HEALTH IMPROVEMENT DEVELOPMENT DAY

18 February 2014

Argyll Hotel, Inveraray.

Contents

Summary Page 3

Evaluation Page 6

Appendix One Page 7Programme

Appendix Two Page 8Welfare Reform and Impact on Life Course Groups, Michael Turnow

Appendix Three Page 12Child Poverty in Scotland, Alison Lord

Appendix Four Page 16Early Years Collaborative, Liz Strang

Appendix Five Page 18Fuel Poverty in Argyll, Rachel McNicol

Appendix Six Page 21Welfare Reform – Impact in Argyll and Bute, Michael Nicol

Appendix Seven Page 24Rural Poverty, Welfare Reform and “Fish”, Gillian McInnes

Appendix Eight Page 28List of attendees

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Summary

On Tuesday 28th February 2014 The Argyll and Bute Health and Wellbeing Network held a development day in the Argyll Hotel, Inveraray.

The themes for the day were Early Years and Welfare reform. Alison McGrory, Health Improvement Principal for Argyll and Bute CHP, Chaired the day. There were six speakers throughout the day as well as action planning sessions. A total of 43 guests, from NHS Local Authority and Third Sector groups attended.

The speakers were:

Michael Tornow, NHS Health Scotland

Alison Lord, Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG)

Liz Strang, Argyll and Bute Council

Rachel McNicol, Argyll, Lomond and the Isles Energy (ALIEnergy).

Michael Nicol, Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB)

Gillian McInnes, Argyll Community Housing Association (ACHA)

During the lunch break Myra McDonald, from Argyll and Bute Advice Network (ABAN), gave a rolling demonstration of the online interagency referral system.

Action Planning Sessions

The morning Action Planning session took place after the first two speakers. The feeling in the room was that the negative effects of welfare reform stark. The first question the groups were asked to consider was:

What can you do to progress this agenda in your job?

Information People feel swamped with information. They need a centralised hub to get information

and to share it in easily accessible forms. This hub would hold information on local and national services. Could use ABAN throughout NHS, Council and Third Sector as a single point of access to information about services. Wider advertising and promotion of ABAN throughout the sectors, ie via Health and Wellbeing Networks. Partners need to actively register their service on the ABAN site.

Social media such as Twitter and the Health and Wellbeing Networks should be used to promote information. Help people to navigate systems and signpost them on.

Information and support to help people access and navigate the system for themselves. People need supported to feel that they can and should be able to access resources. Organisations / staff need to ensure access to whole communities.

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Training and Awareness Support for staff. Provide awareness raising training for frontline staff in basic welfare

rights information. Ensure staff know about Child Poverty and have this included in their Continual Professional Development.

Child Poverty added to Child Protection training. Raise awareness of services and events and put a ‘removal by…’ date on all posters to

ensure only relevant information is displayed places. Training in welfare reform and determinants of health, attitudes, values and issues related to money and medication and train with other organisations.

Changing people’s attitudes. All / both ends of the social scale need to take this on board.

Training of GPs in welfare rights.

Politics and Policy Lack of political voice, we need to be collective in our approach. All stay angry and not

accept the situation. Lobby, challenge and vote where possible. Change policy, campaign and petition local groups.

Campaign and petition local groups to ensure that there is an equity of access rather than equal payment policy. Local actions with local facilities.

Housing Providers Providing tenants and service users with ABAN information/leaflets/links to inform what

services are available. Changing policy on arrears to give more flexibility to tenants to achieve payment without

further significant impact on living expenses. Managers and peers being prepared to challenge staff who are not understanding or

supportive of low income households. Proactive approach in housing to young people applying for (joint) tenancies. Change our budgeting forms to include things like children’s school lunch, bus fare and

school uniforms. Provide budget income expenditure forms to those whose benefits change rather than just statements. Advising tenants who declare a vulnerability such as financial or domestic abuse.

Young People Education in school. Raising expectations. After school activities for lower income children. Higher education opportunities.

Society and Services People need to input to society in order to feel part of it. Volunteering Time banking Get business on board with these processes. Booklet from Child Poverty Action Group sent to each nursery and pre-5 units. Promoting Healthy Start again How easily accessible services are such as housing benefit. Rural areas - access to services, recommendations to be made Welfare rights information / person located in GP services Income maximisation – report to Scottish Government partners to feed into this process Promotion of named person service

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The afternoon Action Planning session took place after the presentation from Michael Nicol at the Citizens Advice Bureau. The discussions were centred around the question:

What can we do collectively in Argyll and Bute to progress this agenda?

