Agenda item

Purpose of the report: Policy Development and Review

 

This report contains the findings and final recommendations of the Welfare Reform Task Group, which was commissioned by the Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee (COSC) to investigate the impacts of welfare reform and key issues for Surrey County Council and its partners.

 

COSC is asked to endorse the recommendations of the Task Group, which seek to monitor and mitigate the impact of the reforms on Surrey residents, the County Council, and its partners.

Declarations of interest: None.

 

Witnesses:

Mary Burguieres, Policy and Strategy Partnership Lead Manager

Jisa Prasannan, Scrutiny Officer

Ben Robinson, Strategic Partnership Manager

 

 

David Harmer, Chairman of the Task Group

David Hodge, Leader of the Council

 

Key points raised during the discussion:

 

1.    The Chairman of the Welfare Reform Task Group presented the report to the Committee, outlining the key findings of the group’s work. It was explained that there were a number of concerns regarding the assessment of those eligible for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). It had been identified that a high number of assessments were being challenged through the appeals process, and a significant number of these appeals had been successful. It was commented by the Chairman of the Task Group that this represented a significant waste of public money, and also suggested that the assessment process was not robust. The Chairman of the Task Group also highlighted the injustice to claimants caused by the time it takes to get from assessment to appeal.

 

2.    It was highlighted that ATOS Healthcare had indicated that its contract to undertake the face to face assessments for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) would be coming to an end. The Committee discussed concerns regarding the future commissioning of this work, given the reputational and operational risk attached to this high profile area.

 

3.    The Leader of the Council gave an early oral response to the recommendations of the Welfare Reform Task Group. This included a commitment to:

 

(i) protect the Local Assistance Scheme (LAS) funding under spend from 2013/14 in a separate reserve;

 

(ii) lobby central government through the Local Government Association and the County Council’s Network on improving the delivery and roll out of Universal Credit, in particular simplifying the application process; and

 

(iii) work with the members of the Welfare Reform Task Group and officers to take forward recommendation 12, writing to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions explaining the County Council’s concerns over the Employment and Support Allowance and work capability assessments for claimants.

 

4.    The Committee discussed the role of the Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB) in supporting those affected by welfare reform. It was noted that there was evidence of an increase in the number of enquiries since the introduction of the reforms. However, some Members expressed the view that these were showing signs of stabilising. It was recognised that an increase would be anticipated during any significant period of change in welfare reform. The Committee praised the work of the CAB, and a number of Members commented that the Council should continue to develop strong partnership working with the organisation. The Leader of the Council stressed the importance of local support  such as the Local Assistance Scheme which utilises the Surrey Re-Use Network and CABs, in helping mitigate the impact of welfare reform.

 

5.    The Committee raised a number of questions regarding the commissioning of getWIS£, in particular whether the contract had a set of identified success criteria for the amount invested. Further details were also requested regarding the geographical availability of the service across the county, and whether there was a break clause in the contract. It was agreed that these details would be circulated to the Committee following the meeting. The Leader of the Council informed the Committee that he had sought a number of assurances from the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, prior to the cabinet decision in February 2014 to extend the agreement with getWIS£ for a further two years. 

 

6.    Members of the Task Group commented that they had experienced shock at some of the things they had been informed about regarding the impact of welfare reform in Surrey. In particular, it was highlighted that there had been significant delays in the appeals process for decisions regarding ESA, and that this had impacted on people’s health and wellbeing. It was also highlighted that the complexity of forms and assessments was judged to present a significant barrier for those reliant on some form of welfare support.

 

7.    Members of the Committee highlighted the role of libraries in providing IT access to complete online benefit claim forms, and asked that consideration be given to extending internet access time in libraries to those applying for Universal Credit online, as the forms typically took up to two hours to complete.

 

8.    The Committee discussed the potential to develop a simpler assessment process for welfare support, and raised a number of questions about how the Council and partners could work together to ensure people could access support services to apply for Universal Credit and other welfare support. It was highlighted that there were a wide number of care and benefit assessments, and the Committee commented that there was a strong case to be made for developing a common assessment for these multiple claims. The Committee agreed to add an additional recommendation to those proposed by the Task Group, asking that the Leader of the Council lobby central government on simplifying the Universal Credit application process and explore options for a common assessment for claimants across welfare benefits and support.

 

9.    The Leader of the Council commented that the central Government decision to discontinue the Local Assistance Scheme grant funding after 2015 concerned him, and expressed the view that it could potentially lead to a number of families developing longer term support needs unnecessarily. It was highlighted that this could lead to more families needing to access the Supporting Families programme in order to have those needs met.

 

10.  The Committee thanked the Task Group as well as the officers that had supported it, and praised the report that had been produced. The Committee agreed to the Task Group recommendations. The Committee agreed that the Welfare Reform Task Group should remain in place to use its expertise in a monitoring capacity.

