Agenda item

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, and Financial Inclusion matters.

 

The national Welfare Reform agenda had impacted significantly 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 significant 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 (UC)

 

The latest national figures published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were released on 21 January 2025, with statistics relevant to the period up to December 2024:

 

• 7,276,191 households receiving UC (an increase from 7,078,771 as reported at the last meeting of this Committee).

 

Local authority statistics:

 

• City of Lincoln – 13,438 (13,142 as at the last report).
• North Kesteven – 8,619 (8,475 as at the last report).

 

On 25 April 2022, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions made a statement in the House of Lords (Written statements - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament) regarding managed UC migration for working-age legacy benefits – with the aim of completing this migration by the end of 2024. A ‘Discovery Phase’ of migration had been taking place, with a number of areas around the country (not Lincolnshire) with a relatively small number of UC cases.

 

DWP released information to state those in receipt of Tax Credits would be asked to apply for UC by the end of 2024 (Tax credits are ending - Understanding Universal Credit). DWP also announced, through the Autumn Statement 2022, that the managed migration of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) cases had been delayed to 2028/29. A further announcement was made on 19 April 2024 with plans to bring forward the managed migration of ESA cases. Notifications for this group commenced in September 2024.

 

DWP issued a letter to local authorities on 12 November 2024, which stated the aim of issuing the last UC migration notices in early December 2025, so that all in scope customers could be moved to UC and close legacy benefits (where appropriate) by the end of March 2026.

 

There had been numerous changes to the UC rollout/ migration timeline over the last decade, and the latest stated aimed timeline could be subject to change.

 

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP)

 

On 13 March 2024, DWP announced DHP government grants for 2024/25. For City of Lincoln and North Kesteven, these were exactly the same amounts as for 2023/24 at £132,330 for City of Lincoln and £86,931 for North Kesteven respectively. On 19 December 2024, the DWP announced DHP government grants for 2025/26, again these rates as expected were frozen for the forthcoming financial year. The table at paragraph 5.1 of the report included the confirmed 2024/25 and 2025/26 allocations, also showing previous years’ grants.

 

The table at paragraph 5.2 of the report broke down the number of DHP applications received and determined in Quarter 3 2024/25 and DHP spend for quarter 3 was shown at paragraph 5.3.

 

Household Support Fund

 

The report gave an update on the current position in relation to Household Support Fund wave 6 (‘HSF6’)

 

On 2 September 2024, the Government announced an extension to the Household Support scheme.Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) stated there would be an extension to the Household Support Fund, for the next six months – i.e. 1 October 2024 to 31 March 2025.

 

Lincolnshire County Council received an allocation of HSF6 from DWP for Lincolnshire.

 

Indicative allocations of HSF6 were subsequently notified by Lincolnshire County, and had been accepted by our shared service local authorities, as below:

 

• City of Lincoln Council: £296,862
• North Kesteven District Council: £204,093.

 

Officers had been proactive in preparing for delivery of the HSF6 schemes in our districts. Government guidance was awaited on a further HSF7 scheme to be introduced in due course.

 

Winter Fuel Payments and Pension Credit

 

On 29 July 2024, the Chancellor announced that Winter Fuel Payments would become means-tested from 2024/25. Eligibility information had subsequently been made available on GOV.UK (Winter Fuel Payment: Eligibility - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk))

 

Lincolnshire Financial Inclusion Partnership (see Section 9 of this report) had already planned a countywide Pension Credit take-up campaign in Autumn 2024, - this announcement had brought forward this activity, and communications and take-up activities were now taking place to encourage and assist residents in claiming Pension Credit as soon possible. A national Pension Credit Week of Action also took place in week-commencing 9 September 2024 ( “You could get Pension Credit” – Week of Action to drive take up - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)).

 

In the Chancellor’s statement on 29 July 2024, the potential of Housing Benefit and Pension Credit being ‘merged’ was mentioned. Any merger (whether this be into Housing Benefit, or into Pension Credit), would be likely to take several years. Officers were working as part of a small working group with national DWP as to what this closer working might mean and how it could best be delivered.

 

Financial Inclusion

 

Financial inclusion continued to be a key objective and factor in many areas of LiNK’s work. The Lincolnshire Financial Inclusion Partnership (LFIP) was currently chaired by the Assistant Director Shared Revenues and Benefits for North Kesteven District Council and City of Lincoln Council, - which brought together organisations and partners to promote and raise the profile of financial inclusion across the county.

 

Three key areas of high-profile engagement by LFIP in 2024/25, were:

 

• A co-ordinated countywide approach to Pension Credit take-up activity;

 

• Co-ordination of ‘Talk Money Week’ activities in Lincolnshire during November 2024: Talk Money Week (moneyhelper.org.uk) ;

 

• A conference to be held on 27 February 2025, at The Storehouse in Skegness (HOME | The Storehouse), to follow-up from the highly successful conferences held at the Jakemans Community Stadium in Boston in February 2023, and Jubilee Church Life Centre in Grantham in February 2024.

 

Representatives of LFIP also presented a well-received session at the Lincolnshire Suicide Prevention Conference held at Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln, on 4 September 2024, in respect of the links between Money and Mental Wellbeing.

 

In terms of the well-documented ongoing national cost of living pressures, both our partner Councils continued to review and update web pages dedicated to initiatives to try and assist our residents with cost of living support:

 

• Cost of Living Support – City of Lincoln Council

 

• Cost of Living Support | North Kesteven District Council (n-kesteven.gov.uk) .

 

City of Lincoln Council approved funding for some cost of living projects through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, for 2024/25, and this work continued to deliver effective initiatives working with a range of partners.

 

Autumn Budget 2024

 

A number of announcements as part of the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget on 30 October 2024 impacted on benefits and cost of living support, with highlights being:

 

·       The settlement provides £1 billion in 2025-26 to extend the Household Support Fund in England and Discretionary Housing Payments in England and Wales. Local authorities will use this funding to support households facing the greatest hardship.

·       The government is also helping low-income households on Universal Credit (UC) by creating a new Fair Repayment Rate. This will cap UC repayments at 15% of the standard allowance, benefiting 1.2 million households by allowing them to keep more of their UC award each month.

·       The settlement also allocates additional funding to increase the take up of Pension Credit and support work to allow the administration of Pension Credit and Housing Benefit to be brought together for new claimants from 2026.