Scottish Government Scottish government needs to reassess evidence base around programmes such as

healthy child and youth justice, parenting. Building resilience to withstand adversity. Reporting hardship an advocacy issues up to Scottish Government.

Community Planning Partnership Community Planning Partnership should collectively renew role of ABAN and develop

strategic leadership. Strategic prescribing - raise awareness of role of ABAN with primary care. Develop case studies. Understanding what services are there, what supports are available to support families

and to reduce fragmentation and rework between services including engaging community to build capacity.

Budgeting life skills throughout life course. People struggling to budget - training could be undertaken in schools as part of

curriculum. Reassessing infrastructure for broadband. Transportation etc to bring jobs to rurally deprived areas. Increase awareness of what people can access. There is a lack of equity but we need

to find solutions to increase access. Make sure “the people who can” make change are aware.

Health and Wellbeing Networks Health and Wellbeing Networks may have a key role in leading on single issues for a

limited period of time and ensuring the engagement of “the people who can” from all agencies. Not in addition to job description of Network Co-ordinators, instead of, and some additional funding / training may be required.

Everyone signposting on to other services. Cascade information to as wide a range of people as possible.

Questions How do we find the people who are at risk? How to reach the hard to reach? Those with mental health issues face added

difficulty.

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HWN development Day 18/02/2014Evaluation

Strongly Agree Agree No Thought Disagree Strongly Disagree

I feel there are positive actions I can take to improve the situation

12 13

I feel motivated to take action 9 16This event was useful to me 15 11I am now better informed about the early years collaborative and the effects of welfare reform

13 17

The results from the evaluation showed that participants did gain knowledge of welfare reform and the early years work. Furthermore, participants felt motivated to take action and that there were positive actions they could take to mitigate against the negative effects of welfare reform. All the participants who completed the evaluation felt the event was useful to them.

It now falls to individuals to undertake those positive actions discussed at the event. This report will be widely circulated which should serve as a reminder for those who attended and build awareness of those who didn’t.

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Appendix oneProgramme

10.15am Registration

10.25-10.30am Welcome Alison McGrory, NHS Highland

10.30-11.05am Welfare Reform and Impact on Life Course Groups Michael Tornow, NHS Health Scotland

11.05-11.35am Children Poverty, an Overview Alison Lord, Child Poverty Action Group

11.35-11.50 Action Planning

11.50-12.05pm Comfort Break

12.10-12.35pm Early Years Collaborative Liz Strang, Argyll and Bute Council

12.35-1.15pm Lunch – Rolling Demonstration of On-line ABAN Interagency Referral System by Myra MacDonald, Argyll and Bute Advice Network (ABAN)

1.15-1.35pm Fuel Poverty in Argyll Rachel McNicol, Argyll Lomond and the Islands Energy

1.40-2.15pm Welfare Reform – Impact in Argyll and Bute Michael Nicol, Citizens Advice Bureau

2.15- 2.25pm Action Planning

2.30-3.05pm Rural Poverty, Welfare Reform and ‘FISH’ Gillian McInnes, Argyll Community Housing Association (ACHA)

3.10-3.20pm Action Planning

3.20pm Reflections and Thanks Alison McGrory, NHS Highland

3.30pm Close

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Appendix Two

Welfare Reform and Impact on Life Course Groups

Michael Tornow

Michael.tornow@nhs.net

Welfare reform in the UK and Scotland

Key points:

On 5 December 2012 the UK Chancellor announced that annual increases of many working-age benefits from April 2013 until April 2016, excluding disability and carer’s benefits, will be limited to 1% per year.

It is estimated that 15,000 children will be pushed into poverty in Scotland, and that 200,000 children across the UK will be in relative poverty as a result of benefits being up rated by only 1% from 2013–16.

In April 2013 the Scottish Government introduced a welfare fund which will include crisis payments for those who cannot afford to feed their children.

Benefits not subject to the 1% annual increase, such as disability benefits, will rise at the rate of CPI rather than the more generous RPI used previously.

The weekly rates of Personal Independence Payment were published on 13 December 2012, and are similar to those paid for Disability Living Allowance. The DWP anticipate that 330,000 of the 560,000 Disability Living Allowance claimants to be reassessed by October 2015 for Personal Independence Payments will either lose their benefit entirely or have payments reduced.

There is a lack of published detail about the Universal Credit despite it being initiated from 2013.

The Welfare Reform (Further Provisions) (Scotland) Act was enacted on 7 August 2012 to allow the Scottish Government some power to mitigate for the negative impacts of welfare reform. Practical details are still to be published.

