Category: Universal Credit

  • Boosting Social Prescribing Effectiveness: Training on UK Benefits

    Boosting Social Prescribing Effectiveness: Training on UK Benefits

    Society Matters, Programme Director, Phill Capewell talks about the importance of boosting social prescribing effectiveness and the crucial role Social prescribers play across the UK.

    Introduction

    The United Kingdom has witnessed a growing demand for healthcare services in recent years, attributed to an ageing population, rising chronic disease rates, and mounting pressure on the National Health Service (NHS). Social prescribing has emerged as a practical solution to address these challenges, supplementing traditional healthcare services by focusing on social determinants of health. Training social prescribers on social welfare benefits can enhance social prescribing interventions’ effectiveness, leading to improved community wellbeing. This article delves into the advantages of training social prescribers on social welfare benefits within the UK context.

    What is Social Prescribing?

    Social prescribing, or community referral, is a healthcare innovation connecting patients with non-medical community support services. Tailored to individual needs, these interventions include exercise classes, art therapy, peer support groups, and debt advice services, aiming to address factors contributing to poor health outcomes and promote holistic wellbeing.

    Social prescribers, also known as link workers or care navigators, play a crucial role in social prescribing. Collaborating with healthcare professionals, such as general practitioners (GPs), they identify patients suitable for community-based support and connect them with relevant services and resources.

    Successful UK Social Prescribing Initiatives

    The Bromley by Bow Centre in East London is an outstanding social prescribing initiative that has gained significant recognition for its success. The centre offers an integrated approach to health and wellbeing, providing services such as community-based exercise classes, gardening, cookery courses, and art therapy. These activities not only help patients develop new skills but also foster social connections, reducing isolation and loneliness. The Bromley by Bow Centre’s approach has become a model for other social prescribing initiatives across the UK.

    Challenges in Social Prescribing

    Despite social prescribing successes, several challenges persist. Community organisations’ capacity to meet the increased demand for services can be strained. Many voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations are already stretched concerning resources, funding, and staff. The influx of referrals from social prescribing initiatives can further strain these organisations, limiting their ability to support service users effectively.

    Advantages of Training

    Social Prescribers on Social Welfare Benefits Training social prescribers on social welfare benefits can address some social prescribing challenges while enhancing its overall effectiveness. Two significant advantages of this approach include:

    Improved Knowledge and Understanding: Social prescribers knowledgeable about the welfare system can better navigate the complex landscape of benefits and support services. They can provide more accurate and relevant advice, ensuring patients receive appropriate assistance for their needs. This comprehensive knowledge base connects patients to suitable financial support options, potentially overlooked, leading to a more significant impact on overall wellbeing.

    Increased Financial Stability for Patients: Connecting patients with relevant financial assistance, social prescribers can alleviate financial stress and improve overall wellbeing. A deeper understanding of the benefits system allows social prescribers to identify financial support opportunities unknown to patients, reducing financial burden and contributing to improved mental and physical health outcomes. Better-equipped patients can manage their finances and focus on their health needs without added stress.

    Conclusion

    In conclusion, training social prescribers on social welfare benefits can lead to significant improvements in the UK’s social prescribing interventions’ effectiveness. By enhancing their knowledge of the benefits system, social prescribers can provide more accurate and relevant advice, ensuring patients receive the most appropriate support for their needs. Connecting patients with financial assistance can alleviate financial stress and contribute to better overall health outcomes. Investing in social prescriber education can strengthen the social prescribing approach and better support the health and wellbeing of our communities.

    Learn More About Benefits Training

    To find out more about training for social prescribers and how it can benefit the effectiveness of social prescribing, visit the Society Matters cic website. Society Matters cic is a social enterprise dedicated to providing education and support to organizations working to make a positive impact on society. Our website offers resources, training opportunities, and information on social welfare benefits to help enhance social prescribers’ knowledge and skills, ultimately improving the health and wellbeing of communities across the UK.

