. From 23 June 2021, users will start to receive ‘fluctuating non-state pension’ alerts as well as the current ‘start employment and fluctuating employment’ alerts.

2. The fluctuating non-state pension alerts will be for any changes over £3.00 per week compared to the previous payment received. This change will drive an increase in the number of alerts for each local authority (LA) and will help LAs identify more Pension Age fraud and error within the Housing Benefit (HB) system.

3. LAs should continue to administer as many alerts as possible based upon the funding paid for the financial year ending March 2022.

4. Guidance supporting this change is included within the Verify Earnings and Pensions (VEP) Service Guidance for LAs, which can be found on Glasscubes.

5. If you have any questions you can email [email protected]

Use of internet Explorer version 11 for accessing the Department for Work and Pensions internet services

6. In response to recent queries on accessing the Department of Work and Pensions’ (DWPs) internet services, such as VEP, DWP would like to remind LAs that Internet Explorer 11 is the recommended browser to access our services.

7. If an alternative browser is used, then LAs should use the most up to date version of that browser.

8. If LAs access DWP services using a previous version of Internet Explorer (or not using the latest alternative internet browser), DWP services including VEP will not work correctly. In addition, future enhancements of VEP will not be supported.

9. If you have any questions you can email [email protected]

Update: Check Employment Information

10. In 2018, DWP launched the HB Debt Service (HBDS). This service supports the LAs recovery of HB debts from those debtors with the capacity to repay as it details if a HB debtor is employed, self-employed and if they have a private pension. The service also provides the latest available contact details.

11. At the time HBDS was launched it was intended to be a short term tactical solution. During the last two years DWP has been working closely with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to develop a strategic solution which was referred to as Check Employment Information (CEI). This was paused due to the impact of COVID-19.

12. At the Fraud, Error and Debt (FED) Portfolio Board in May 2021, it was decided to discontinue the strategic CEI solution and close the project due to competing priorities for FED and HMRC.

13. HMRC has agreed to continue supporting HBDS on an indefinite basis. We are aware this process was not designed for long term use but HMRC’s ongoing commitment means that valuable information will still be exchanged.

14. The Local Authority Partnership, Engagement and Delivery (LA-PED) division will return to the development of a more strategic solution in future years. Unfortunately, this will not be in time for the 2021 Spending Review.

15. If you have any questions you can email [email protected]

New HB Debt Service template

16. The HBDS template has been updated and is now available for LAs to use. LAs can download their new bespoke HBDS template from their Ad-hoc folder in ‘Transfer Your File’.

17. Once downloaded it should be saved and any previous HBDS template deleted.

18. Note: LAs must use the new HBDS template from 15 July 2021 for all future HBDS uploads.

19. We ask that each authority cascades this information to their HB Debt Recovery team.

20. If you have any questions you can email [email protected]

HB Award Accuracy – Capita systems only

21. During the Performance Development Team’s (PDT) engagements with LAs it was noted that the Capita (also known as Academy) IT system has a unique facility to allow the suppression of the recording of change information from the SHBE (Single Housing Benefit Extract) file.

22. This facility was designed to enable LAs to supress a statistic, for example, when correcting an error.

23. The current SHBE Guidance on ‘T’ Records (Changes of Details) states:

• A ‘T’ record should be completed for all changes where a decision is made, including those which do not affect the claimant’s entitlement. Each Extract should contain information about all such changes where the local authority has superseded a decision or revised an earlier decision since the last Extract was taken.

24. So, to clarify, the ‘T’ record should be completed for all changes where a decision is made. This will indicate that there has been a change to the claim since the last SHBE extract and should include claims where anything on the claim changes (for example, number of dependents, address, etc.). The result of the change may not produce a change to the weekly benefit but it is important that the ‘T’ record is produced.

25. The Capita functionality to supress SHBE records should only be used where you do not wish to create a statistic, for example – when correcting an error. The SHBE Guidance on Glasscubes has been amended to reflect this.

26. If you have any questions you can email [email protected]

Invitation reminder: Test and learn pilot for the Personal Independent Payment form PIP3007 email solution

27. DWP currently sends form PIP3007 via post to LAs to establish care home admission dates and funding information. The completed form is then returned to DWP via post.

28. The increase of LA and DWP staff working from home has resulted in significant delays in the information being received and actioned by DWP.

29. To address this, DWP would like to run a small scale test and learn pilot with several LAs. We would like to explore the effectiveness of using secure email (using the gov.uk network) as a way of corresponding with LAs to obtain the information regarding care home admissions and funding information.

30. If you are interested in participating and want to find out more please contact [email protected]

HB decisions by the Upper Tribunal

31. Decision Making and Appeals Leeds have not been made aware of any new HB/CTB decisions by the Upper Tribunal.

New Legislation

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

• Occupational Pension Schemes (Climate Change Governance and Reporting) Regulations 2021 laid 8 June 2021

• Occupational Pension Schemes (administration, Investment, Charges and Governance) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 laid 21 June 2021

• Child Support (Collection and Enforcement and Maintenance Calculation) Amendment regulations 2021 laid 28 June 2021

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

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

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

Document Type	Subject	Link
LAWD6	Editorial High Speed 2: Grants and compensation payments New email address for Employment Support Allowance referrals (form LA17) Invitation to a test and learn pilot: Email solution for the Personal Independent Payment form PIP3007 Reminder: Invitation to the Data Sharing and IT issues consultation and engagement forum Cases (or Decisions) with the Upper Tribunal New Legislation What’s new on our HB pages on www.gov.uk	LAWD6
LAWDLite6/2021	Reminder on the interaction between the benefit cap and temporary or supported accommodation New Housing Benefit Matching Service rule HBIC202	LAWDLite6/2021

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