In February 2013, Scottish regulations were published which ensure that passported benefits, such as free school meals continue.

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Scottish Government, and COSLA are providing £40 million in 2013/14 to maintain Council Tax Benefit payments to claimants once responsibility for the benefit transfers to Scottish Government.

From 2008 until 2014, disabled people claiming Incapacity Benefit are being transferred to Employment Support Allowance, resulting in incomes being reduced and, in some cases, benefits are time limited.

As of April 2012, eligibility criteria for Tax Credits, Child Benefit and Housing Benefit are being significantly tightened.

From April 2013 single people and couples who are housing association and local authority tenants with more than one bedroom have their Housing Benefit reduced, on average by 14%. In Scotland, 8 out of 10 households facing reductions in Housing Benefit include a disabled adult. The ‘bedroom tax’ aspect of Housing Benefit was subject to a legal challenge by law firm Leigh Day, on the grounds that disabled people in the UK are disproportionately affected.

From September 2013 a benefit cap of £26,000 a year is being introduced throughout Great Britain. This translates to weekly limits of £350 for individuals, or £500 a week for families. Claimants of Working Tax Credit or Disability Living Allowance are exempt.

In Scotland in 2013/14, approximately 2,500 households will on average lose £93 a week with around 3,500 adults and 7,000 children affected by the benefits cap. Households containing three or more children or living in high rent areas will be most affected.

Impact of welfare reforms on life course groups

Early yearsYoung livesIncome work and health Older people

Early years

Financial support conditions have now tightened for single parents, with Income Support eligibility continuing only until children are aged under five, instead of the previous support to age ten.

To be able to claim Working Tax Credit, single parents will be required to work at least 16 hours per week.

Annual increases of 1% between April 2013–16 (for Working Tax Credit, Income Support and Child Benefit) mean a real-term reduction in the financial resource of both single and dual adult recipient households, putting families on the lowest incomes at increased risk of child poverty.

Early years continued

Couples with children claiming Working Tax Credit now need to work a combined total of 24 hours or more per week, with one of them working a minimum of 16 hours.

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Means testing has tightened for Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit entitlement. For the former, support will not be given if a claimants’ salary exceeds £26,000 with one child, or £32,000 with two children.

Universal Child Benefit has now stopped, with higher paid individuals no longer being entitled to payments.

Eligibility for free school meals after Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments are introduced is still unclear. Access to Healthy Start vouchers for milk and fruit available to pregnant women or mothers with children aged four or under and who are on a low income) will continue once Universal Credit is introduced.

Young Lives

Age restrictions often prevent younger people from accessing financial support. Only 18 year olds can claim Jobseeker’s Allowance and this threshold is higher for claimants in education, who are not entitled to claim the benefit until aged 20.

The eligibility ages for Working Tax Credit and the higher payment of Housing Benefit were raised from 18 to 25 and from 25 to 35 respectively.

People aged under 25 can no longer claim Working Tax Credit and it is now a requirement to work a minimum of 30 hours per week to be eligible for this benefit. As full-time employment is scarce, particularly for young people, those who struggle to find this level of employment will be unable to claim Working Tax Credit.

Young lives continued

Housing Benefit payments have been reduced, with only people aged over 35 now receiving sufficient benefit to rent their own home, compared to the previous entitlement for those aged 25. People aged under 35 will now need to share accommodation, which will result in limiting the housing options for young people.

Young disabled people aged between 16 and 20 (or 25 for those in education) are no longer able to claim contribution-based Employment Support Allowance. Young people will need to claim income- based Employment Support Allowance instead, which is means-tested and may disadvantage some claimants. Annual increases of 1% between April 2013–16 (for Working Tax Credit, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment Support Allowance), mean a real-term reduction in the financial resource of both young single people and young couples.

Income work and health

Restrictions now apply to financial support for people in work or unemployed and on a low income.

Claimants are no longer entitled to claim either Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance if they work more than 24 hours (or more than 16 hours if they are the partner of a claimant).

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People who are no longer entitled to these benefits or Tax Credits may cease to be eligible for passported benefits such as free school meals or concessionary travel, which would further depreciate a limited income.

Support for housing costs is being significantly curtailed, which will amount to a considerable cut in income for people who rely on this support. The amount of Housing Benefit available as Local Housing Allowance to private sector tenants was restricted to 30% of the value of local rents. Previously this was paid at 50%.

