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 £200,480 £445,402 £735,315 Deduction 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 once 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
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