Localisation issues in welfare reform

Localisation issues in welfare reform PDF Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215561640
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
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.

Localisation issues in welfare reform

Localisation issues in welfare reform PDF Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215561640
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
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.

Government Response to the Communities and Local Government Committee's Report

Government Response to the Communities and Local Government Committee's Report PDF Author: Great Britain. Department for Communities and Local Government
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780101827225
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 18

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Book Description
Response to the Committee's fifth report, HC 1406, session 2010-12 (ISBN 9780215561640)

Implementation of Welfare Reform by Local Authorities

Implementation of Welfare Reform by Local Authorities PDF Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215055545
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
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

Issues in Welfare Reform

Issues in Welfare Reform PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Public welfare
Languages : en
Pages : 33

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Book Description


Changing Welfare Services

Changing Welfare Services PDF Author: Michael J Austin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135426309
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
Contains field-tested techniques to enhance the effectiveness of your local social services! Changing Welfare Services: Case Studies of Local Welfare Reform Programs describes promising programs and practices that have emerged in the United States since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Using case studies, this reference provides important lessons that will help social service directors and staff to develop strategies that will improve local welfare-to-work services. This casebook focuses on the agencies rather than the welfare population, emphasizing the guiding values of these agencies and the lessons they learned. Changing Welfare Services explores new approaches to service delivery, with emphasis on removing barriers to work force participation and promoting self-sufficiency through support services. The case studies involve programs focused on working with the community by developing partnerships with local organizations to provide better services. This text emphasizes the organizational changes—such as the development of new training programs, merging employment and social service agencies, and restructuring agency programs to foster collaboration between child welfare services and welfare-to-work programs—that were successful strategies used to implement welfare reform. In Changing Welfare Services, you will learn about: the Connections Shuttle and the Guaranteed Ride Home Program—transportation services for welfare-to-work participants the Exempt Provider Training Program— trains Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) participants and others to launch and improve their own high-quality child care businesses co-location of support services—situating mental health and substance abuse services near the social services agency so TANF participants can make a single visit for all necessary services the Family Loan Program—helps low-income families deal with large or unexpected one-time expenses the JobKeeper Hotline—provides round-the-clock counseling, crisis intervention, and referral services to help participants stay employed and much more! Changing Welfare Services shows how these agencies discovered new ways to serve the needs of low-income residents and offers you a variety of inventive techniques for improving your own agency’s support for welfare recipients. Enhanced with tables, figures, and appendixes, this practitioner-oriented casebook is a much-needed complement to the many quantitative studies of the welfare population. This book is a valuable resource for state and local human service administrators and staff, policymakers, and university faculty and students of public policy.

Perspectives for Digital Social Innovation to Reshape the European Welfare Systems

Perspectives for Digital Social Innovation to Reshape the European Welfare Systems PDF Author: F. Davide
Publisher: IOS Press
ISBN: 1643681575
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
Social welfare is riddled with ingrained problems that have already defeated all standard approaches, and reform calls for counterintuitive action. Digital Social Innovation (DSI) is primarily about promoting grassroots initiatives to address localized societal problems, and is not normally talked about in relation to welfare reform, but perhaps social innovation initiatives, with their localized and case-based approach, could help to solve the enormous structural problems faced by our welfare democracies today. This book addresses the potential and implications of DSI for the reform of the European welfare state. The 14 papers collected here focus on key issues, such as the nature of social innovation and its effects; scaling up to address structural problems and make systemic change; new social risks and challenges; the role of digital thinking and emerging technologies; public governance approaches; tolerance of institutions; integrating innovation in the welfare system; and the empowerment of marginalized citizens. These topics are examined from an integrated and multi-disciplinary perspective, taking into consideration not only current EU debate on policy trends for social protection, but also the nature of digital transformation and its effects on social change. The book also highlights barriers to adoption, as well as the potential limitations and failures of this emerging approach. Digital social innovation is an emerging discipline that deserves more attention from policy makers and more resources from government. Drawing on welfare studies, political science, sociology, psychology, law and computer science, this book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners and policy makers alike.

Financing of new housing supply

Financing of new housing supply PDF Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215044136
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
This report concludes that the Government must employ a basket of measures, covering all tenures of housing, if sufficient finance is ever to be available to tackle the country's housing crisis. For decades, successive Governments have failed to deliver sufficient homes to meet demand. The country faces a significant housing shortfall, and the financial crisis has amplified the problem. 232,000 new households are forming each year in England, and yet in 2011 fewer than 110,000 new homes were completed. The Committee sets out four key areas for action, which, taken together, could go a long way to raising the finance needed to meet the housing shortfall: large-scale investment from institutions and pension funds; changes to the financing of housing associations, including a new role for the historic grant on their balance sheets; greater financial freedoms for local authorities; new and innovative models, including a massive expansion of self build housing.

HC 1114 - Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham: Ofsted and Further Government Issues

HC 1114 - Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham: Ofsted and Further Government Issues PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215084152
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 49

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Book Description
This report follows up our November 2014 report on child sexual exploitation in Rotherham and covers two matters: the role of Ofsted and Louise Casey's inspection report on Rotherham. It is clear that the inspection arrangements that Ofsted had in place from 2007, when it became responsible for inspecting children's services at Rotherham, failed to detect either the evidence, or the knowledge within the council, of large-scale child sexual exploitation. The structured inspection method used at that time to inspect local authorities' children's services was designed by Ofsted and did not focus on child sexual exploitation. The result was a lack of intelligence and understanding in Ofsted's handling of Rotherham. Child sexual exploitation was missed as was the superficiality of Rotherham's response to inspection findings and its dysfunction. The Committee found Louise Casey's report on her inspection of Rotherham to be penetrating and instructive. It not only confirmed the dreadful findings in the Jay Report but, what was worse, revealed that Rotherham Council was in denial about child sexual exploitation.

HC 648 - Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham: Some Issues for Local Government

HC 648 - Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham: Some Issues for Local Government PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215078802
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
Professor Alexis Jay's Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham 1997-2013 published on 26 August 2014 provided a damning indictment of the failure of one local authority, Rotherham, to protect children from organised sexual exploitation. But more alarmingly the Report points to widespread organised child sexual exploitation across England. The Committee's report is a preliminary examination raising questions about local government accountability and governance, and sees a need for arrangements to bring to account officers still in post or who have moved on from an authority when serious questions about their past performance emerge. These arrangements have to balance accountability and fairness. In the case of Rotherham the Committee calls for an investigation into the reasons that key documents covering 1999 to 2003 and of prime importance to establish what went wrong within the authority are missing.

Problems of Welfare Reform

Problems of Welfare Reform PDF Author: Arher
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description