We held a workshop in Flintshire in April for local authorities who are curious about what their data can tell them. Hosted by Peter Carter and Terrin Mathew, attendees from across Wales and the North West compared notes about the challenges of the welfare reforms and the rollout of Universal Credit, and how they're each using their data now.
The workshop inspired people with stories of success elsewhere and helped them to build the case for using local authority held datasets to better target your support for vulnerable households.
For more information visit www.policyinpractice.co.uk, email hello@policyinpractice.co.uk or call 0330 088 9242.
2. Agenda
1. Introductions
• to our workshop
• to Policy in Practice
2. Session 1: Successes you want to share
3. Session 2: Be inspired by what other local authorities are doing
4. Session 3: Challenges you need to overcome
5. Q&A, action plan reviewing
6. Close
5. Benefits take-up campaigns
• Recently published estimates of the take-up of the main income-related benefits
nationally which showed that over £10 billion in benefits is unclaimed.
• £20m pounds identified for the Royal Borough of Greenwich unclaimed benefits
identified through our analysis
• Using the finance resilience based modelling, data from the benefit take-up
analysis to drill-down to cohorts and assess who is missing out.
• Chose a communication method (phone or mailshots) based on capacity, urgency
and individual cases to increase take up. Generally, they have a 10% response rate
to the mailshots.
7. Preventing Homelessness
• 78 households identified as at risk but not yet
presenting as homeless
• All households contacted early and offered support
through Early Action Network; 22 agreed
• Early support included benefits/budgeting support, rent
deposits, income maximisation etc.
• A team member spearheading raising awareness of the
analysis and distribution of data to operational teams
8. Small scale projects
• Cornwall Council: Undertaking a small scale project to support fewer
than 100 families across the private rented sector identified as being at
risk or in crisis. Support provided by Cornwall Housing and external
employment support partners.
• Exeter Council: Preventing households that are currently in rent arrears
from accruing further arrears when they move to Universal Credit. 66
households in Exeter that are council tenants with rent arrears and
would be worse-off under Universal Credit.
• Islington Council: 113 lone parent households with their youngest
child turning 5 within 6 months. Fliers sent to these households
informing them about the support network available for UC through
the council and the voluntary sector.
16. A team of
professionals
with extensive
knowledge of the
welfare system
who are
passionate about
making social
policy work
We help local
authorities use
their household
level data to
identify
vulnerable
households,
target support
and track their
interventions
We develop
software that
engages people.
We identify the
actions people can
take to increase
their income,
lower their costs
and build their
financial
resilience
17. How we work with household-level data
Housing Benefit / Council Tax data, household
level arrears / debt data from local authorities
Data is processed by our Benefit and
Budgeting Calculator
Detailed view of household-level financial circumstances
now and in the future
Councils identify and engage households at risk before
a crisis occurs
18. Natural migration: Policy in Practice’s evidence to
the Work and Pensions Committee
Key findings from our evidence
40% of households (around 200,000) who move onto
Universal Credit without transitional protection will be
worse off, by an average of £59.45 per week.
30% of households (around 150,000) who move onto
Universal Credit without transitional protection will be
better off, by an average of £44.30 per week. The other
30% will experience no change in income.
Certain groups are particularly affected by natural
migration onto Universal Credit: 72% of all low-income self-
employed households and 90% of homeowners in receipt
of tax credits will lose out. Additionally, people with savings
over £16,000 were eligible for Tax Credits, but are not
eligible for any Universal Credit.
The way unearned income is treated under Universal Credit
is different to how it’s treated under the legacy benefits
system, and this results in significant changes to take home
income for some groups.
19. Our analysis of Budget 2018
• £1.7 billion boost to benefit support, benefiting
2.5 million households (1.9m with children &
600k with limited capability for work)
• £1.0 billion to help 1.1m people migrating onto
Universal Credit (one-third of those left to
migrate)
• Employed households gain
• Self-employed, disabled, ill or out of work don't
gain
• Download our report
20. • 1.6 million people on Universal Credit
today
• A further 1.6m people moving onto
Universal Credit this year
• 2.0 million people moving on through
‘managed migration’ from 2020.
Universal Credit is rolling out fast
21. • UC work allowances: increase by £1,000 per year (from April 2019)
• Two week run-on for those on existing DWP benefits (JSA, ESA, IS) in addition to
those receiving housing benefit (from July 2020)
• Self employed: Protection extended to all; assessed on actual income (not MIF) for
12 months (from July 2019)
• Deductions from UC: Max rate down from 40% to 30% (from Oct 2019)
• Delay in increasing the earnings limit that triggers surplus earnings (remains the
same until 2020)
• Period for recovery of advances extended from 12 to 16 months (from Oct 2021)
• Slower roll-out of Universal Credit (end now Dec 2023)
• Plus increase in minimum wage & changes in tax allowances (from April 2019)
Budget 2018: Universal Credit changes
22. Managed migration was scaled back for 2019, although DWP will still
have their hands full with around 1.6m people will still move onto
Universal Credit this year through natural migration.
The two-child limit to benefits would not apply to children born
before April 2017.
Flexible payments, including direct payments to landlords, split
payments, and the payment of Universal Credit going to the main
carer by default.
The Secretary of State is also looking at options to reduce the five-
week wait for new claimants, and accelerate childcare payments to
providers.
The High Court found in favour of four working mothers who
challenged how the DWP took account of monthly earnings.
New Secretary of State – A new direction..?
(million possible predictors, which to choose, what is covered by the data? what has the biggest effect?
Traditional approach doesn’t always work.
engage around the problems that ARE relevant e.g., benefit take up, childcare, DHPs
REF TO BEN TAKE UP SCREEN/DHP SCREEN AND CALC
THEN DEMO BEN TAKE UP SCREEN DEMO
How do you track cases, evidence a successful service, record 'preventions' for statutory requirements of the Homelessness Reduction Act
Demo of tracking screen
Download the cohort from step 1 and put in the sankey/import pre-prepared cohort
Analytics – Software – Policy
DEMO DB- ---- IN CRISIS PRIVATE RENT
Governments may know how one policy affects many people. We can show how all policies combined affect one person.
We work with household level data from over 40 different local authorities to
Welfare reforms we model, and how accurate we are.