Transcript Lewisham Universal Credit presentation

An overview of Lewisham’s Universal
Credit Pilot
Lewisham Service Providers Forum
March 2014
Outline what we’ll be
covering in the presentation
Universal Credit (UC)
Introduction
The Welfare Reform Act 2012 was given royal assent on 8th March 2012.
What is Universal Credit ?
Universal Credit (UC) is a new type of financial support for people in work, on low income
and out of work.
What is new about Universal Credit?
This will require
huge behaviour
change for
some residents
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Who can claim Universal Credit?
be 18 or over (or age 16 or 17 in certain cases)
be under state pension credit age
be in Great Britain
not be in education
have accepted a claimant commitment
It can be awarded to a single person or to a couple jointly.
Claimants must satisfy certain financial conditions.
What about older people?
Pension credit will remain for those over the qualifying age. In the
future, housing benefit will be rolled into pension credit.
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All claimants will transition to UC
by 2017
April 2013
Oct 2013
Spring 2014
End 2017
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After submitting a bid in 2012, Lewisham was selected as one of the 12 local authority led UC pilots. We were the only local
authority in London to have been selected.
The aim of the local authority led pilots was to test the potential role for LAs in supporting the face to face universal credit
delivery. In particular the pilots were expected to test some or all of the following functions:
 Triage – managing claimant interaction and access to
the appropriate UC channel. This includes assessing
immediate need and vulnerability.
 Work focus – working with DWP’s labour market
services to assess commitment to work, any barriers
to finding work and monitor activity to seek or
increase levels of work.
Submitted
bid to DWP
August 2012
Recruited
secondees to the
pilot team
October 2012
 Budgeting support – supporting claimants to budget
effectively, provide access to support in potential hardship
and where applicable identify and manage those claimants.
 Online access – advocacy and other ways to achieve channel
shift.
 Claimant support – providing a smooth tailored service for
those with on-going complex needs
Design, delivery
& evaluation of
Phase 1
Design,
delivery of
phase 2
Nov 12- June 13
July- Dec 13
Evaluation and
submission of
findings to DWP
Jan 2014
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1
2
Can transition independently
Needs transitional support
Needs intensive support
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1. To develop an evidence based definition of vulnerability for transition and access
to Universal Credit
2. To develop triage mechanisms for identifying and assessing individuals affected
3. To test an approach for providing a holistically locally delivered face to face
transition support service which improves the ability of claimants to:
•
•
•
•
Budget and manage monthly payments
Sustain tenancies in the social and private rented sector
Transact with government services online
Access employment and work-focused training
We mapped key provision
linked to the UC quadrants
we’d identified.
Spent time in our AccessPoint & Housing Options Centre talking to people about Universal
Credit and what they thought their barriers and support needs would be. Over a two day period
we conducted interviews with 15 benefit claimants.
We reviewed and matched data on customers from across our council customer
contact systems to understand the multiple points that people were interacting with
us and the needs presented at each stage.
We developed some initial ideas for supporting customers and asked an independent
think-tank to test these ideas and gather more information on support needs in 11
detailed case-studies
We took our insights to our partners and colleagues in strategic and
front-line roles and asked them to use this to generate ideas on how we
could triage and support people in the transition to Universal Credit.
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1. Letter
3. Face to face support
appointment
In the second
phase of the
pilot we
developed this
additional step
4. Support plan
2. Telephone
triage
5. On-going
support for
customers that
need it
 During the lifecycle of the pilot 135 residents found work at a level that exempted them from the
benefit cap. In addition to this a number of residents secured voluntary work part-time work.
Simple scripted triage is a quick and simple way to identify (at the point of application) who is likely to
need transitional support. In order to make this effective triage questions should be focused on
behaviours and experience, not perception and attitudes.
Some residents will need basic support in order to transition to UC. This could be provided in the form of
a basic support plan with referrals to key agencies.
Other residents will need more intensive and on-going support and coaching to enable them to change
their lives sufficiently and enable them to transition to UC. To be effective this needs to look holistically
at barriers to UC (and should therefore include digital inclusion, financial inclusion, housing and
employment).
The key to good partnership lies in strategic agreement and operational understanding, without the
latter the former will be insufficient. In the second phase of the pilot we worked intensively with
customers to provide on-going support. This required us to form closer working relationships, particularly
with JCP.
 The learning we gained from the model we tested has been fed back to the DWP in our evaluation
report. This will be used by the DWP to develop thinking on the role LAs, alongside their partners could
play in supporting residents with the transition to UC.
 The DWP have begun to outline their vision for the role of LAs and Partners in the Local Support Services
Framework . This also includes details of how the DWP would like to undertake further testing of some of
the practical elements of supporting residents with the transition.
 Ministers want to ensure the LSSF will
• Ensure people are supported to make the transition to UC
• Support those who will find the transition ‘difficult’
 LSSF will look to support and provide
• Existing / New services (specific UC)
• Triage and Orientation
• Online Access – ‘Digital Where Appropriate’
• Financial Products Provision and Budgeting/debt advice
• Welfare Benefit and Advice
 Final LSSF document now expected to be published in 2015
LSSF Testing in Lewisham
The council is planning on submitting a joint expression of interest (alongside Lambeth, Southwark and JCP).
The aims of our work would be to:
1.
To establish a tri-borough (3-B) / JCP partnership agreement and
measurement framework
– To understand how we might work together
– To understand where there is a positive business case for 3-B co-operation
2.
To develop a triage process that maximises the chance of:
– Identifying a customer’s UC transition support needs
– Achieving successful referral
3.
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
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Steps you could be taking now
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