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Appendix Three

Child Poverty in Scotland: an overview

Alison Lord

About CPAG:

2 strands to the work that we do:

1. Provide advice, information and training on Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits

2. Campaigning and policy work around child poverty

Definition of Poverty:• People are considered as living in poverty if they live in households with less than 60% of

median household income• A single person is in poverty if they are living on less than £128 per week • A lone parent family with two children (e.g. aged 5 and 14) are living in poverty if they are

living on less than £264 per week• A couple with two children (again aged 5 and 14) are living in poverty if they are living on

less than £357 a week

Child Poverty in Scotland: context

200 000 (20%) children living in poverty (2011/12, after housing costs – 15% or 150 000 before housing costs)

Some children at even greater risk− families someone is disabled (I in 3)- one parent families (nearly half)- families without paid work (over two thirds)-

Affects families across Scotland, − ECP child poverty map of Scotland www.endchildpoverty.org.uk− nearly every Scottish LA has areas where more than one in five children in poverty− Argyll & Bute 14%

Overall impact

Lowest-income households with children affected the most (IFS, 2012)

Latest IFS forecast increase to 28.4% by 2020 – c70 000 more children into poverty in Scotland alone (IFS 2013)

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Benefit changes and lower wage growth forecast to leave majority of children below the Minimum Income Standard by 2015

Child poverty: trends

210 000 (21%) children living in poverty (2010/11after housing costs – 17% or 170 000 before housing costs)

Some children at particular risk− families affected by disability- one parent families- families without paid work-

Affects families across Scotland, but concentration and nature varies− ECP child poverty map of Scotland www.endchildpoverty.org.uk

Overall impact continued…

Impact of Welfare Reform in Scotland

Between 2010 – 2015, projected that Welfare Reform will have taken £2billion out of the Scottish Economy

Argyll & Bute will lose on average £10.5 million a year over the next 2 years

Highland will lose a projected £44.68 million from now to 2015

Main losses across Scotland are DLA, Housing Benefit, Child Benefit and Tax Credits – account for 89% of cuts (source: PCE2)

Impact on health and wellbeing

Healths compromised from birth - average birth weight significantly lower (ECP, 2008)

More likely to have chronic illness as toddlers (ECP, 2008)

More likely to suffer mental distress (CPAG, Poverty in Scotland 2011)

Long term health problems and poor general health increases as deprivation increases (NHS Health Scotland, March 2013)

Greater risk of problems with psychosocial health and language (GUS, 2010)

Increased risk of unintentional injury (GUS, 2010)

Increased exposure to risk factors relating to maternal ill health and poorer diet (GUS, 2010)

Impact on education

Children in poverty nine months behind in terms of “school readiness” by age three (Centre for Longitudinal Studies, 2008)

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On entering primary school 33% of poorest children have developmental difficulty compared to 7% of most affluent (Save the Children, 2012)

Gap widens as go through school (CPAG, 2007)

School leavers from areas of high deprivation − lower attainment tariff score - half that of least deprived− less likely to enter positive destinations – 22% don’t, compared to 5% of least deprived

(Scottish Government 2012)−

Attainment gap remains stubbornly wide

Limited evidence priority for action

What needs to happen?

Economic growth not in itself enough - under current policies better off benefit whilst poorer households continue to see incomes drop (Resolution Foundation, 2013)UK: rethink tax, benefit and labour market policiesScotland, at local and national level:

• Proof every policy and budget decision for impact• Continue to invest in Scottish Welfare Fund and Council Tax Reduction Scheme• Invest in advice and information • Build on Living Wage to tackle low pay• Invest in early years and childcare • Reduce costs of school: extend free school meal entitlement, improve school

clothing grant; develop and share good practice on charging

What can we all do?

Be aware, and promote awareness, of context of children’s lives and the barriers families face as incomes squeezed and prices rise

Support and promote practical solutions e.g. maximising family incomes, accessing services, reducing costs and removing barriers

Be aware of the stigma surrounding benefits and poverty

What can we all do? cont.

Collectively advocate: use local routes to collect experiences of people living in A&B to feed into national policy

Offer information on money and benefits to everyone

If someone asks you about benefits and you don’t know the answer, call CPAG!

