Skip to content

Agenda and minutes

Items
No. Item

40.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Councillors Khuruna and Spall

41.

Declaration of Substitute Members

Minutes:

Councillor Satnam Gill stated that he was substituting for Councillor Marian Spall

42.

Declarations of Interest

Declarations of interest

 If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

 

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

 

*(a) Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

(b)  Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c) Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d) Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e) Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

(f)   Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

 (g) Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

 

 

Minutes:

None

43.

To approve minutes of previous meeting pdf icon PDF 112 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 4 September 2018 be confirmed and the Chair be authorised to sign them

44.

Matters Arising from the minutes

Minutes:

None

45.

PUBLIC QUESTIONS

For members of the public to ask questions relating to any subject on the meeting agenda under Procedure Rule 70.5. Alternatively, the Chair may opt to accept questions from the public during the discussion on each agenda item.

 

Minutes:

The Chair outlined the procedures for dealing with Public questions and filming and recording of meetings

46.

Chair's Report

Minutes:

The Chair stated that the item on Thames Water Flooding Scrutiny Review 12month report back was withdrawn and would now be considered at 1 November meeting

 

The Chair also stated that the London Child Poverty Alliance would be holding a conference on 19 October at the Museum of London on Universal Credit and details would be circulated to Members

 

 

47.

Scrutiny Review - Universal Credit - Witness Evidence -Verbal

Minutes:

Eugene Nixon, L.B.Southwark and Devan Ghelani, Policy and Practice were both present and made presentations to the Committee.

 

Ian Adams, Robbie Rainbird and Annette Hobart from L.B.Islington were also present

 

During the presentations the following main points were made –

·         Full Universal Credit was introduced in Islington in June 2018, and the impact is just beginning to be understood

·         It was noted that a conference had been held at the London Metropolitan University in September, which involved voluntary sector organisations. The report from the Conference would be submitted to the Committee

·         It was noted that Universal Credit had been changed since the original inception of the scheme, and the Government had now contracted CAB to support tenants. At present it is not known if the necessary funding would be provided by the Government to support tenants effectively

·         It was noted that Universal Credit is being administered by DWP, and not the Council

·         Universal Credit is an online process for claimants and there is little interaction face to face. This would prove difficult for some claimants

·         Members were informed that Council HB staff had not been TUPE’d across to work on UC by the DWP, and funding had also been reduced and therefore this would also mean that less support would be available for claimants

·         Members stated that it would be useful to look at local data on claimants at the next meeting of the Committee

·         Concern was expressed at the difficulties that claimants with mental health issues, and the disabled would face, and it was noted that discussions were taking place with relevant community and voluntary organisations

·         A Member stated that it may be necessary to set up a project to assist claimants in the completion of forms. It was noted that the take up of support in Libraries is currently quite low. There is also support at 222 Upper Street

·         In response to a question it was stated that the funding available for Universal Credit from the Government is insufficient, and that Council funding is already being used. The HB service has had its funding reduced from £3m to £1.6m, and the Council will in future need to prioritise what it needed to support

·         The L.B.Southwark experience of the introduction of Universal Credit, and the problems that they encountered, had led to some positive changes to UC from the Government

·         It was noted that the local DWP staff worked co-operatively with the Council, but obviously they could not influence national policy

·         L.B.Southwark, after 3 years of Universal Credit, has 20000 claimants, and over 7000 of these were Council tenants. The roll out of Universal Credit is scheduled to go until 2023

·         There has been a significant impact on social housing tenants, and around 42% of claimants in Southwark are social housing tenants. These tended to include more vulnerable residents, and to have also been affected by previous Government welfare reforms

·         The Government proposals on UC had led to higher rent arrears in Southward, which was bad for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

48.

Monitoring Report

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted