Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Delivery PDF Download

Author: Nick Pettigrew
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Housing subsidies
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Author: Caroline Turley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Employment re-entry
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Author: Derek Birrell
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447319176
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
As the system of social welfare governance and delivery in the United Kingdom faces continued, radical change, this important book argues that this change is so extensive that we should consider it a fundamental transformation or revolution. Assessing twenty years of changes across the whole of the United Kingdom, Derek Birrell and Ann Marie Gray show how a new public governance perspective has replaced the dominance of public management, reflecting the increasingly plural and fragmented nature of public policy implementation. Drawing on examples across a range of policy areas, this comprehensive book unravels the complex ways in which changes in social policy and governance interact in the delivery of social welfare, making it essential reading for welfare researchers, students, and policy makers.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215055545
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
The significance, timetable and volume of the proposed welfare reforms should not be underestimated. The changes will see Housing Benefit, currently administered by local authorities, transferring into Universal Credit (UC), to be administered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Moving in the other direction, Council Tax Benefit and parts of the Social Fund will be replaced with schemes designed and administered by local authorities. This report focuses on implementation and the part that local authorities are playing. It identifies four key areas that will be crucial to the successful implementation of the changes. First, these reforms require close interdepartmental working, particularly between the Department for Communities and Local Government and DWP. Second, the Government needs to work with the Local Government Association to assess the cumulative impact of the entire programme on local authorities' resources. Third, for the simplification of benefits, the Government is switching the payment of housing support from the landlord directly to the claimant. Housing associations may therefore face increased rent arrears and collection costs, though the Government has agreed that this may be offset by excluding "vulnerable" tenants and an automatic switchback mechanism (paying rent to the landlord when a tenant's arrears hit a threshold level). In addition, it is vital that DWP makes good on its assurances that the financial viability of housing associations will not be damaged by the welfare reforms. Fourth, there are concerns about the readiness of ICT systems, specifically that the systems for fraud detection within UC were still at early development even though implementation is now advanced

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Work and Pensions Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215050748
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
The Universal Credit pilots (Pathfinders) will begin in the north west of England in April 2013 and full national roll-out is due to start in October 2013. The Government has designed a welfare system which should help ease the transition from benefits to work, but significant concerns remain about the potential impact of the changes on some of the most vulnerable benefit claimants, especially the online claims system and the proposed single monthly payment. The Government needs to reflect on its ambitious implementation timetable. Under Universal Credit, payments to cover the costs of rent will go to the benefit claimant, rather than direct to the landlord. This is a major change and the Committee therefore recommends that, during the initial phases of implementation, claimants who currently have their housing costs paid to their landlord should have the option to continue with this arrangement. The Committee also notes that it has not yet received sufficient evidence to satisfy itself that the Government will achieve its stated aim of ensuring more generous support for the disabled. The Government plans to calculate monthly Universal Credit payments by using information taken from data feeds from HMRC's new Real Time Information (RTI) system though there are concerns about that programme. The Committee, further, recognises that there is likely to be a significant increased demand for advice services during the four-year transition to Universal Credit. The report also comments on closely-related policy areas, including: the conditionality and sanctions regime; passported benefits; localisation of council tax support; localisation of the Social Fund

Author:
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 010164082X
Category : Budget
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0102936153
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 84

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Book Description
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its agencies, are responsible for administering around 40 social security benefits to the value of around £100 billion a year. Many of these benefits are linked together; hence some customers are in receipt of more than one benefit. The need for equity and fairness in interpreting legislation, is a cause of complexity. Incentives (e.g. to work) and rewards (e.g. for an individual's savings) have been built into procedures. Problems are caused by the interface between DWP benefits and tax credits (which are administered by HM Revenue and Customs); and by the constant flow of major and minor legislative and administrative changes. Simplified procedures would enable both staff and customers to understand the system better, and to avoid duplication of effort. There would also be less scope for benefits fraud (estimated at £2.6 billion in 2004-05). This NAO report also highlights the need for improved communication with customers and better use of new technology.

Author: Jane Millar
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 9781847421869
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
The second edition of this important text reviews policy developments since 1997. The chapters have been extensively updated and there are new chapters on social security reform, inequalities and social security, and the new 'welfare market'.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215561640
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
This report examines the implications of the Government's welfare reform plans for the localism agenda. Under these plans, Council Tax Benefit and elements of the discretionary Social Fund will be abolished and replaced by localised schemes run by councils. Restrictions placed on local authorities in designing their own schemes for council tax support will produce only the illusion of local discretion. Combined with a planned 10 per cent cut in spending on support for council tax, the MPs argue these restrictions are likely to squeeze the funds available to support working-age unemployed people. The Committee also expresses concerns about the timetable for change, with local authorities having little time to design their council tax support schemes before they are due to be introduced in 2013. The Committee welcomes plans to localise the discretionary Social Fund, but warns ministers they need to fund the new schemes adequately. Collecting information about how these funds are used would allow residents to hold local authorities to account for how effective their local schemes are. Housing Benefit, which is currently administered by local authorities, is to be incorporated into the centralised Universal Credit system under the Government's plans, an incongruous move for an administration committed to decentralisation. Finally, the Committee urges the Government to think carefully about the proposed system of paying housing costs support directly to tenants under Universal Credit, as this could seriously hamper the ability of social landlords to borrow to invest in their current or new properties.

Author: Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780101795722
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
This white paper sets out the Government's plans to introduce legislation to reform the welfare system by creating a new universal credit. This universal credit will radically simplify the system to make work pay and combat worklessness and poverty. The consultation document (Cm. 7913, ISBN 9780101791328) spelt out the issues and the consultation responses (Cm. 7971, ISBN 9780101797122), publishing simultaneously with this paper, broadly welcomed the proposals that were put forward. Universal credit is an integrated working-age credit that will provide a basic allowance with additional elements for children, disability, housing and caring. It will support people both in and out of work replacing working tax credit, child tax credit, housing benefit, income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance and income related employment and support allowance. The universal credit will improve financial work incentives by ensuring that support reduction is tapered at a consistent and managed rate. It will also be backed up by a strong system of conditionality. As a simpler system managed by one department it will reduce the scope for costly errors and fraud. The universal credit will not replace: contributory jobseeker's allowance & contributory employment and support allowance which will continue aligned to earnings; disability living allowance; child benefit; and bereavement benefits, statutory sick pay, statutory maternity pay, maternity allowance and industrial injuries disablement benefit