Issue - meetings

To note and comment on the Welfare Reform Update report

The Committee received a report that provided: an update on the current phase of working age welfare reform in the UK; considered the major reforms already underway; and outlined further planned changes to the benefit system.

Mr Paul Carter, Leader, Kent County Council, introduced the report explaining that the matters within the report were complex and had the potential to affect many residents of the county. 

David Whittle, Director of Strategy, Policy, Relationships and Corporate Assurance, said there had been a significant amount of legislative and policy-driven change over many years.  Mr Whittle set out the general principles behind those changes as:

·         To increase conditionality on welfare payments

·         To impose sanctions on those who did not comply with those conditions

·         To provide greater incentives to work.

The report attempted to explain the complex relationship between different types of welfare payments and the sometimes unintended consequences that arose from the complicated relationships between incentives and penalties.

Chris Grosskopf, Policy Adviser, Strategy, Policy, Relationships and Corporate Assurance, said the welfare landscape was complex and that many authorities were currently assessing the impact of changes on residents.  In particular she referred to the following key risks:

      i.        The potential for the universal credit system to reduce incentives for people to work. 

    ii.        The need to support people to find employment and to help vulnerable people manage the universal credit system, for example to budget for monthly payments effectively. 

   iii.        The potential for some of the changes to payments for those with disabilities or chronic ill-health problems, particularly the £30 reduction in benefits for some, to make it more difficult for those people to find employment.

   iv.        Potential changes to the provision of supported housing had caused concern to various agencies, particularly about the ability of relevant bodies to provide supported housing in the social housing sector.

The following points were raised during discussion of the report:

      i.        Concern was expressed that the long-term lease of accommodation at Howe Barracks in Canterbury to the London Borough of Redbridge presented a serious challenge to Kent’s public services.  Officers provided assurances that work was being undertaken to understand the risk of similar sites being utilised in the same way.  

    ii.        That the need for more housing stock was well recognised by local and central government but some Members felt that it, and particularly social housing, should be prioritised.

   iii.        That monitoring of the impact of individual reforms to benefits would continue and would be reported regularly to Members, however the ability to measure the cumulative impact of change on particular groups was extremely complicated and not always reliable or even possible.

   iv.        That the Kent Support and Assistance Service (KSAS) had provided valuable support for vulnerable people and a view was expressed that funding for it should be maintained in the budget for 2017/18.

It was RESOLVED that the report be noted.