Guidance

LA Welfare Direct 6/2022

Updated 12 December 2022

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

Welcome to the June edition of the LA Welfare Direct; the year is certainly flying by. I hope you all enjoyed the extended holiday and Jubilee celebrations last week.

The Speed of Processing statistics were published on Wednesday 27 April 2022. The numbers are marginally higher than for the same period last year as you will see in the related article but we know LAs continue to be under a lot of pressure and your efforts in maintaining high levels of service are recognised.

You will all be aware the managed move of claimants to Universal Credit has resumed and more information and useful links can also be found within. We will continue to keep you updated on progress.

You will also find an invitation to the next Data sharing and IT consultation and engagement forum. I encourage anyone who has an interest in this area to join the call to hear the latest developments, ask questions and share issues. These events are well attended and I know the team find your input invaluable.

I hoped you enjoyed the article in the June edition of the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation’s Insight magazine looking at a day in the life of our LA Analytical Team. It certainly is an extremely busy team and one area we are currently focusing on is the Housing Benefit (HB) Award Accuracy Initiative management information. We are still finding quite a few anomalies and blanks in the data and my team are providing data and analysis to support the Performance Development Team’s discussions with LAs.

The LA Funding Team is also starting to look at arrangements for the HB subsidy workshops for the next financial year. Thank you to all those who attended previous workshops. Feedback is always positive and we aim to build on this by reviewing how we deliver future workshops and best utilise technology.

Take care everyone

Tracy Williams Head of Local Authority Funding, Analysis and Business Support

Unpaid carer financial support scheme (Wales only)

1. The Welsh Government has announced a new scheme to help eligible unpaid carers by offering a one-off payment of £500. Eligibility for the scheme is for unpaid carers in receipt of Carer’s Allowance on 31 March 2022 or who are awarded Carer’s Allowance at a later date which is backdated to 31 March 2022.

2. People who have an underlying entitlement to Carer’s Allowance but who are not receiving it are not eligible for the payment.

3. More information about the scheme including information on how to register for the payment is available on www.gov.wales

4. Registrations for the payment opened on 16 May 2022 and will close on 15 July 2022. All payments should be processed by 30 September 2022.

Impact on Housing Benefit

5. As these payments are being made by local authorities (LAs) they are designated as being payments of local welfare provision and, as such, are disregarded for Housing Benefit (HB) purposes.

6. These payments will also be disregarded for Universal Credit (UC) purposes.

New HB guidance for supported housing claims

7. The new Housing Benefit guidance for supported housing claims has been published on www.gov.uk. A copy of the guidance was also issued directly to all LAs’ Revenues and Benefits Managers on Friday 6 May 2022.

8. We hope that the guidance will assist LAs with assessing HB claims for those living in supported housing and would like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who provided input and comments while we were developing the guidance.

9. The plan is to review the guidance on a regular basis but, to ensure there are no issues with the current content, we intend to carry out an initial review after six months.

10. In the meantime, any questions can be emailed to: [email protected]

Updated Discretionary Housing Payments guidance manual

11. The Discretionary Housing Payments guidance manual, which provides guidance and advice on good practices when payment of a Discretionary Housing Payment is being considered, has been updated on our HB pages on www.gov.uk.

12. We carry out a review of the guidance manual each year in consultation with the Practitioners’ Operations Group (POG). Do note, this latest version has been significantly condensed, which we hope LAs will find more user friendly.

Cost of Living Payment

13. On 26 May 2022, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) published guidance regarding getting an extra payment to help with the cost of living for those entitled to certain benefits or tax credits. The announcement, Statement by Chancellor of the Exchequer and a Cost of living support factsheet on this matter can also be found on www.gov.uk.

14. Individuals do not need to apply as, if they’re eligible, they’ll be paid automatically. The payments are not taxable and will not affect benefits or tax credits.

15. LAs are encouraged to share this information as appropriate.

Managed move of claimants to UC has restarted

16. DWP is resuming the programme to move all benefit claimants over to UC by the end of 2024. This follows a pause to the process during the pandemic when staff were focused on supporting the surge of new claimants to UC. A policy paper on completing the move has been published on www.gov.uk.

