Guidance

LA Welfare Direct 6/2023

Updated 12 December 2023

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

A warm, (like the ever improving weather), welcome to our June edition of the LAWD bulletin. This month has less to offer than normal due to May’s LAWD lite and other communications we’ve recently issued.

Housing Benefit (HB) speed of processing features following the publication of the statistics for the period October to December 2022. The time taken to process new claims and change of circumstances remains a priority for the department and it is always encouraging to see local authority (LA) performance is being at least maintained. Thank you to all who make this happen.

Through my programme of visits to LAs I continue to be impressed by the creative approaches you take to improve the customer experience and long may this continue. Just by way of a gentle nudge though, here’s my team’s email address should you require support from us to deliver the complex service that is HB administration - [email protected] Our role is to support you with the service delivery and the feedback we receive from LAs continues to tell me you like what we do! So, if you’d like an initial chat, please drop me an email.

Other matters in this June edition include a final extension to the deadline to support new research into the supported housing sector and the latest on the Move to Universal Credit.

That’s all from me for now, so until next time enjoy the early summer and here’s to a long, warm BBQ season.

Jonathan Bottomer
Head of the Performance Development Team

Housing Benefit subsidy guidance manual 2022 to 2023

1. The Housing Benefit subsidy guidance manual 2022 to 2023 has been published on GOV.UK.

2. If you have any questions regarding the content of this guidance, send an email to [email protected]

Final deadline extension: Two local authority surveys to support new research into the supported housing sector

3. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have commissioned research from the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (at Sheffield Hallam University) to assess the size, cost and demand of the supported housing sector across England, Scotland and Wales.

4. This research will update and build on the 2016 supported accommodation review. This is vital research to ensure government has the best available data for making decisions on the future direction of supported housing policy, to ensure residents in supported housing receive good quality support and accommodation which represents value for money.

5. On 22 March 2023, links to both the Housing Benefit (HB) Team survey and Supported Housing Commissioner survey were sent directly to local authorities’ (LAs) single inboxes for appropriate cascade. Thank you to all those who have already completed the surveys. To ensure as many LAs as possible can respond, the deadline for the HB team survey and Commissioners survey are being extended for a final time to 16 June 2023 and 30 June 2023, respectively. Do note, we also advised about these deadline extensions by an email sent directly to LAs’ single inboxes on 31 May 2023.

6. Please ensure that the commissioners survey has been forwarded to and received by the relevant person(s) in your LA; this may be senior managers in Housing and Social Care teams.

7. If you are not aware of the survey and think you are an appropriate person to respond for your LA, then please contact Dave Leather at [email protected]

8. However, if you have any questions about the research, contact [email protected]

9. The research findings are expected to be published by the end 2023.

Publication of HB speed of processing statistics for October to December 2022

10. DWP published HB speed of processing statistics and associated data for quarter 3 (Q3) on Wednesday 26 April 2023.

Some key points

11. During Q3 of the financial year ending March 2023 there were 91,000 new HB claims and 990,000 changes of circumstances to existing HB claims processed in Great Britain (GB).

12. For new HB claims, this is a decrease of 1,300 (1%) since last quarter, and an increase of 7,900 (10%) when compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

13. For change of circumstances to existing HB claims, this is a decrease of 69,000 (6%) since last quarter and a decrease of 6,200 (1%) when compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

New claims

14. The average time taken to process a new HB claim during the latest quarter was 20 calendar days. This is one day lower than the previous quarter and one day higher than the same quarter a year earlier.

Change of circumstances

15. The average number of days taken to process a change of circumstance to an existing HB claim during the latest quarter was eight calendar days. This is one day lower than Q2 2022 to 2023 and the same as Q3 2021 to 2022.

