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DWP research report 721
27 January 2011
This report presents finding from the 21st wave of the Local Authority (LA) Omnibus Survey. The survey takes place every six months and attempts to survey Housing Benefit managers in every LA in Great Britain. This wave of the survey included questions on:
This chapter reports on the findings of questions about the initiatives that local authorities (LAs) have included in their plans, or will include in the future, for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of Housing Benefit (HB)/Council Tax Benefit (CTB) services. It also includes findings on LAs’ awareness of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) resources available to support them plus LAs’ views of the impact on HB services of the economic downturn.
As part of the Housing Benefit (HB) consultation document Supporting people into work: the next stage of HB reform (Cm 7769), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) asked whether HB should be extended to provide an extra room for a non-resident carer. This was explored further in the Wave 21 questionnaire with the aim of finding out the scale of the issue and how the cost is currently being met, if at all.
The key findings based on all local authorities (LAs) answering are summarised in this section. These are followed by the main findings which include charts plus commentary highlighting the key sub-group differences.
In April 2010 a new Housing Benefit (HB) subsidy scheme for customers living in temporary accommodation (Private Sector Leased (PSL), Licensed and Bed and Breakfast accommodation1) was introduced. In order to support the Department’s understanding of temporary accommodation usage by LAs, a series of questions, asked previously at Wave 19, was asked again at Wave 21. These questions were designed to assist with a wider programme of monitoring and evaluating the impact of the new subsidy scheme.
The key findings based on all LAs answering are summarised in this section. These are followed by the main findings which include charts plus commentary highlighting the key sub-group differences.
Take Up the Challenge – a report commissioned by the previous government to look at how the take-up of benefits and tax credits can be increased, was released in 2009. It stated that around 400,000 children live in poverty because their parents do not take up all the financial support they are entitled to. The report made a number of recommendations for national and local government on how they can improve take-up, with the aim of helping people claim what they are entitled to in order to help lift children out of poverty.
Following on from the release of Take Up the Challenge and the recommendations it included, this section of the survey was aimed at finding out what local authorities (LAs) are doing to increase the take-up of Housing Benefit (HB) and Council Tax Benefit (CTB) and identify what additional support LAs might need to help them increase take-up among their residents.
The key findings based on all LAs answering are summarised in this section. These are followed by the main findings, which include charts for all questions plus commentary highlighting the key sub-group differences.
The Welfare Reform Act 2009, which received Royal Assent on 12 November 2009, introduced an order making power to rename Council Tax Benefit (CTB) as Council Tax Rebate. The name change is aimed at increasing benefit take-up. Although the Act commits the Government to change the name it does not provide for a timeframe. The previous administration made it clear that timing would depend on further preparatory work on the practical impact for local authorities (LAs) and the costs involved (Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) would be helping with the costs of these changes), and the likely impact on benefit take-up.
This section aimed to give DWP a clearer estimate of the costs to LAs of making the name change: in terms of changes to computer systems and software, to customer notifications which refer to the benefit, and to necessary publicity to make it clear that the benefit name has changed for existing and new customers and to encourage take-up.
Council Tax Benefit (CTB) claims, when associated with the Jobcentre Plus Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) benefit, via LA Claim Information (LACI) documents. These documents are sent to the LAs once all the data has been gathered for both the ESA claim and the HB and/or CTB claim, and when all the relevant ESA claim information has been verified. After some initial teething problems Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has issued further communications to Jobcentre Plus staff and implemented further IT changes at the end of May 2010 to improve the quality and quantity of data received by LAs on the LACl document.
The aim of this section was to establish views on how the communications to Jobcentre Plus staff and the IT changes in May 2010 have affected the accuracy and completeness of the LACI.
When assessing Housing Benefit (HB) and Council Tax Benefit (CTB) entitlement local authorities (LAs) have discretionary powers to disregard part or all of a War Disablement Pension, a War Widow’s Pension or a War Widower’s Pension, in addition to the mandatory £10 disregard of these payments. The majority of costs are borne by the LA with a contribution from benefit subsidy. (Regulations which came into effect on 26 January 2010 made it clear that service attributable pensions payable under the Armed Forces Pension Scheme were included in the war pensions definitions as income that could be disregarded under the discretionary powers.) Authorities are currently only asked to provide the overall cost of the discretionary scheme for the purpose of benefit subsidy.
The aim of this section was to find out more detail about the scope of individual schemes in order to inform policy development. Information about the numbers of claims from war pensioners, the numbers receiving a discretionary disregard in their benefit claim and the extent of the discretionary disregard made will all assist Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in responding to questions and monitoring the scheme.