 

Recommendations:

 

Recommendation 1: Adult Social Care, Children Schools and Families, Libraries, Public Health and Finance teams to continue to monitor impacts of the welfare reforms on service users and services, and provide a joint update through the Welfare Reform Co-ordination Group to the Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting in September 2014. Adult Social Care to include a summary of the impact of the welfare reforms on carers and Children Schools and Families to include a summary of the impact of the welfare reforms on care leavers in their updates.

 

Recommendation 2: The Welfare Reform Co-ordination Group be encouraged to continue to collate data on the impact of the reforms on residents and the cumulative impact of the reforms, and to share information and good practice within the group, and to report on progress to the Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee as part of the update report in September 2014.

 

Recommendation 3: Surrey County Council’s Organisational Development Team analyse training needs on welfare reform in the Council and explore how such training can be disseminated throughout affected council services and ensure consistency with training being delivered by partner organisations.

 

Recommendation 4: Surrey's Welfare Reform Co-ordination Group to work with the Head of Family Services to explore the potential for the Supporting Families Programme (which is being extended through the Public Services Transformation Network) to provide early help/intervention to some of those families who are most severely impacted by the welfare reforms.

 

Recommendation 5: Any Local Assistance Scheme (LAS) funding left unallocated at the end of 2013/14 is ring-fenced and rolled over into 2014/15 and continues to be committed to supporting residents in crisis through the LAS.

 

Recommendation 6: Shared services to provide an update on improvements to the LAS scheme and take up of the fund, as part of the update report to the Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee in September 2014.

 

Recommendation 7: Surrey County Council to continue lobbying central government to provide funding for emergency crisis support for residents (known as the Local Assistance Scheme in Surrey) beyond 2015.

 

Recommendation 8: The Adult Social Care Committee to closely monitor the delivery of this service by getWIS£ and report back to the Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee as appropriate.

 

Recommendation 9: Surrey County Council's Adult Social Care Commissioners, to work with Surrey's Welfare Reform Co-ordination Group, Public Health and getWI£E to:

 

(a)  promote the getWiS£ advice and support service to all Surrey GPs through Surrey's 6 Clinical Commissioning Groups; and

 

(b) continue to raise awareness of this service among key partners including District and Borough Housing and Benefits Officers and social housing providers;

 

to ensure Surrey residents receive early help in dealing with the welfare reforms.

 

Recommendation 10: The Public Health team to report to the Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee with findings from their food access needs assessment, to inform the Committee’s work around reviewing the impacts of welfare reform in Surrey.

 

Recommendation 11: Surrey County Council to work closely with the Department for Work and Pensions, District and Borough Councils, housing providers and the Voluntary, community and faith sector to prepare  for the introduction of Universal Credit, taking into consideration the concerns and recommendations highlighted in this report, and report back to the Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee on progress. This preparation should include:

 

(a) researching and understanding the need for digital access and support across Surrey;

 

(b) the County Council better understanding the potential demand on IT resources as a result of the introduction of Universal Credit to enable Surrey to properly prepare for this, including reviewing budget provision;

 

(c) reviewing the demand for money management advice and assessing existing service provision, in order to make evidence-based recommendations for sourcing the necessary support; and

(d) lobbying central government to ensure that support to access Universal Credit is adequately funded.

 

Recommendation 12: The Leader of the Council to write to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions explaining the Task Group’s concerns over the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) process including the following recommendations:

 

(a) That firms carrying out the medical work capability assessments (WCA) for benefit claimants, on behalf of DWP:

            (i) treat benefit claimants like customers; and

(ii) ensure appropriately qualified persons carry out these medical assessments.

 

(b) Bureaucracy within the ESA claims and appeals process be reduced. In particular:

(i) DWP to provide information on the number of medical certificates posted by claimants but not received by DWP and the reasons for this,

(ii) DWP to accept claimant medical certificates for longer periods while claimants await mandatory re-consideration and tribunal decisions. This will save GP and claimant time and expense in having these certificates frequently renewed or re-requested where certificates have been sent by post but not received by DWP.

 

(c) DWP's benefit claim forms and decision letters to signpost claimants to advice and support services to enable claimants to seek early help, preferably locally based organisation, such as local authorities, housing providers and Citizens Advice Bureaus.

 

(d) DWP to build a closer working relation with partners in the Welfare Reform Co-ordination Group, to bring about pro-active information sharing and signposting particularly where claimants have been sanctioned by DWP decisions and therefore lost their passported benefits, such as housing benefit.

 

(e) DWP to use lessons learned from the ESA process and apply this to the roll-out of the Personal Independence Payments.

 

Recommendation 13: The Leader of the Council to write to the Secretary of

State for Work and Pensions on simplifying the Universal Credit application

process and exploring options for a common assessment for claimants across

welfare benefits and support.

 

 

Actions/further information to be provided:

 

None.

 

Committee Next Steps:

 

Task Group report and recommendations approved by COSC to be presented to Cabinet on 22 April 2014.