countrywide Government must listen for new councils(LG) welfare reforms

    

      

countrywide Government  must listen for 

new councils welfare reforms

national report(weastar times/wp/g):::

implementation of some of the most far reaching welfare reforms of the past 60 years began on 1 April. Following a five and a half month inquiry, the communities and local government committee, which I chair, has published a report looking at the implementation of these reforms and the role that local authorities are playing.

In the report we have identified several areas important to the successful implementation of the welfare changes. While none merit an outright red card, we called on the government to act swiftly to address our concerns.

Later this year the government is switching the payment of housing support from the landlord directly to the claimant. As a result, housing associations and local authorities may face increased rent arrears and collection costs. During our inquiry the government provided assurances that the reforms will not undermine the financial viability of housing associations. It now needs to show how that guarantee will be made good. If the changes are to stand a chance of working, adequate safeguards are vital.

Direct payment to tenants are being piloted and tested in six areas and information and lessons from these must be available and acted on before national rollout begins later this year. In addition, the government has agreed that vulnerable tenants can be excluded from the switch to direct payments. But we don't yet have a clear definition of who these 'vulnerable' tenants are. This must be provided quickly.

During our inquiry we heard concerns from professionals in local authorities, who will have to implement and operate the changes, about the readiness of the ICT systems. In particular, we heard that the systems for fraud detection within universal credit were still only at an early stage of development. This is concerning given that the new system is going to start in the next few months. The government has to ensure that the benefit system will not be left vulnerable to fraud either during or after the transition.

The changes starting on 1 April are part of a much wider set of changes, which include social sector size criteria aka the bedroom tax, the benefit cap and local council tax support schemes – all of which will increase the pressures on both claimants and local authorities.

While the government is aware that some of the welfare changes place new burdens on local authorities, it needs to assess the impact of the whole programme, particularly on collection rates, rather than of individual changes in isolation. My committee has therefore called on the government to work with the Local Government Association to assess the cumulative impact of reforms.

The government also has to look at the impact of the changes on individual claimants. It was disappointing that it does not see it as a priority in claims for universal credit where requests are made for information to be passed on to councils to determine entitlement to council tax subsidy.

Local authorities have a valuable contribution to make in planning and targeting local welfare provision and have a long track record of delivering major reforms. The significance, timetable and volume of the changes this month should not, however, be underestimated. The government must act on my committee's recommendations, listen to local authorities and do all it can to assist them in their efforts to implement the changes successfully and on time.