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Appendix Four

Early Years Collaborative

Liz Strang Programme Manager

Context

National Outcome 2007: Our children have the best start in life and are ready to succeed

Early Years Framework 200810 key elements

Early Years Taskforce 2011, in partnership with local government, the NHS, the police and the Third Sector

Our Ambition

To make Scotland the best place in the world to grow up in by improvingOutcomes, and reducing inequalities, for all babies, children, mothers, fathers and

across Scotland to ensure that all children have the best start in life and are ready to succeed

Early Years Collaborative

Workstream 1

To ensure that women experience positive pregnancies which result in the birth of more healthy babies as evidenced by a reduction of 15% in the rates of:

- stillbirths (from 4.9 per 1000 births in 2010 to 4.3 per 1000 births in 2015)

- infant mortality (from 3.7 per 1000 live births in 2010 to 3.1 per 1000 live births in 2015)

Workstream 2

85% of all children within each CPP have reached all of the expected developmental milestones at the time of the child’s 27-30 month child health review by end-2016

Workstream 3

90% of all children within each CPP have reached all of the expected developmental milestones at the time the child starts primary school, by end-2017

Workstream 4 - Leadership

Provide the Leadership System to support quality improvement across the Early Years Collaborative

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Timely delivery of all three workstream “stretch aims”

How?Stretch Aims

Early Years Collaborative

Get Involved

http://www.scotland.gov.uk

http://www.ihi.org

http://www.qihub.scot.nhs.uk

#bestplacetogrowup

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Appendix Five

Fuel Poverty in ArgyllRachel McNicol

Fuel Poverty in Argyll

ALIenergy’s affordable warmth work

Fuel Poverty and what it really means

How fuel poverty affects individuals and their health

Fuel poverty in Argyll and Bute

What can ALIEnergy do for people in fuel poverty?

Our Affordable Warmth Team

Working to combat fuel poverty in Argyll since 2009

4398 engagements in 2012/13

Affordable Warmth for Sustainable Rural Communities

Five year project 2013-2018 Advice, support and mentoring to older people and single parentsMid Argyll, Kintyre, Oban, Lorn and ButeTraining and mentoring to people who support the target groups in their community

Tara, Jenny and Rachel covering Oban, Lorn, Mid Argyll and Kintyre. Julie and Alma at Bute Advice Centre.

Fuel Poverty

The Scottish Government’s definition of Fuel Poverty is:

"A household is in fuel poverty if, in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime, it would be required to spend more than 10% of its income (including housing benefit or income support for mortgage interest) on all household fuel use".

There are three main factors which influence whether a household is in fuel poverty:

Insufficient income. Fuel costs. Energy efficiency.

How Fuel Poverty affects individualsFuel poverty and healthIndoor temperature and health

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18-24°C, comfort zone, no risk

Below 16°C, diminished resistance to respiratory infections

Below 12°C, increased blood pressure and viscosity

Below 9°C, after 2 or more hours, deep body temperature falls

Indoor environment is a source of health risk factor-most people spend more than 90% of time indoors

Older people, young children and babies are less able to detect temperature changes

Fuel Poverty in Argyll and the Islands

38.2% of Argyll households spend more than 10% of their annual income on fuel.

Higher than the national average; High proportion of hard-to-heat, hard-to-treat housing Limited mains gas availability Higher than average proportion of the population who are

economically inactive, 30.4% of households in Argyll are aged over 65

How we help people in fuel poverty

Specific advice to individuals to suit their needs;

Maximise household incomes

Improve their energy behaviours to reduce waste and save energy

Improve the energy efficiency of their homes

Access social tariffs, where appropriate

Handhold vulnerable individuals

Ongoing mentoring

Can we all work together?

YES, it makes sense.

We can help you and the people you are in contact with.

You need to help us to help them.

We need to work together to eliminate fuel poverty in Argyll and Bute!Joe FitzPatrick MSP: “As an energy rich nation, fuel poverty has no place in Scotland.”

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Maggie Kelly, Policy and Campaigns Officer, The Poverty Alliance: “We need to poverty-proof our decision-making”.

Norman Kerr, Director, Energy Action Scotland: “There is not a lack of funding, there is a lack of co-ordinated response.”

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Appendix Six

Welfare Reform – Impact in Argyll and ButeMichael Nicol

Welfare Reform –Impact in Argyll and Bute in 2014/2015

Welfare reform will cost an estimated £24 million in Argyll and Bute.

This is a cost per working adult of £430 per annum.

Local Housing Allowance rules changes will affect an estimated 1,500 households costing £2million or £40 per working age adult.

Under Occupancy or “Bedroom Tax” affecting up to 1000 families and costing £1million or £10 working age adult.

Non-dependant deductions will result in an estimated loss of £500,000 affect 500 households and cost £10 per working age adult.

Welfare Reform –Impact in Argyll and Bute in 2014/2015

Disability Living Allowance reform will affect an estimated 800 individuals at a cost of £2 million of £40 per working age adult in the area.

