Question No

Question By

Cabinet Member

Subject

Q12/13-14

Linda Crick

Councillor Penberthy (Cabinet Member for Co-operatives and Community Development)

Local Welfare Provision Grant

Given recent reports that the Conservative led government is going to scrap the "local welfare provision grant" from 2015, could the Council confirm how much of this funding has come to Plymouth, what it's been used for and what effect it's withdrawal will have on local people.

Response:

I am disappointed that less than a year after the commencement of local delivery of the welfare provision grant, and before any evaluation has been undertaken, the Conservative Government has cut the funding by 100 per cent.

Let us be clear, this fund helps anyone in Plymouth at a time of crisis – it is assessed on the basis of situation not employment status. It also seeks to provide means tested support for local people going through major life changes that require rehousing or resettlement.

The total funding received for 2012/13 is £1,064,046 of which we have allocated administration costs of £80,000, leaving a budget for front line resource of £984,046. In 2014/15 we expect to receive a total of £1,048,567. Thereafter there will be no funding available from this Tory and Lib Dem coalition government.

In Plymouth we had anticipated the cuts to the welfare system would have a substantial impact on people in Plymouth. This Labour administration, working very closely with our partners, implemented a suite of early intervention and prevention measures to mitigate this impact.

Unfortunately the Department for Work and Pensions was not able to give us information about how the Social Fund was used; how many repeat customers they had; the number of customers in each household; what was being asked for; all really important information we lacked when we put our scheme together. Following pre-decision scrutiny recommendations Cabinet we agreed that we needed to set and publish very strict criteria to access our Emergency and Welfare Fund a view endorsed and adopted by Full Council.

Up to the end of December 2013 the Emergency and Welfare Fund had awarded 959 Crisis Payments, including money for food and utilities, and 372 Community Care Payments, including household items and white goods. Demand for the Emergency and Welfare Fund is rising month on month, and we anticipate seeing this continue.

Unlike the scheme that the Department for Work and Pensions operated, which simply handed out resources, we focus on providing wider help and support for people who approach us in crisis, with the aim of preventing future problems and reducing their call on the Fund. We work towards helping an individual address any underlying financial difficulties they are having, referring customers to support such as Advice Plymouth which delivers financial capability (money management) courses and debt advice.

Where we pay out Community Care Payments for household goods we offer a customer the option of having the money paid into a credit union account rather than having the cash, if they do not already have a bank account.

Over the course of this financial year this Labour administration and our partners have continued to engage in further early intervention and prevention activity and through this have additional support that we have been able to offer people through the Emergency and Welfare Fund:

·         clearing arrears if tenants need to downsize because of the Bedroom Tax, but are unable to do so because of the rent owed;

·         providing advice and support for the 642 people waiting to downsize because of the Bedroom Tax;

·         providing support for the Food Bank; which also offers a signposting service, computer training, work clubs, and cooking lessons.

·         employing a new worker for Plymouth Energy Community to help people sort energy debt, improve their energy efficiency and enable them to switch to cheaper providers;

·         providing a fund to incentivise saving with a credit union;

·         continuing a specialist caseworker to work within our Housing and Revenues and Benefits services, to identify and deal with problems early;

·         establishing a fund to ensure people get Medical Assessments and Disclosure and Barring Service Checks when they need them to access benefits and get into work;

·         a feasibility study into the council providing an ethical payday lending scheme.

Plymouth’s Emergency and Welfare Fund is targeted at the most vulnerable people in our city – those with limited resources and in the most need. Those for whom a grant prevents a crisis or enables independent living and is life-changing. Messrs Duncan-Smith and Pickles removal of the funding will place people in Plymouth in a very difficult position.

As a result of the total cut to the Emergency and Welfare Fund being imposed by this Conservative government we will have to reduce the amount of early intervention, prevention and support work we are able to do, including in the area of the financial capability work Kayleigh benefitted from. The way we provide our Emergency and Welfare Fund will also have to change but we will seek to stretch the budget for 2014/15 out to also cover 2015/16 and 2016/17 but in doing this criteria will have to be tightened. However, we will continue to do our best to mitigate the impact of these Conservative cuts on our local residents.