17. From May 2022, we have started to write to claimants on legacy benefits to let them know that they will move across to UC and explain how the process will work. The letters to claimants are called ‘Migration Notices’ and will let claimants know that their legacy benefits are ending and that they have three months to make their UC claim. To make sure our claimants are fully supported, initial volumes of claimants moving through the process will be small and controlled; initially five hundred across two locations, Medway and Bolton.

18. Everyone moving over from legacy benefits will have their entitlement to UC assessed against their current claims, with top up payments (‘transitional protection’) provided for eligible claimants whose entitlement would have been reduced because of the change. This will ensure those claimants receive the same entitlement as on a legacy system and will continue unless their circumstances change.

19. A dedicated helpline, signposted on the notice claimants receive, will provide support for people to make their UC claim and guidance will also be available online including on the Understanding Universal Credit website. Those in need of further support can also visit their local jobcentre.

20. Additional support remains available for those in need, including the Household Support Fund and Discretionary Housing Payments.

Invitation to the next Data sharing and IT consultation and engagement forum

21. The next forum will be held on Tuesday 5 July 2022 from 11am to 12noon.

Joining instructions

22. The joining instructions are:

• the MS Teams link to this forum has been shared in the version of the LAWD6/2022 that was sent directly to each LA’s single inbox.

• note: It is more difficult to ask questions through dial-in so, if you anticipate having questions, we recommend joining through MS Teams where possible.

• aim to join the event two or three minutes before the start time, as we intend to start promptly.

• speakers will be muted by default but instructions will be given during the event if you want to ask a question.

Forum agenda

• A 15-minute introduction from the Department for Work and Pensions, covering projects recently delivered, projects currently in delivery, insight into future planned projects, as well as the most recent common issues that have been reported to us.

• 30 to 45 minutes of questions from LAs on the call about the projects and matters covered in the introduction and any other IT and data sharing questions and issues LAs may have.

• If time allows, 15 minutes focused on suggestions from LAs about future data sharing, data matching or automation projects that DWP could consider funding and delivering.

23. The call will be recorded and the recording published on Glasscubes.

24. The forum is open to all LAs and it would be beneficial for every LA to have at least one representative dial into the forum to help us maximise feedback. Each LA representative should:

• seek input and feedback from as many of their colleagues as possible prior to dialling in, for example, questions they might want answering

• have knowledge, at least at a high level, about data sharing, data matching and current IT topic areas

• feedback to their colleagues about how the conference call went, including the answers to the questions we asked.

25. We look forward to your participation on the call. However, if you have any questions in the meantime contact: [email protected]

Publication of HB speed of processing statistics for October to December 2021

26. The department published the HB speed of processing statistics and associated data for quarter 3 (Q3) on Wednesday 27 April 2022.

Some key points

27. During Q3 of financial year ending (FYE) March 2022 there were 83,000 new HB claims and 1 million change of circumstances to existing HB claims processed in Great Britain (GB).

28. For new HB claims, this is a decrease of 2,400 (3%) since last quarter, and a decrease of 4,700 (5%) when compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

29. For change of circumstances to existing HB claims, this is a decrease of 140,000 (12%) since last quarter and a decrease of 310,000 (24%) when compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

New Claims

30. The average time taken to process a new HB claim during Q3 for FYE March 2022 was 19 calendar days. This is one day higher than Q3 of FYE March 2021.

Change of circumstances

31. The average number of days taken to process a change of circumstance to an existing HB claim during Q3 FYE March 2022 was 8 calendar days. This is two days higher than Q3 of FYE 2021.

To note

32. Please note, sometimes we need to omit certain LA data due to concerns over the quality of the data and details of the LAs not included are listed below. It should be noted however that the omission of LA data outlined below does not change the story in the release but can sometimes have a slight impact on regional level figures:

• HB speed of processing statistics does not include figures for Gloucester City Council from December 2021 because of a cyber-attack suffered by the LA impacting data provision. Therefore, speed of processing figures for Gloucester will be omitted in line with our standard approach for handling missing data or data with quality concerns. Analysis for Gloucester using historical data shows that the GB and regional (South West) level speed of processing figures are not impacted by the omission of Gloucester data. Volumes of both types of HB claims are likely to be affected by less than 1% at GB level and around 4% at regional (South West) level.

• London Borough of Hackney has now resumed the supply of HB speed of processing data to DWP, but because recovery work in Hackney is still ongoing, the statistics have been omitted until we are happy with the quality of the data.