To note

16. The following LAs have been omitted this quarter due to data concerns:

• HB speed of processing statistics do not include figures for Gloucester County Council 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

• Hackney Council has now resumed the supply of HB speed of processing data to DWP. Their data is included within this release but because recovery work in Hackney is ongoing, speed of processing figures are still likely to be impacted

Practitioners’ Operational Group and LA Welfare Steering Group

17. The last LA Welfare Steering Group meeting took place on 18 May 2023. Agenda items included LA Welfare issues Highlight Report, Move to Universal Credit (UC) and Cost of Living.

18. Both groups’ meetings are held bi-monthly (and alternately), so the next Practitioners’ Operational Group meeting is scheduled to take place on 22 June 2023.

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

Update: Move to UC

20. From the start of May 2023, DWP expanded the Move to UC footprint, bringing in East London and Cheshire to those areas where we are actively sending Migration Notices to Tax Credit only customers. In June 2023, we will expand further to bring in Greater Manchester and North East Yorkshire and the Humber.

21. Work is progressing towards our expansion into Kent, North London, Durham and Tees Valley and East Anglia areas from July 2023.

22. Since we started the Move to UC in April 2023, we had only issued Migration Notices to single claimants. This week, we will commence a small-scale Discovery Phase for Tax Credits couples; learning and adapting to ensure we are confident that couples are able to make a claim to UC effectively, or with support, before we increase the number of Migration Notices we send to couples.

HB decisions by the Upper Tribunal

23. Decision Making and Appeals Leeds have not been made aware of any new HB decisions by the Upper Tribunal since May’s edition of this bulletin.

24. 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.

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

New Legislation

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

• 2023 No. 532 The Social Security (Habitual Residence and Past Presence) (Amendment) Regulations 2023, made on 12 May 2023

• 2023 No. 543 Social Security and Universal Credit (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2023, made on 17 May 2023

• 2023 No. 545 Social Fund Maternity and Funeral Expenses (General) and Social Security (Claims and Payments) (Amendment) Regulations 2023, made on 18 May 2023

• 2023 No. 549 Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment (Temporary Increase) Regulations 2023, made on 18 May 2023

• 2023 No. 547 Social Security (Disability Additional Payment Day) Regulations 2023, made on 18 May 2023

• 2023 No. 593 Universal Credit (Childcare) (Amendment) Regulations 2023, made on 31 May 2023

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

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

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

Document Type	Subject	Link
LAWD 5/2023	Editorial New email solution for Attendance Allowance form DBD68LA (for Unitary authorities and County Councils) Changes to the Housing Benefit Matching Service Incapacity Benefit and Income Support change of address rules Update: Transformation of the Single Housing Benefit Extracts returns to DWP using a real time Application Programme Interface Care Home Information Service: Request for additional LAs to join the early adopter trial Issues with the Local Council Tax Reduction additional deduction reasons data share Revised Memorandum of Understanding between DWP and LAs Invitation to a question and answer session on the MOU compliance requirements Feedback from the new Verify Earnings and Pensions User Interface survey and reminder about the closure of the old User Interface on 18 May 2023 Update: Collection of IP address data for HB claimants Extension to deadline for LA responses to the surveys for additional UC data items and LCTR data feed Volunteers needed to join the DWP/LA UC data sharing working group Update: Move to UC Practitioners’ Operational Group and LA Welfare Steering Group Secondment Opportunities in LA-PED HB Decisions with the Upper Tribunal New Legislation What’s new on our HB pages on www.gov.uk Access to the new Verify Earnings and Pensions User Interface	LAWD5/2023
LAWD 5/2023 lite	Update: Extension granted to local authorities for the return of the revised Memorandum of Understanding Update: Extension granted to LAs for the return of the LA MOU compliance audit template Circular HB A6/2023 about persons arriving from Sudan with effect from 15 May 2023 Fraud an Error national statistics for the financial year ending March 2023 estimates	LAWD5/2023 lite
Circular HB A6/2023	The Social Security (Habitual Residence and Past Presence) (Amendment) Regulations 2023	Circular HB A6/2023