Preparing for Welfare Reform Sharon White Social Inclusion Manager - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Preparing for Welfare Reform

Sharon White Social Inclusion Manager Trafford Housing Trust

The Trafford Context

• Greater Manchester Stock Transfer RSL 2005
• 8900 tenancies (6300 general and 2600 older)
• Areas of both deprivation and affluence
• Housing demand far outweighs supply
• Employment opportunities exist
• 61% of 2011/2012 income from HB (£22.1M)
• 5800 on HB – 3100 of working age
• Customer Revolution - Social Inclusion Team 2009

Presentation Overview

• Welfare Reforms – ‘knowing me, knowing you…….’
• Our initial Impact Assessment
• How we decided where to start
• The THT approach – what are we doing?

(1) Customer Promise (what are we changing and why?) (2) Customer Segmentation (3) Collaborative working (4) Project Management

Knowing You …. Knowing Me…

• Making sense of Welfare Reforms

– What do the Reforms mean? What is the detail? – What does it mean to our customers / to our business? – Who’s going to lead on this work? – Will it all happen? Why not wait and see?

• Making sense of our own information

– What do we need to know? – Why don’t we already know? – How can we collect this information? – Who can help us with information sharing?

Potential Impact Summary

Year 2011/2012 Year 2012/2013 Year 2013/2014 Non-Dependent Deduction £200,480 £445,402 £735,315 Under-Occupancy Nil Nil £1,071,953 Direct Payments Nil Nil £18,073,332

The THT Debate

• We considered

– what others were doing and why? – What our customers and staff were telling us – What CAB were able to advise us on local issues – What public sector support is available to customers?

• We decided

– We will not accept and provide for a legacy of bad debt – We will proactively invest in staffing resources (10 extra posts) – We will distinguish Can’t Pay and Won’t Pay customers and tailor our approach and support

Can’t Pay or Won’t Pay

• Won’t Pay - robust practices to enforce the tenancy

– Court Officer role / changes to practices – Additional Money Support posts created

• Can’t Pay – new roles created to support the customer and enable

them to have the means to pay

– Positive Start – Positive Solution – Debt Advisor – All Money Staff to be trained in Welfare Rights/job seeking advice

Increased Staffing Resources

2011 / 2012 2012 / 2013

(1) Customer Promise

• We Promise to offer:-

– Different ways to pay rent and help to manage arrears and debt – 9am – 9pm service with 2 contacts per week – Pre-tenancy support and financial assessment – Employment support and job seeking advice

• We will achieve targets of:-

– 100% cash collection – £100k FTA collection – £233k welfare rights income – 25 evictions

(2) Customer Segmentation Project

• CACI commissioned to cluster customer ‘groups’
• 1925 customers (21%) are in category 2

“With nearly a third of children living at home aged 16+, this group is likely to impacted by household benefits changes

• nce the Welfare Reform Bill has been implemented”

(3) Collaborative Working

• Local Authority Partnerships

– Welfare Reform Steering Group – Plan for joint communications – Non-dependant work – data sharing protocol in place – Under-occupation data – Benefit Cap households (joint visits with LA)

• Citizens Advice Bureau

– Referrals process and assistance in recruitment

(4) Project Management

• Scale of task requires separate project
• Director sponsorship
• Multiple work flows identified
• Resource allocation to project – staff and £
• Priorities being researched, co-ordinated, re-prioritised

THT Conclusion

• Here to stay so lets be prepared
• Recruiting now will enable us to be fully prepared for the

introduction of Universal Credit and DP

• We have a ‘truer’ Social Inclusion Team
• We will continue to change and adapt
• We will support our customers and our staff through the

inevitable changes that lie ahead

• We will ensure our business income stream is protected

Thank You