• Due to technical problems around IT systems, HB speed of processing statistics do not include change of circumstances to existing HB claims data for Cotswold District Council and Forest of Dean District Council for October 2021, Tandridge District Council for November and December 2021, Bassetlaw District Council for December 2021 and Oxford City Council for October, November and December 2021.

• Furthermore, HB speed of processing statistics does not include new claims data for Tandridge and Rutland County Council for October 2021 and Oxford for October, November and December 2021. There were concerns with the data quality of these LAs for the periods outlined and the omission of this data is in line with our standard approach for handling missing data and data with concerns around quality.

National Statistics on Fraud and Error in the benefit system (estimates) FYE March 2022

33. The Fraud and Error National Statistics for the FYE March 2022 were published on www.gov.uk on 26 May 2022.

34. The statistics show that HB Overpayments decreased from 5.5% (£950 million) in FYE 2021 to 5.2% (£860 million) in FYE 2022 and fraud decreased from 3.5% to 3.3% in 2022. Total HB Underpayments decreased from 1.4% (£250 million) to 1.3% (£210 million).

35. Although there has been a change to the calculation used to derive these figures, it is clear that LAs’ hard work in connection with Verify Earnings and Pensions and the HB Award Accuracy Initiative is paying off.

36. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank authorities for their efforts.

POG and LA Welfare Steering Group

37. The last Local Authority Welfare Steering Group (LAWSG) meeting took place on 19 May 2022. Agenda items included Move to UC (mandatory and voluntary), Cost Refresh, supported housing (Written Ministerial Statement) and POG/LAWSG membership.

38. Both groups’ meetings are held bi-monthly (and alternately), so the next POG meeting is scheduled to take place on 16 June 2022.

39. If you have any questions regarding topics raised at these consultation groups, you can email: [email protected]

HB decisions by the Upper Tribunal

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

• CH/1519/20: Capital. LA appeal upheld. LA entitled to make own assessment of capital for period before Jobseeker’s Allowance (income based) awarded.

• CH/2716/19 - The UT decided that it is unlawful to withhold access to benefits from persons who have a right to reside as jobseekers, when they also have a derivative right to reside under Article 10 of Regulation (EU) No 492/2011, as transposed into UK law by regulations 16(3) and 16(4) of the Immigration (EEA) Regulations 2016. The Judge relied on the CJEU decision in Jobsenter Krefeld-Widerspruchsstelle v JD (Case No. C-181/19).

41. 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.

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

New Legislation

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

• Social Security and Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Amendment) Regulations 2022. SI 2022/449, laid on 12 April 2022.
• Universal Credit (Local Welfare Provision Disregard) (Amendment) Regulations 2022. SI 2022/448, laid on 13 April 2022.
• Child Support (Amendments Relating to Electronic Communications and Information) (England and Wales and Scotland) Regulations 2022. SI 2022/503, laid on 5 May 2022.
• Social Security (Disability Assistance for Working Age People) (Consequential Amendments) (No. 2) Order 2022. SI 2022/530, laid on 12 May 2022.

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

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

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

Document Type	Subject	Link
LAWD5/2022	Editorial New Housing Benefit Matching Service Employment and Support Allowance address rule Update: Public Services Network Reminder: LA HB Debt Recoveries returns for national statistics Reminder: Mixed Age Couple claims for HB or Pension Credit Single service phone line for bereaved citizens Future strategy for providing support for people to claim Universal Credit – Supplier event Strategy to completing the Move to UC Secondment opportunities in LA-PEDdivision Practitioners’ Operational Group and LA Welfare Steering Group HB decisions by the Upper Tribunal New Legislation What’s new on our HB pages on www.gov.uk	LAWD5/2022
Housing Benefit Guidance for Supported Housing claims V1	Housing Benefit Guidance for Supported Housing claims V1	Housing Benefit guidance for supported housing claims
Local Supported employment documentation	Local Supported employment documentation – English language version	Local Supported Employment guidance for Local Authorities - English version
Local Supported employment documentation	Local Supported employment documentation – Welsh language version	Local Supported Employment guidance for Local Authorities - Welsh version
Discretionary Housing Payments guidance manual	Discretionary Housing Payments guidance manual May 2022 (amendment)	Discretionary Housing Payments guidance manual