Agenda item

[To be introduced by the  Cabinet Member for Resources and Culture. Report of the Chief Operating Officer]Cabinet to consider recommendations for how we should proceed with our local welfare assistance schemes in 2016/17.

The Cabinet Member for Resources and Culture introduced the report which set out a proposed timetable for responding to welfare reform changes and signalled the Council’s commitment to developing a more strategic approach to supporting those in financial hardship. The report also proposed some immediate changes to existing provision of financial assistance to ensure that these resources are prioritised where they can have the most impact.

The Cabinet Member continued to speak about the ideological nature of the Government’s reforms, their negative impact, including the loss of benefits for 13,000 households in the borough. This meant the Council would need to ensure that it was offering assistance through its current welfare assistance schemes as effectively as possible .The report further discussed better aligning support funding with the DHP scheme to meet families that were most in need and there would be separate reports on the DHP and Support fund policy coming forward for key decisions in March.

RESOLVED

1. To note progress to date in preparing for welfare reform changes (paragraph 6.1) and agree the proposed timetable for developing our strategic response to welfare reform (paragraph 6.4).

2. To agree that when the current Support Fund contract ends on 31 March 2016, the existing scheme should be brought to an end, and that a proposal for how the Council will meet the needs of those who would have been eligible for support under the scheme is brought to the Cabinet Member for Resources in March 2016 for approval (paragraphs 6.34-6.38) 

3. That subject to agreement of 3.2 above, to agree that the remaining resources for local welfare assistance held in reserves following the Support Fund closure should be aligned with other forms of assistance for those in financial hardship and that a clear plan is developed for how these resources will be targeted to meet existing and future support needs (paragraphs 6.34-6.38)

4. To agree that the Council reviews its Discretionary Housing Payment policy and as part of this review takes steps to improve the monitoring of support, ensuring that systems are in place to deliver support in line with agreed policies in a fair and consistent manner (paragraphs 6.39-6.40)

5. To note proposals to engage with the voluntary and community sector to develop a shared strategic response to welfare reform (paragraphs 6.43-6.45)

Reasons for decision

The existing contract for the Support Fund ends on 31 March 2016 and a decision is needed as to how to proceed following the end of the contract. Remaining resources for local welfare assistance are limited and the Council needs to ensure that these resources are targeted efficiently and at the areas of greatest need.  

The Discretionary Housing Payments policy is approved annually to take account of any national policy changes and local financial settlement. Any spend on DHP over and above the government allocation is at cost to the Council’s General Fund. This policy will need to be reviewed and updated by the end of 2015/16 to take account of the Local Government Financial Settlement allocation and the changes that are due to come in through the Welfare Reform and Work Bill.

Decisions on the use of resources for local welfare assistance must be taken in the context of our longer-term response to the changes within the Welfare Reform and Work Bill. The magnitude of these changes for our residents will require the Council to have a clear strategic response in place and members are asked to agree the timetable and process for this.

Alternative options considered

Re-tender the Support Fund contract

An alternative option would be to retender the Support Fund contract, which is currently due to end on 31 March 2016. Although there is currently enough remaining in reserves to extend the contract for an additional year, this is not considered the best use of these resources as the Support Fund is expensive to administer and only supports a small proportion of those facing financial hardship. Retendering the existing contract would also be a resource intensive process and, given remaining resources would only support a new contract for a period of 1 to 2 years; this would not be an efficient use of Council resources. Continuing with an externally administered scheme also reduces opportunities to better coordinate existing resources.

Bring the existing contract in house

An alternative option would be to end the existing contract with Northgate and bring the Support Fund scheme in house. This would enable the scheme to be aligned with other forms of financial assistance and reduce the potential for duplication. However, there are likely to be significant administrative and set up costs associated with developing the scheme in house. Given the limited resources remaining within reserves it is not considered good value for money to use these resources to set up an in-house scheme which could only be supported for a limited period of time.

Do nothing

Doing nothing is not considered to be a viable option given the anticipated impact of welfare reform changes on demand for financial assistance and support in the borough.