www.southwark.gov.uk

Universal Support – delivered locally

Tri-Borough test and trial

September 2014

www.southwark.gov.uk

Universal Credit (UC) update

• NW England now live with single claimants

– Full roll out to NW England by the end of 2014

– 5 areas now taking claims from couples (including Hammersmith)

• Current assumption

– UC will be available in each part of Great Britain during 2016

– Managed migration of stock will take place during 2017

• LAs need to maintain some provision for working age HB*, such

as supported accommodation into 2018

• LAs will need to continue to administer pension age HB* until at

least 2017-2018

• Universal Credit works differently

– Single household payment

– Monthly in arrears including rent

– Claimed online

– APA’s ( Alternative Payment Arrangements)

• *HB - Housing Benefit

www.southwark.gov.uk

Universal Support (US) overview

• Universal Support (previously know as Local Support Services

Framework – LSSF) is now formally part of UC programme and

Ministers want to ensure US will

– Support customers make the transition to UC

– Support those who will find the transition ‘difficult’

• By providing

– Defined existing / new services (specific to the migration /implementation of UC)

– Triage and Orientation

– Online Access – ‘Digital Where Appropriate’

– Financial products provision and budgeting/debt advice/Welfare Benefit advice

• DWP/Jobcentre Plus (JCP) are ‘actively’ encouraging LA’s to work in

partnership for commissioning services

– Funding pot will be held by JCP District Managers

• 11 US robust test and trial partnerships set up (plus informal trials)

– 8 Individual LA’s and 3 joint initiatives

www.southwark.gov.uk

Test and Trial proposal & objectives

• Develop a tri-borough (3-B) / JCP partnership agreement and

measurement framework with Lewisham and Lambeth

– To understand how we might work together

– To understand where there is a positive business case for 3-B co-operation

• Test and trial commenced 1st September 2014 for a year long

programme!

– 9 month triage provision / 3 months to evaluate, continuing with support

provision

– 6 pilot team officers based at JCP (Kennington Park, Lewisham and Peckham)

– 300 customers per month ~ 100 per LA randomly selected

~70% new JSA claimants

~30% Work Programme completers

(may be subject to slight variation)

www.southwark.gov.uk

Test and Trial proposal & objectives

• To develop a triage process that maximises the chance of:

– Identifying a customer’s UC transition support needs

– Achieving successful referral

– Teasing out additional support concerns - barriers to employment!

• To commission and deliver support services

– Including at least one new shared service delivered centrally and one delivered

by multiple providers

– To gather evidence to support assumptions in cost model

– To learn where and how customers can be encouraged to prepare ahead of UC

implementation

www.southwark.gov.uk

Test and Trial proposal & objectives

6

• Delivery will comprise a core ‘high’ and ‘low’ level need offer,

delivered primarily through our partners. Some examples of

approaches we are exploring include: – Financial

• Newly commissioned tri-borough bank account take-up service run by Single

Homeless Project plus existing links to PBS offered via CAB, local Credit Unions.

– Digital • Tri-borough digital inclusion service run by Thames Reach

– Employment • Access to volunteering and apprenticeships and a defined referral process to our

community budgets pilot Pathways to Employment Provision.

– Housing • Local authority housing teams, Housing Benefit delivery teams

• Proactive identification to support Community Budget project – Pathways to Employment focus (not new claimants) i.e.

• Customers that are over 50

• Customers with mental health issues

• Lone parents

• 18-24 year olds

www.southwark.gov.uk

US context – 3-B stats

• 116,000 UC claimants across 3 boroughs

• 14% of boroughs’ population

• >60% expected to need at least 1-off digital support

• >60% expected to need personal budgeting support

(PBS)

• 77% have a UC Tier 1 or 2 risk factor, 36% at Tier 1

– (based on evidence from the DP pilot)

• >24,000 are not receiving benefit into a bank account

www.southwark.gov.uk

Support services Claimants will be referred for support for UC transition

needs (digital, budgeting, banking, housing, debt) but

also any wider needs identified

Lambeth Lewisham Southwark

Budgeting MAS CAB/Credit Union CAB Money Savvy

Housing LA Housing Team LA Housing Team LA Housing Team

Debt Lambeth Advice

Network Agency CAB/Credit Union CAB Money Savvy

Banking SHP Bank Account Take-Up Project

Digital Thames Reach Digi-Buddies

www.southwark.gov.uk

High level process

Customer contacts JCP (new JSA Claim/WP

completer/other benefit recipient

T R I A G E

JCP BAU On-going Appointments

US Pilot Team –Support Planning

PtE Keyworkers

On-going Appointments

On-going Appointments

No Needs/Transitional support

needs

UC Support needs

identified

UC Support needs

identified and in PTE target

group

Considerations •Current US model maintains relationship with JCP BAU process. The pilot team work with the

claimant on digital, financial and housing needs and JCP pick up employment needs.

•Understanding that PtE will be working with specific groups of clients identified at the point of triage

(under 25, over 50, lone parents and people with a mental health condition).

•Relationship between the PtE and the JCP BAU to be determined?

www.southwark.gov.uk

Southwark Direct Payment Highlights From the 2000 tenant sample (June 2012 to December 2013);

• Initially all tenants asked to complete a risk assessment questionnaire – 90% responded, of these;

– 15% presented themselves as having medical/mental health issues

– 10% had rent arrears/eviction history

– 7% had severe debt or deductions being made

– 5% had no bank account

• 10% of tenants did not engage at all even after 7 letters! – And calls and door-knocking and texts and....

• 35% of Southwark project tenants did not receive DP for various reasons including not engaging when support was offered

• Tenants on DP dropped from a peak of 58% in December 2012 to 41% at the end of the project in December 2013

• 22% of those on DP were switched back to landlord payment – Learning is that switchback process revealed more support needs where people

have found themselves struggling to manage

www.southwark.gov.uk

Key challenges for Southwark

• Rent collection down and admin costs up

– How will the extra costs be funded?

• additional administration costs for the LA, significant investment to upgrade IT systems

and re-skill staff to support direct payment

• Not clear how UC will manage the switchback process

– Automated links to UC would make the process workable

• Data sharing!!

– Key learning from DPDPs is that the close relationship between Landlord and LA

is vital to good process operation

– If it will be a single trigger equivalent of 2 months’ rent arrears

• Danger!! this would allow people to underpay persistently over long periods

– Early feedback from the pilot sites suggests process redesign is needed

• Effective delivery of support, with an outcome that reduces arrears

– Levels of support in project are not scalable to BAU

– Who carries the risk of failed support?

www.southwark.gov.uk

UC Planning assumptions & considerations

• Organisation

– Income Office vs. Tenancy Support Officers (do IOs have the skills to influence

/ educate tenants?)

– Single message at any point / consistency (Local partner support including

JCP)

– Skills for managing rent collection and arrears management

• Process

– Collection and escalation policies

– Refresh tenant data periodically

– Communication to customers

• optimise early intervention processes and explore effective ways to communicate

– Consider UC payment cycle to rent payment cycle

• How to handle 4 weeks in arrears / month in arrears payments

• Technology

– IT’s role in managing cases

– Increase in systems involvement and resources (learning from DP)

– Mobile technology / texting / automated functionality and monitoring

www.southwark.gov.uk

Contact

Ian Swift

Homelessness and Housing Options Service

Group Services Manager

Ian.swift@southwark.gov.uk

020 7525 4089

07961935132