Policy in Practice The debt landscape in Deven Ghelani response to - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Policy in Practice Deven Ghelani

The debt landscape in response to a changing policy environment

Agenda

• About Policy in Practice
• The impact of recent policy changes on low income households
• Initiatives to help support vulnerable consumers
• A national initiative to pool data on low income families

A team of professionals with extensive knowledge of the welfare system who are passionate about making social policy work We help local authorities use their household level data to identify vulnerable households, target support and track their interventions We develop engaging software that helps people to increase their income, reduce their costs and helps them to build their financial resilience

Our analysis of Budget 2018

• £1.7 billion boost to benefit support,

benefiting 2.5 million households (1.9m with children & 600k with limited capability for work)

• £1.0 billion to help 1.1m people

migrating onto Universal Credit (one- third of those left to migrate)

• Employed households gain
• Self-employed, disabled, ill or out of

work don't gain

• Download our report

• 1.6 million people on Universal

Credit today

• A further 1.6m people moving
• nto Universal Credit this year
• 2.0 million people moving on

through ‘managed migration’ from 2020.

Universal Credit is rolling out fast

• UC work allowances: increase by £1,000 per year (from April 2019)
• Two week run-on for those on existing DWP benefits (JSA, ESA, IS) in addition to

those receiving housing benefit (from July 2020)

• Self employed: Protection extended to all; assessed on actual income (not MIF)

for 12 months (from July 2019)

• Deductions from UC: Max rate down from 40% to 30% (from Oct 2019)
• Delay in increasing the earnings limit that triggers surplus earnings (remains the

same until 2020)

• Period for recovery of advances extended from 12 to 16 months (from Oct 2021)
• Slower roll-out of Universal Credit (end now Dec 2023)
• Plus increase in minimum wage & changes in tax allowances (from April 2019)

Budget 2018: Universal Credit changes

Direct payments to landlord to continue under UC, if transferring from HB E nd of UC live service

DE C 2017

No new claims for UC live service after 01 /01 /18 UC advances repayment period increases to 1 2 months UC advances increases to 100%

• f UC award

JAN 2018

All claims migrated to UC

DE C 2023

National Living Wage likely to rise to £8.80 p/hr Housing benefit to 'run-on' for the first 2 weeks of UC Payments for temporary accommodation improved Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) becomes a loan National Living Wage set at £7.83 p/hr for over 25 Personal tax allowance up from £11 ,500 to £1 1,850

APRIL 2018

UNIVERSAL CREDIT ROADMAP

F E B 2018

7 day waiting period for UC abolished

2017 2018 2019 2020 2023 2018 2018

Mixed age couples must make new claims for UC instead of Pension Credit

MAY 2019 JULY 2019

Self-employed familiies moving to UC won’t be affected by minimum income floor for the first 12 months of their claim. Managed migration pilot will begin (starts in full end 201 9)

2019 2019 2019

E nd of F ull Service roll out

JAN 2019

New UC claims for households with 2+ children

F E B 2019 APRIL 2019

NLW will increase to £8.21 p/hr for over 25s Personal tax allowance will increase to £12,500 Higher rate tax threshold will increase to £50,000 UC Work Allowances will increase by £1,000/year.

2019

APRIL 2020

Managed migration was scaled back for 2019, although DWP will still have their hands full with around 1.6m people will still move onto Universal Credit this year through natural migration. The two-child limit to benefits would not apply to children born before April 2017. Flexible payments, including direct payments to landlords, split payments, and the payment of Universal Credit going to the main carer by default. The Secretary of State is also looking at options to reduce the five-week wait for new claimants, and accelerate childcare payments to providers. The High Court found in favour of four working mothers who challenged how the DWP took account of monthly earnings.

New Secretary of State – A new direction..?

People are still going to be worse off

People are still going to be worse off

11 11 11

Initiatives to support vulnerable households

Build your social tariffs into a single assessment tool License the tool for advisors to enable holistic support Work with local authorities - use data to target support tariffs to vulnerable consumers most in need Work with central government - Learn more about national initiatives to match data and pool enforcement resources.

Build your social tariffs into a single assessment tool, used by 10,000 people each day via GOV.UK

License the tool for advisors to be able to provide holistic support, making it more likely that they will be able to repay in future.

Work with local authorities: Use their administrative data to target support tariffs to vulnerable consumers, including those less likely to reach out for support.

Cambridge councils partnership with South Staffs water. Connected to DHPs: £55k to 210 people Removed the income threshold. Great partnership.

Work with local authorities

Reimagine Debt A cross-departmental initiative to improve enforcement activity across government and the private sector. Cabinet Office are pooling data to better understand households to improve collection and better support households in crisis. Work with central government: Learn more about national initiatives to match data and pool enforcement resources.

A new measure of poverty for the UK Takes into account household income, and household needs. What is water poverty? How can you eliminate it by 2030?

Water Poverty: A new measure

Summary

• People are still set to be worse off and Universal Credit is rolling out fast.
• Utility companies can help people to tackle their debts by giving

people access to social tariffs.

• You can offer them holistic support too. Your vulnerability teams can

check eligibility and increase take-up of local and national support, making it more likely that your customers will be able to pay their bills.

• You can also work with central and local government to pool data

and share resources, helping you to target your support to reach the most vulnerable.

• What is your consumer vulnerability strategy? Have you developed

specific plans, and would you like to advance them through analytics?

www.policyinpractice.co.uk

Thank You Deven Ghelani deven@policyinpractice.co.uk 07863 560677 Oscar Jefferson

• scar@policyinpractice.co.uk

07444 158921