Agenda item

(a)       That the report be noted; and   

(b)       That a letter be drafted to the Department for Work and Pensions about why Shotton had been chosen as a pilot area for the October 2013 roll out of the Universal Credit. 

The Revenues and Benefits Manager introduced the report to update Members on the latest position regarding Welfare Reform. 

He detailed the background to the report and explained that the Welfare Reform Board had met on 1 July 2013 and had decided that the successful implementation of the Welfare Reform Strategy had been completed and that future reporting would be through Cabinet and this Committee.  On the issue of the Council Tax Reduction Scheme, there had been no impact for Welsh Councils for 2013/14 due to funding of £22m being made available by Welsh Government, however it was not yet known if there would be any changes to the scheme for 2014/15 and whether there would be any impacts as a result of any changes. 

New rules had been implemented from 1 April 2013 for tenants who were under occupying their property and had resulted in 1,477 working age social housing tenants having their housing benefit reduced losing housing benefit totalling £922,000 per annum.  A significant amount of work had been undertaken with tenants but the main problem was the lack of smaller properties to move tenants to.  The Benefit Cap would be implemented between July and September 2013 and current information indicated that 44 Flintshire households would be affected and that in total they would lose combined annual welfare benefit income of £153,000.  However this figure could be lower once each claim had been analysed and the number of households affected due to the exemptions identified. 

Personal Independence Payments (PIP) would replace Disability Living Allowance and approximately 4,000 Flintshire households would be reassessed under the PIP criteria by 2017.  The Revenues and Benefits Manager referred to the Discretionary Assistance Fund and explained that this was being undertaken by Northgate Financial Services and information on the service had been circulated which included contact details.  He also provided information on the Local Support Services Framework, Advice Management Board, Empowering Flintshire’s Communities and the Welfare Reform Response Team which was funded up to 31 March 2014.  He also circulated an update about Universal Credit which reported that an announcement had been made the previous day that Shotton was to be a pilot area for the implementation of Universal Credit from October 2013.  it was anticipated that this would affect 30 claimants in the Shotton area due to the restrictive criteria for eligibility. 

The Leader of the Council spoke of the significant impacts that the Welfare Reform changes would have on Flintshire residents and said that the Welfare Reform Board had been set up to bring together local agencies who could provide assistance for those affected by the changes.  A number of policies had been changed by Flintshire County Council such as the Fair Debt Policy as a result of the introduction of Welfare Reform.  He raised serious concerns about why Shotton had been chosen as a pilot area and suggested that contact be made with the Government to highlight the concerns. 

The Chairman explained that the report on Discretionary Housing Payments Update would now be presented to the Committee and would be followed by questions from Members on the Welfare Reform Update and Discretionary Housing Payments Update.     

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the report be noted; and   

(b)       That a letter be drafted to the Department for Work and Pensions about why Shotton had been chosen as a pilot area for the October 2013 roll out of the Universal Credit.