Download or read book Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Delivery written by Nick Pettigrew and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit as In work Benefits written by Caroline Turley and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Delivering Social Welfare written by Derek Birrell and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2016-12-14 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Implementation of Welfare Reform by Local Authorities written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-04-03 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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
Download or read book Universal Credit Implementation written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Work and Pensions Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-11-22 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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
Download or read book Opportunity for All written by and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2004 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Dealing with the Complexity of the Benefits System written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2005-11-18 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Understanding Social Security Second Edition written by Jane Millar and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2009-02-02 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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'.
Download or read book Localisation issues in welfare reform written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-10-13 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Universal credit written by Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-11-11 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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
Download or read book Benefits simplification written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Work and Pensions Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-07-26 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Benefits Simplification : Seventh report of session 2006-07, Vol. 2: Oral and written Evidence
Download or read book A New Deal for Welfare written by Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-01-24 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Green Paper sets out the Government's proposals for welfare reform, including proposals for incapacity benefit claimants, lone parents and older workers, in order to achieve an 80 per cent employment rate for people of working age. Proposals to reform incapacity benefit include the introduction of: i) a new benefit called Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), to replace incapacity benefit from 2008, with an enhanced employment support element; ii) revised medical assessments which focus on ability and support needs rather than incapacity, to be completed in 12 weeks in most cases; and iii) mandatory work-focused interviews supported by a mandatory action plan for return to work activity for new and existing claimants. Other proposals include a £360 million roll out of the Pathways to Work scheme across the country by 2008 (currently being piloted in seven areas); piloting a new work-related activity premium for lone parents on income support benefit and increasing the frequency of work-focused interviews; improving support for jobseekers over 50 years and working with employers to extend flexible working arrangements. The deadline for responses to this consultation document is 21 April 2006.
Download or read book Reducing the risk of violent crime written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008-02-21 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Home Office has been effective at raising the profile of domestic violence and alcohol related crime and encouraging local action to address these issues. Such action is likely to have made some contribution to the overall fall in levels of violent crime. It has not yet managed to address successfully barriers which are reducing the effectiveness of crime prevention activities at a local level and which have been raised in previous reports by the National Audit Office and the Committee of Public Accounts. However, the Home Office has made some progress in addressing these barriers. The persistence of these barriers means that good practice has not been extended from small initiatives, and Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships have not been able to take a long-term, strategic approach to tackling violent crime. There are a number of NAO recommendations.
Download or read book White paper on universal credit written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Work and Pensions Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-03-07 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The white paper published as Cm. 7957 (ISBN 9780101795722)
Download or read book Investing in Britain s potential written by Great Britain. Treasury and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-12-06 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2006 Pre-Budget Report presents updated assessments and forecasts of the economy and public finances; the effects of policies on long-term governmental goals; and reforms being considered ahead of the Budget. It is organised under 6 main headings: maintaining macroeconomic stability; meeting the productivity challenge; increasing employment opportunity for all; building a fairer society; delivering high quality public services; protecting the environment. Amongst the measures discussed are: making Child Benefit available from week 29 of pregnancy; increasing enforcement measures for the National Minimum Wage; a target of 3% savings in central and local government; increasing capital investment in education from £8.3 billion in 2007-8 to £10.2 billion in 2010-11; taking forward recommendations of the Leitch Review on skills (ISBN 0118404865); and an increase in air passenger duty.
Download or read book Delivering on Child Poverty written by Lisa Harker and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-11 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The UK has comparatively high levels of child poverty: around one in five children are living in relative poverty (defined as living in a household with below 60 per cent median income before housing costs). The Government has made significant progress on reducing child poverty, with 700,000 less children in poverty than in 1988/89 (when the figure was 3.4 million), but missed its interim target of reducing child poverty by a quarter by 2004/05. It is unlikely, with current policies, to meet its 2010 target of halving child poverty, nor the 2020 target of eliminating it. This report recommends reforms to the Welfare to Work and New Deal for Lone Parents programmes. They should be more attuned to the particular needs of parents, who need guidance, support and skills to progress in work. They should not just encourage parents to take any job rather than one that offers them good long-term prospects, or leads to parents "cycling" between having a job and being out of work. Moreover, many children in poverty live in families that have no contact with Welfare to Work programmes. Jobcentre Plus, the agency that is charged with reducing joblessness, needs to focus more on the family, providing more flexible packages of support and seeking a wider customer reach. If necessary other agencies might have to be involved in delivering the recommendations. The author makes a number of recommendations for immediate implementation; others are for action after evaluation; and several new pilot schemes are also suggested.
Download or read book Valuing and Supporting Carers written by Terry Rooney and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-09 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
