Award nominations, rising council tax support, new calculator designs and more

In this issue

Congratulations to clients shortlisted for IRRV Awards and LGC Awards
New analysis: rising council tax support costs lower council's spending power by 1%
Our Benefit and Budgeting Calculator gets a new design
Walsall Council's Director of Public Health talks about innovations in safeguarding
Reasons for optimism at our latest Universal Credit roundtable
The UK debt landscape and its impact on councils
The £20 uplift has brought many households above the poverty line
Join us in our London offices for summer networking drinks
People news and latest vacancies
ICYMI: this month’s blogs
Future free webinars

Congratulations to clients shortlisted for IRRV Awards and LGC Awards

Huge congratulations to all our clients who have been shortlisted in this year’s IRRV awards and LGC awards.

We are proud to work with such innovative leaders in the public sector. These awards are very prestigious and we are thrilled the hard work and dedication of our clients is getting the much-deserved recognition.

If other Policy in Practice clients are considering entering an industry award please get in touch to discuss how we can help support your submission.

Contact hello@policyinpractice.co.uk

New analysis: Rising council tax support costs lower council's spending power by 1%

Our latest data-led analysis shows how the council tax support scheme costs and caseloads changed in London due to the pandemic.

We analysed administrative data from over 400,000 households across 14 London Boroughs to learn how the economic fallout from Covid has impacted the caseload and costs of Council Tax Support schemes.

From January to March 2021 the number of households claiming Universal Credit doubled nationally (from 2.5 million to 5 million), and by 130% in London (from 371,000 to 867,000).

Council Tax Support caseloads grew by 13%. On average, this is an extra 1,942 households claiming support from their council in each Borough.
Council Tax Support costs grew by 16%. Over a year, this is £2.4m for the average Borough - which represents nearly 1% of a council’s total budget. Set against a backdrop of additional Covid-related council tax support funding being removed before the economy has fully recovered, there are questions about the sustainability of such costs if further government support is not available.
Take-up of council tax support varies widely between Boroughs, from 35% in Sutton to 14% in Lambeth. This is driven by the generosity of CTR schemes (more generous council tax support schemes drive better take up), how easy it is to claim and demographic trends. Councils may want to focus on raising awareness of their scheme and improving the ease of claiming.

For more findings, read our full report here

Join our research findings event in late August

We will be presenting our findings in person at our new offices in Westminster. Please join us in person as we reveal what London's administrative data shows us about:

Changing caseloads (released now)
Council tax support costs (released now)
Worklessness (released 11 August)
Relative poverty (released 11 August)
Housing affordability (released 11 August)

Reserve your place at our in-person event here

Walsall Council's Director of Public Health talks about innovations in safeguarding

Stephen Gunther, Director of Public Health, Walsall Council, introduced our recent safeguarding webinar to discuss the need for joining up safeguarding data. We were also joined by Paul Withers, Data Protection Officer, Walsall Council, who shared why MAST recently won the Data for Good Initiative of the Year at the British Data Awards 2021, and the latest results we have achieved with the platform.

Listen back to hear:

How this ground-breaking approach to combining administrative datasets from different agencies is creating a clearer view of safeguarding concerns
How new smart approaches to data management have overcome security and data governance challenges
How the data is brought to life to help multi-agency safeguarding (MASH) teams, social workers and frontline safeguarding teams to improve communication, liaison and decision making

DWP is listening to council's calls for more Universal Credit data

There was an upbeat mood at the latest Universal Credit data-sharing meeting with local authorities on 22 July. Participants felt that there were several reasons for optimism.

First, we noted that DWP has provided a new UC data share to help local authorities with paying the COVID local support scheme. This is welcome news and should help target payments more effectively. This new initiative is partly the result of pressure from the group, and Policy in Practice has written to chief executives who supported our case to thank them.

Second, we have had some success with the outcome of the data re-use request form. Kelly Wigley, from East Suffolk, talked about her experience in getting permission from DWP to use the LIFT dashboard for to identify and support those who lack financial resilience.

Third, we are making good progress in analysing Universal Credit data sent to Policy in Practice via XML files. As well as providing more information on households, this will pave the way for more automation of processes. We also talked about some exciting projects ahead, for example potentially using data to research the drivers of CTR take-up.

Finally, we recognised that, while good progress had been made, there was much more to do. DWP is likely to involve a significant number of local authorities in a forthcoming review of Universal Credit data-sharing arrangements. This will be a good opportunity to convey the case for making more and better use of Universal Credit data. Policy in Practice will do all we can to support all local authorities who take part.

The next meeting is on Thursday 9 September and all local authorities are welcome to join us. Please email hello@policyinpractice.co.uk to hear how you can get involved in our next Universal Credit roundtable.

The UK debt landscape and its impact on councils

The UK debt landscape has shifted significantly in the last 12 to 18 months, resulting in a fundamental change in the type of caseloads that local authorities, enforcement agents and debt advisers are faced with.

Latest figures show a 98% increase in Universal Credit claimants in England and a recent study carried out by Policy in Practice identifies that costs to administer Council Tax support schemes are on the rise, Councils are under ever more pressure to balance the needs of citizens with staffing resources and costs.

Zoe Charlesworth, Director of Policy and Operations at Policy in Practice, presented an update on the current UK debt landscape and shared how local authorities can be prepared for future hardship on a Destin webinar.

Listen back to learn

The latest UK debt statistics
Findings from data-led research on costs and uptake of Council Tax support schemes
How to tailor recovery routes to suit individual circumstances

The £20 uplift has brought many households above the poverty line

Alex Clegg, Policy and Data Analyst, and Mary-Alice Doyle, Senior Research Analyst, presented at the GLA's Social Exclusion Data Users Group (SEDUG). Alex shared the latest findings from our Low-Income Londoners project to understand the changing profile of London's poverty. Mary-Alice presented her work using administrative data combined with FRS data that show increased absolute and relative poverty rates in London since the start of the pandemic.

View the GLA Social Exclusion Data Users Group slides here

Mary-Alice also presented her research to the Family Finance Surveys User Conference 2021.

Whilst official surveys are not yet available to tell us what has happened to poverty rates and household incomes since the beginning of the pandemic, we can use administrative data to help fill the gap.

There are two counteracting forces. Some households moved out of poverty because of the £20 Universal Credit uplift. So for those who were on benefits and close to the poverty line, the uplift pushed them above it. At the same time, many more households lost income and started claiming benefits for the first time. The second effect was larger, which means that overall, poverty rates have increased.

Hear more about our research on London's changing living standards by joining our event on 11 August. This is an in-person event with networking drinks after. All Covid-19 safety protocols will be maintained.

ICYMI: July's blog post

One council’s response to the end of Covid-19 support
Coronavirus support schemes come to an end: we discuss how councils are working to prevent crisis and income shocks for low-income households
Read blog post

New analysis: Council tax support scheme costs rise by 16% in London
New data-led analysis shows how the council tax support scheme costs and caseloads changed in London due to the pandemic.
Read blog post

Our Benefit and Budgeting Calculator gets a new design
Read about the major upgrade we’ve given our Benefit and Budgeting Calculator to make it easier for people to see what support is out there.
Read blog post