The Committee has asked for a report on the impact that the roll out of Universal Credit is having on the Council’s finances, and on residents. The report  will be presented by Councillor Marie Tidball, Cabinet Member for Supporting Local Communities; Councillor Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Safer Communities & Customer Focused Services; Tanya Bandekar, Service Manager, Revenue & Benefits; and Laura Bessell, Benefits Manager.

Councillor Marie Tidball,  Cabinet Member for Supporting Local Communities, introduced the report, drawing attention to some of its key elements.

The administrative burden of processing Universal Credit was considerable, greater than anticipated and exacerbated by inaccurate (and changing) information from the Government. This sometimes resulted in over or under payments which, in turn, required more administration to resolve. Despite increased and increasing administrative costs, Government grants to assist with the administrative burden were decreasing.   Claims had to be re-visited once a month and the costs of doing so (c. 2000 a month) were estimated to be about £50k pa for which there was no funding from the DWP. These concerns and others about the introduction of UC had been the subject of a Council Motion in July 2018 and the Leader and Portfolio holder had subsequently written to the then Secretary of State for Work & Pensions. A non-committal reply had been received in response to this letter. 

The nature of UC payments (in arrears) combined with the possibility of over or under payments was often a source of considerable psychological distress to claimants, particularly those who were already vulnerable. The application of UC to those who had a disability and single mothers had been found to be discriminatory.

Councillor Tidball concluded her introduction by saying that  the  Housing Benefit element should be taken out of UC so that it could be paid direct to landlords, as it had been hitherto. Ultimately UC should be withdrawn because of its impact on the vulnerable.

The Committee shared Councillor Tidball’s view about the iniquity of UC and was appreciative of the team’s work to mitigate its detrimental consequences to the extent that they can. They went on to raise a number of detailed matters to which the officers responded.

Eviction of any tenant sat uncomfortably alongside the Council’s declared intention to reduce and, ultimately, have no rough sleeping in the City. In practice eviction was only ever a very last resort and the number evicted  was very small.  The team had to go through a lengthy and detailed process, which sought to take full account of a person’s circumstances, the Homeless Reduction Act and consultation with relevant support agencies. It was unusual for those who were evicted to have no alternative provision at all.

The irrecoverable sum of £900k cited in the report related to all debt write offs and not just those associated with UC. Those in receipt of UC were offered advice about maximising energy efficiency in their homes.

Discretionary Housing Payments are funded through an annual allocation of  money by the Department of Work & Pensions to the Council.  The Council is at liberty to devote more money to this purpose if it wishes and the Committee agreed that there would be merit in moving to a needs based policy for its allocation in future. Many of those families in receipt of UC were affected by long term issues and while there would be merit in exploring connections with such  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45