Issue - meetings

Cost of Living Support

Meeting: 22/02/2024 - Shared Revenues and Benefits Joint Committee (Item 27)

Minutes:

Purpose of Report

To provide Shared Revenues and Benefits Joint Committee with an update regarding various areas relating to the national welfare reform agenda, as well as current cost of living initiatives to support residents.

Decision

That the content of the report be noted, and a further update be presented at the next meeting of this Committee.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None.

Reason for Decision

The report provided Shared Revenues and Benefits Joint Committee with an update with regard to the national and local position of welfare reform/other initiatives, with a specific focus on Universal Credit, Discretionary Housing Payments, Household Support Fund, Energy Bill Support Schemes, Council Tax Support Fund and Financial Inclusion matters.

The national Welfare Reform agenda had a significant impact on residents of Lincoln and North Kesteven since 2013 when certain changes were introduced – such as Removal of Spare Room Subsidy, and Benefit Cap – and had continued as further changes had been introduced, such as the ongoing rollout of Universal Credit. These changes had resulted in major changes to the operating of our shared service, to ensure a proactive and positive response to welfare reform and the impacts on residents.

The Covid-19 pandemic and cost of living related matters, had caused major challenges to households locally and nationally. The Revenues and Benefits Shared Service played a lead and key role in developing deliverable schemes to help mitigate some of the impacts of cost-of-living challenges. Some of these schemes were directly delivered by this Service, some in partnership with other teams within the Councils, also with organisations such as those in the voluntary sector.

Universal Credit

The latest national figures published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were released on 16 January 2024, with statistics relevant to the period up to December 2023:

6,220,096 households receiving UC (this was an increase from 6,043,162 as reported at the last meeting of this Committee).

Local authority statistics:

City of Lincoln – 11,878 (11,478 as at the last report).
North Kesteven – 7,289 (6,946 as at the last report).

A letter was published by DWP and sent to local authorities on 4 December 2023, setting our managed migration plans in 2024/25, and beyond. As at the time of writing this report, further information is awaited from DWP in terms of anticipated numbers of cases anticipated as moving from a legacy benefit (for example, Housing Benefit (HB)) to UC in 2024/25, - as well as a more definitive timescale. Under current plans, our shared service would continue to be responsible for administering and processing HB claims for those of pension age, all Council Tax Support claims, and Exempt/temporary accommodation HB claims, - as well other related work such as Discretionary Housing Payments. Revenues and Benefits management continued to keep the whole LiNK team aware of UC managed migration and the potential impacts moving forward.

DWP had invited all local authorities to a conference on 25 March 2024 to view plans for future years.

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) ... view the full minutes text for item 27

Meeting: 23/11/2023 - Shared Revenues and Benefits Joint Committee (Item 20)

20 Cost of Living Support PDF 414 KB

Minutes:

Purpose of Report

Decision

That the content of the report be noted, and a further update be presented at the next meeting of this Committee.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None.

Reason for Decision

The Covid-19 pandemic and now the rising cost of living, had caused major challenges to households locally and nationally. The Revenues and Benefits Shared Service played a lead and key role in developing deliverable schemes to help mitigate some of the impacts of cost-of-living challenges. Some of these schemes were directly delivered by this Service, some in partnership with other teams within the Councils, also with organisations such as those in the voluntary sector.

Universal Credit

The latest national figures published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were released on 17 October 2023, with statistics relevant to the period up to August 2023:

6,043,162 households receiving UC (this was an increase from 5,965,178 as reported at the last meeting of this Committee).

Local authority statistics:

City of Lincoln – 11,478 (11,343 as at the last report).
North Kesteven – 6,946 (6,789 as at the last report).

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP)

In June 2023, a letter was issued to City of Lincoln Council and North Kesteven District Council setting out commencement of Tax Credit cases managed migration to Universal Credit starting September 2023. Officers understood all Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland local authorities received the same letter, as had all areas of the country. Officers were working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions locally and nationally to fully understand the impacts moving forward.

DWP had recently announced that in December 2023 they would further expand the ‘Move to UC’ into Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire, and that expansion for October through to December included a smaller number of Jobcentre Districts than previous months, as DWP brought in Couple Tax Credit claims and would be issuing migration notices to areas already within Move to UC activity. For migration notices that would have had a deadline date that fell between 11^th December 2023 and ... view the full minutes text for item 20