Replacement of Incapacity Benefit with ESA will produce an estimated loss of £6 million for 1,700 individuals costing £110 per working age adult.

Changes in Child Benefit will cost £3 million or £65 per working age adult and affect nearly 10,000 families.

Tax Credit reforms will affect an estimated 5,400 families and produce an estimated loss of £4million per annum or £80 per working age adult.

Welfare Reform –Advice needs in Argyll and Bute

Welfare Reform - advice needs 1ST April – 31st December 2013

CAB dealt with 3818 issues between April and December compared to 2184 in the whole of 21/13

678 Benefit, Tax and National Insurance issues compared 357 in 12/13

298 Housing issues compared with 193 in 12/13

1987 Debt issues compared with 1193 in 12/13

CAB still operating at capacity despite 9 new members of staff.

Welfare reform advice needs in A&B – under-occupancy charge

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The under-occupancy charge is having a real and harmful impact on people’s lives, and often the most vulnerable in society – those with disabilities, children in separated families etc.

People are ‘trapped’ into paying the 'bedroom tax' in that there are not enough one bedroom properties available to down-size to in Argyll and Bute.

Over 800 households are affected by Under-occupancy in Argyll and Bute whilst the Scottish Welfare Reform Committee reports that there are 398 Housing Association bedsit/one bedroom properties available.

Welfare reform advice needs in A&B – Discretionary Housing Payments

The Citizens Advice Bureau has a high number of clients who approach us seeking advice on under-occupancy and how to mitigate it. They are often unaware of the existence of Discretionary Housing Payments which can be used to bridge the shortfall between housing benefit and rent.

A&B Council has been allocated an additional £550,390 from the Scottish Government to be paid over in March 2014 in order to provide additional Discretionary Housing Payments. This is additional to the core DHP funding of £370,656 provided by DWP.

In Argyll and Bute 372 awards have been made out of 627 determinations with a total awards value of £254,783.

There is an average payout of £685 per application.

Welfare reform advice needs in A&B – Scottish Welfare Fund

Up to the end of November 2013 Argyll and Bute Council has spent £56,000 on crisis grants and £131,000 on Community Care Grants.

The volume of claims has grown exponentially – In November 160 requests for crisis grants and 43 for Community Care grants were received by the Council.

Long delays in applying for applications on the phone and clients often have no access to the internet. Clients often unaware of the service.

CAB has seen cases in which fuel poor clients who use coal are unable to apply for a crisis grant from the SWF to heat their homes. This is because coal is an unregulated fuel and does not meet eligibility criteria.

Case Studies

Client A is struggling with rent arrears. He has rent arrears of £3,000. He has set up a payment plan for the arrears and is managing to pay £40 per week even though his only income is Job Seekers Allowance. This means over half his income goes to the repayment arrangement. He has a daughter who stays with him regularly as a result of the chaotic nature of her mother’s lifestyle and as a result is subject to the under-occupancy charge of 14%.

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He applied for the discretionary housing payment three months ago but has heard nothing about his application

Case Studies – Personal Independence Payment

Another application for a Discretionary Housing Payment by a client was refused even though the client used his extra room for medical purposes. He eventually received his DHP after CAB intervened and wrote a reconsideration letter.

Client B, who lives in a remote location in Argyll, submitted a new application for Personal Independence Payment six months ago and this has still not been assessed.

After intervention from Citizens Advice and her MSP she has finally received an appointment from ATOS. However it will be seven months from her initial application until her assessment.

Where do we go from here?

Refer to us

Work together

Use ABAN

Communication

Be alert to clients who could benefit from CAB services.

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Appendix Seven

Rural Poverty, Welfare Reform and ‘FISH’Gillian McInnes, Community Development Manager, ACHA

ACHA owns and manages just over 5,000homes across Argyll and Bute including tenisland communities. The other 3 local housing associations have around 2,000 properties between them.

In 2007 ACHA commissioned a Financial Inclusion Strategy on behalf of a partnership of the 4 housing associations. The FISH project came from that and was devised and led by ACHA .

So what has the FISH project done since 2009

Promotion of Credit Unions (5 in Argyll)

School Theatre Roadshows

Theatre production by an educational charity called‘At Home with the Wiltons’ gave pupils in Dunoon,Islay and Campbeltown some financial capability training …. and some fun.

