Wednesday 1 July 2015 Welfare Reform: the post-election landscape.

Wednesday 1 July 2015

Welfare Reform:

the post-election landscape

Welcome and introductions

Gareth BevanPolicy Officer

National Housing Federation

Today’s speaker

Pippa Bell

Policy Officer

National Housing Federation

A recap – where did we get to?

• Benefit cap– £350/wk for single adults, £500/wk for couples/families,

£26k in total

• Bedroom tax– Removal of housing benefit for those with “spare” room

• DHP funding– 2015/16 = £125m (2014/15 = £165m)

• Universal Credit– Merging six in work/out of work benefits into single

monthly payment

Universal Credit

Feb 2015 – March 2016

National roll out to all JCPs – new claims from single people without children.• Tranche 1 (Feb – Apr 2015) 150 JCPs • Tranche 2 (May – Jul 2015) 160 JCPs • Tranche 3 (Sept – Nov 2015) 180 JCPs• Tranche 4 (Dec 2015 – Mar 2016) 110 JCPs

May 2016 – Dec 2017

National roll out to all new claims and claimants with change of circumstances

Jan 2018 – Dec 2019

Managed transfer of legacy benefit claims incl housing benefit, JSA and IS

Link to map

Universal Credit updates

Contact with service centre

- New phone number to escalate issues (details here)

APA identifier- Should now be landlord provided reference number

rather than NINO.

7 day waiting period- Introduced on 3rd August 2015- Applies to whole UC claim incl housing element- Wait served after claim has been made- Applies where single claimant or at least one member of

a couple is in the All Work-Related Requirements Group

What next?

Full employment and Welfare Benefits Bill- Benefit cap lowered to £23,000- Remove automatic entitlement to housing

support for 18-21 year olds. Introduce a new Youth Allowance with stronger work related conditionality from Day 1.

- Freeze the main rates of the majority of working age benefits, tax credits and Child Benefit for two years from 2016-17.

What next? #1 Benefit Cap

£23,000

What next? #1 Benefit Cap

• Policy– Set benefit cap at £23,000– Exempt disabled people (in receipt of DLA, PIP, ESA)

• Impact– Will impact in first instance those already hit by

current cap– Loss of £546m from 110,000 working age

households– Loss of £217m from 41,000 working age housing

association households

What next? #1 Benefit Cap

 Working-age HA

tenant households affected

Average amount lost by working-age HA tenant households

North East 3,281 £4,040

North West 4,438 £2,931

Yorkshire & Humber 3,682 £3,462

East Midlands 2,400 £3,484

West Midlands 4,186 £3,413

East of England 1,058 £1,752

London 7,960 £6,758

South East 5,829 £3,384South West* . .

What next? #1 Benefit Cap

Difference between housing credit (couple with 3 children) and average rent (inc service charge) NE NW Y&H EM WM EM LON SE SWBedsit £36.31 £39.21 £40.30 £36.95 £36.43 £36.95 £10.55 £28.06 £37.921 bed £31.27 £34.42 £33.69 £30.16 £27.78 £30.16 -£2.89 £14.68 £28.622 bed £24.62 £25.39 £25.13 £21.23 £18.58 £21.23 -£17.04 £0.72 £17.553 bed £18.42 £18.92 £20.29 £15.59 £13.36 £15.59 -£27.79 -£9.66 £9.094 bed £12.71 £11.09 £9.95 £2.93 £1.26 £2.93 -£41.17 -£23.24 -£3.515 bed £3.45 £3.82 -£1.62 -£1.73 -£7.53 -£1.73 -£50.73 -£36.31 -£11.826+ bed -£9.36 -£2.36 -£10.32 -£18.07 -£20.21 -£18.07 -£58.91 -£45.53 -£22.98

What next? #2 Housing Benefit

What next? #2 Housing Benefit

• Policy– Withdraw automatic entitlement to Housing Benefit

for 18-21s– Queen’s speech referred to employment or education

• Impact

18-21 year old JSA claimants receiving HB

Total weekly award

Nominal annual total

All tenures 19,015 £1,976,006 £102,752,306

HA tenants (including supported housing) 7,527 £986,129 £51,278,712

What next? #3 £12bn cuts

What next? #3 £12bn cuts

• Policy– Find £12bn cut to welfare bill

• Impact– Manifesto pledged to exclude 40% from cuts:

• Protect state pension• Protect universal pensioner benefits

– £12bn might be cut from the remaining £125bn

More details in emergency budget 8th July…?

What next? #3 £12bn cuts

• Policy– Find £12bn cut to welfare bill

• Impact– £12bn might be cut from:

Source: IFS

What next? #3 £12bn cuts

- Remove child benefit whilst increasing child element of tax credit and UC = £5bn- Reduce tax credits from a lower income group of families = £5bn- Reduce child benefit for first child to the same level as subsequent children = £2.5bn- Abolish child benefit for third and subsequent children = £1bn- Abolish child benefit for third and subsequent children and make all child benefit means tested = £4bn

- Cuts of £2bn made in last parliament were offset by rising rents relative to earnings and growth of PRS meant HB bill increased by £1bn- Lower maximum amount of rent that HB will cover (Local Housing Allowance rate) = £0.4bn- Make all claimants pay some share of rent. If set at 10% then saving = £0.9bn- Introduce 10% co-payment for social tenants (and reducing HB by a further 10% for those already affected by bedroom tax) = £1.6bn- Abolish HB for those aged under 25 = £1.5bn- Abolish HB for those aged under 25 but exempting those with children = £0.75bn

- Taxing Disability Living Allowance and its replacement PIP = £0.9bn- Taxing Attendance Allowance = £0.6bn- Abolish Carer’s

Allowance (those with low incomes – which are most recipients – could claim other means-tested benefits) = £1bn

Source: IFS

Families Housing Disability

Contact

Pippa Bell

National Housing Federation

020 7067 1174

[email protected]

@natfedPippa

Further information: www.housing.org.uk/welfare

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Wednesday 1 July 2015

Questions