Agenda item

 Ian Adams, Director Financial Operations and Customer Services was present and outlined the report.

During consideration of the report the following main points were made-

·         The majority of the recommendations had been implemented, however there had been difficulties in Job Centre Plus being willing and able to share data with the Council

·         The Council had distributed all of its allocation of discretionary housing payment

·         In April 2015 ATOS would be losing the contract for administering the work capability assessments

·         It was likely that the Council would be losing Local Welfare funding from 2015 and that this had been taken to judicial review as it was not felt that the Government had fulfilled its equalities requirements

·         The BEST team had links with employers and assisted residents in finding employment. Islington has also offered to be part of the Local Support Services Framework pilot which will test out arrangements for offering support at a local level to vulnerable residents who may struggle with the implementation of Universal Credit

·         Islington still continued to fund the advice sector to assist residents and it also had an income maximisation team and the focus was on prevention of residents becoming homeless

·         In response to a question it was stated that the average length of time  a person has been unemployed and being assisted under the Local Support Services Framework is 7 years and the longest 14 years

·         With regard to unemployed people with mental health problems, there were other measures that were put in place to assist them around employment and there was a specific service, Mental Health working, and that work was taking place to link in with other support services to provide better support

·         The introduction of Universal Credit had been delayed and the latest information was that it would start for all new claims in Islington in 2016 and for existing claimants in 2017 although this could possibly change

·         With regard to Personal Independence Payments for those currently in receipt of Disability Living Allowance this would take effect from 2015, and there were some different aspects of entitlement and if claimants had their category lowered this could affect other benefits

·         The families having to move out of the borough to date because of the welfare reforms under the Local Housing Allowance, had all been from the private rented sector however, the Council were assisting other families in this regard

·         Reference was made to the problems of residents having financial difficulties by moving in and out of the benefits system if they found work and that it was important to get residents into sustainable employment

·         In response to a question it was stated that one of the advantages of working with Job Centre Plus was that they could start working on each others  systems and that this would assist in obtaining information in advance of changes, however there would be a need for a change to primary legislation to actually share data

·         The Chair expressed the view that in his view the BEST team should be better in ‘road mapping’ career opportunities for employment and that there needed to be an increase in the access to employment opportunities through the BEST team. It was reported that the services to young people were still disjointed and that the BEST team were putting together a  network to assist young people and details of support organisations however youth unemployment had reduced

·         Members expressed the view that they would like an update to a future meeting detailing how it was intended to improve the service to young people and any gaps in provision and there was a need to challenge schools to undertake more career work with young people

RESOLVED:

(a)  That an update report be submitted on a quarterly basis in relation to the impact of welfare reforms on residents, and challenges the Council faces to mitigate the effect of such changes

(b)  That an update be provided to a future meeting on the measures being taken to improve services for entry into employment for young people

(c)  That the Director of Financial Operations and Customer Services provide Members with the number of BME residents that had been affected by the ‘benefit cap’

                                                                                     DF&CS