Money Handbooks

Easy to read information and advice covering various aspects of personal finance incl. banking, credit, insurance, savings, pensions and of course debt and budgeting. Local advice giving agencies in Argyll contributed.Young persons book aimed at 15-18 year olds and also includes info on home-making, work, training, study. Both available on our website www.acha.co.uk

The Welfare Rights Project:

4 full time Welfare Rights Officers from March 2010 to date Generated almost £6 million in previously unclaimed benefits and tax credits to date. Assisted 3,100 households with the complexities of claiming what they were

due and with appeals and tribunals. 1,308 or 42% are households with someone suffering chronic health problems.

There are an estimated 42,000 – 67,000 people under- claiming in Scotland which equates to £81 – 157 million!!

Outcomes.......

Developed a culture of benefits advice within the housing association and the ability of housing staff to ‘spot and refer’

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Project was designed to specifically target those in rent arrears, elderly tenants (?) and new tenants. As word of mouth has spread, self-referring has overtaken referrals by housing staff.

An effective housing association linked welfare rights service should:Include the provision of support across a range of financial inclusion and poverty issues, including basic budgeting and money advice, information about local affordable credit and financial products and energy advice.Housing Associations & Welfare Rights – Best Practice Guide (SFHA and Welfare Rights Officers Forum 2011)

Outcomes continued.......During 2011 we carried out satisfaction surveying with tenants who had received a service from our welfare rights officers; 86% reported less worry and stress. 41% reported an improvement in a mental health condition. 26% reported an improvement in their relationship with family or their partner. 39% reported that the threat of losing their home was reduced or removed.

38% were referred to another agency (debt advice, home energy advice or credit union).

Money Advice & Household Budgeting

As part of the current Lottery funded project we are working in partnership with Argyll and Bute CAB. A full time Money Advisor (based in Helensburgh but covering the whole area) provides ACHA tenants with advice on debt and money management.Particularly important to protect tenants who are vulnerable to losing their home so we encourage referrals from those in rent arrears as they will invariably have other debts. We encourage all new tenants to get advice on household budgeting to try to prevent problems arising.

Some statistics from 2013 report

‘Minimum Income Standard for Rural and Remote Scotland’ Commissioned by 4 local authorities, 3 housing profession orgs, Scottish Enterprise/AIEWeekly budgets (excluding housing costs) range from £198 (urban England) to £277 (Scottish island)Weekly food basket (single person) range from£36.91 (English rural town) to £57.44 (Scottish island)Energy costs can be as important as rent levels in determining whether households can make ends meet.Centre for Research in Social Policy, Loughborough Universitywww.minimumincomestandard.org

Cost of living difference for rural Scottish communities is between 10% - 40% more than English rural settlements

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Cost of living difference for rural Scottish communities is between 10% - 40% more than English rural settlementsCost of living difference for rural Scottish communities is between 10% - 40% more than English rural settlementsSkye and Lochalsh Housing Assoc did research last year and found that their tenants are paying £1,000 more on average for household fuel than the Scottish average. (Skye & Lochalsh average annual bill £2,218).

“Our reforms are about changing the culture of welfare, so that it acts as a springboard rather than a trap”. Rt Hon Iain Duncan-SmithSecretary of State for Work and Pensions, June 2010

Most of the increase in benefits in recent years has been driven by pensions.2013/14 Benefits:Pensions = £110 bnWorking age and child benefits = £94 bnProf Paul Spicker, RGU AberdeenAuthor and Blogger

Welfare Reform – the first year

The Bedroom Tax began in April last year and in the first 12 weeks generated an additional £400,000 of rent arrears across Scotland.There are around 500 ACHA households affected and we have attempted to make contact with all of them. We have assisted 80% of them to claim the temporary ‘Discretionary Housing Payment’ where it was demonstrated that they were in financial hardship. Our welfare rights officers work hard to make sure anyone affected by any of the other changes is claiming all they can and fully understands their position.

What has ACHA done?• Directly lettered and spoken to affected tenants.• Training for Staff and monthly updates for our Board. • Website briefing papers on Bedroom Tax, Universal Credit and PIP.• Articles in all tenants newsletters - archived on our website.• Reviewed Allocation Policy to assist those under-occupying, to move house. • Risk assessments for our business plan,

lenders and housing Regulator

97% of those affected by Bedroom Tax (UK) could not move to a smaller home. Only 13 ACHA tenants have moved.

How are tenants being affected?

Bedroom Tax Case StudyJoe is a young unemployed man who under-occupies a £75 per week home by two bedrooms and is now expected to pay £18.75 from a total income of £71.70 (job seekers allowance). There are no one bedroom flats available for him to move to.This equates to a 26.4% cut in his income!!The typical bedroom tax deduction for ACHA tenants is £9 a week (14% deduction) and £19 a week (25% deduction)

Salami Slicing!This is the term used to describe how the welfare reforms are taking a thin slice of cash from lots of different welfare benefits which add up to major financial hardship, for example;

• Non dependent deductions• Reduction or removal of tax credits• Reductions in benefits uprating capped at 1%

(pensions uprating increased to 2.5%)

Cont/d How are tenants being affected?

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Bedroom Tax We conducted a survey of tenants in Mid Argylland Kintyre last year who were affected by the Bedroom Tax:94% of people had a bank account which is good news71% said that they would make up the shortfall in rent by reducing household budgets - principally from food and household fuel(this was prior to the 9% energy price rise in late 2013)

BUT

57% also had other debts to consider and the average weekly income from the group was £116

Universal Credit

Westminster announced recently that it will not begin to roll out Universal Credit in Scotland (outwith Inverness) before late 2014.Lord Freud further suggested that those claiming sickness benefits may not be transferred to UC until 2017 (post general election).It is very important that we continue with preparations.ACHA has created a risk questionnaire to map who among the 1,500 tenants that are likely to be affected, will be most at risk of failing to meet the challenges of Universal Credit:

• Must have a transactional bank account• Must change to monthly budgeting regime• Must cope with being ‘paid’ in arrears• Must learn to pay rent to ACHA from monthly UC• Must claim on-line

(smartphones unlikely to interface with DWP) From our survey of tenants in Mid Argyll and Kintyre last year we asked a question about internet use - almost 62% of those asked said that they would have to use a publicly available computer or someone else’s.

Universal Credit - outcomes from the Scottish pilot

The only pilot of ‘Direct Payment’ in Scotland was through Dunedin Canmore Housing Association in Edinburgh in 2013.The results from that were fairly telling:• They were given ‘significant’ financial resourced by the DWP to mitigate any negative impacts.• They were allowed to focus almost entirely on ensuring that impact was dealt with and other

areas of their business have suffered badly.• The pilot group was not exactly ‘hand picked’ but known problem tenants were removed.• Of the 1,000 tenants in the test group, 67% of rent payments had a time lag of 4-6 weeks with

evidence of tenants delaying rent payment to juggle other financial commitments.20% of tenants required long term support and intervention to ensure that rent was continued to be paid – clearly this has a huge resource impact with a knock on effect for other parts of the landlords’ service

The Future

George Osborne has announced that a further £17 billion will be cut from the benefit bill this coming year (2014). As pensions are not only protected, but increased, that means the cuts will come from working age and child benefits.Another £20 billion to be cut next year (2015) and £25 billion further across the two years after that That’s cuts of more than £60 billion in total!!!!!!!

Nothing concrete from the Governmentyet on how they intend to tackle the annual£15 billion of corporate tax avoidance!

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Appendix Eight

List of Attendees

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Alexandra Howarth NHS HighlandAlison Lord Child Poverty Action GroupAlison McGrory NHS HighlandAngela Coll NHS HighlandBecky Scott NHS HighlandCarol Anderson NHS HighlandCaroline Askew Argyll TrainingCaroline Glen NHS HighlandChristine Bell Crossroads C&BClaudia Albrecht CABCraig McNally NHS HighlandDeby Rough NHS HighlandDee Hancock BHWNDonnie Cameron NHS HighlandDorothy Clark NHS HighlandEileen Churchill Helensburgh and Lomond CarersEileen Kay Argyll & B CouncilEleanor Sloan Kintyre HWNEllen Cromack CouncillorFiona Duncan NHS HighlandGeorge Durnan NHS HighlandGill Currie NHS HighlandGillian McInnes ACHAJaney Jardine Fyne HomesJaney MacDonald Helensburgh and Lomond CarersJenny McLeish ALIEnergyJulie Grinsell NHS HighlandLaura Stephenson NHS HighlandLiz Strang A&B CouncilLorna Cameron A&B CouncilLouise Cassidy CarrgommLynn Merrylees NHS HighlandMarie Tate KaleidoscopeMichael Nicol CABMichael Tornow NHS ScotlandMyra McDonald ABANRachel McNicol ALIEnergyRobert Thornton NHS HighlandSam Campbell NHS HighlandSarah Wyatt A&B CouncilSharon Erskine BHWNShona Edwards AVASimon Richardson CarrgommSusan McFadyen CowalCCFTeresa Shields Fyne HomesTina Jordan AcumenTracy Chambers Kintyre Link ClubVeronica Kennedy NHS Highland