  • Getting to Grips with Changes to Childcare and Universal Credit

    Getting to Grips with Changes to Childcare and Universal Credit

    Adam Matthews, the Training Manager at Society Matters, delivers a compelling analysis of the key changes the childcare element of Universal Credit. Insights into the present state of childcare in the UK are provided along with key strategies to ensure individuals receive the full extent of the support they rightfully deserve.

    What are the Changes to Childcare Support on Universal Credit?

    There are some welcome changes for people who need financial support with Childcare when it comes to Universal Credit coming into play on Wednesday 28th June.

    The government will allow eligible parents on Universal Credit to claim back up to £951 for childcare costs for one child and up to £1,630 for two or more children. This works out as a significant 47% increase on previous support.

    Childcare support on Universal Credit had previously been frozen for several years at up to a maximum of 85% of childcare costs or £646 per month for one child or £1,108 for two or more children. It’s important to note that this increase is only available on Universal Credit and won’t be added to the ‘legacy benefit’ Working Tax Credit ‘childcare element.

    The government has also announced it will also support eligible people responsible for children with their first month of childcare costs when they either enter work or increase their hours, by providing childcare funding upfront rather than expecting people to manage the first month’s costs themselves. From speaking to many people this was proving unmanageable for many due to the combination of the cost-of-living crisis and high childcare costs.

    Where do we Currently Stand with Childcare in the UK?

    It’s quite clear that within the perfect storm of the cost-of-living crisis and high inflation, we have a childcare costs crisis. The UK as of March 2023 was the third-most expensive country for childcare in the world, based on a couple earning the average wage, according to data from the OECD.  For a couple with two young children childcare costs take up nearly 30% of their income, according to the OECD. A survey of 24,000 parents, which was published recently by campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed, found 76% of mothers who pay for childcare feel it no longer makes financial sense for them to work.

    Childcare costs have increased by a massive 44% since 2010, according to analysis from the Trades Union Congress and have risen by nearly 6 per cent just over the past year. All this has happened whilst the availability of places for Children in the UK has fallen. This means the average annual cost of a full-time nursery place for a child under two in the UK is now a staggering £14,836, according to a report by the charity, Coram. To add to this fewer than one in five (18 per cent) of local authorities in England have enough childcare places for disabled children, down from 21 per cent.

    If you compare the UK’s childcare spending support, quality of childcare and length and payments for paternal and maternity leave to other countries it ranks a lowly 36th in a recent report put together by UNICEF.

    Why are people underclaiming childcare when costs are so high?

    The childcare support available is often underclaimed similarly to other welfare benefits (approx. £19 billion a year) due to a general difficulty in navigating a complex system, a lack of awareness and digital exclusion, stigma, and the increasingly fragmented nature of support from the government.

    For example, Policy in Practice estimates £7.5 billion of Universal Credit goes unclaimed by 1.2 million eligible households this year. How many of these households may have been entitled to the childcare element but are not currently getting the support and struggling to manage financially?

    There are of course other forms of childcare support available, some of which you cant claim at the same time as the childcare element of Universal Credit including the Tax-Free Childcare for 0-11 Year olds. Add to this the current Free education and childcare for 2-year-olds, the 15 Hours of free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds the 30 hours of free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds and the outgoing Working Tax Credits childcare element and I’m sure you will agree this can become confusing and overwhelming for people responsible for children.

    There is further welcome incoming childcare support over the next few years which have been confirmed by the government. Starting from April 2024, existing childcare support will be expanded in phases. By, September 2025, working parents with children aged 9 months old to when they start school will be eligible for 30 hours childcare support. Information on the timescales and level of support can be found here.

    How can we make sure people get all the childcare they are entitled to?

    It’s really important at the moment to maximise income and to make sure people that are struggling get a full benefit check by using either the benefit calculators such as entitled to or signposting to organisations such as Citizens Advice.

    In addition to this I would recommend using the governments childcare calculator, whilst remembering some people will need extra support using the tool.

    The Childcare Choices website also gives a good breakdown of all the different types of childcare support in the UK, explains who should be eligible and how to claim and is a useful recourse to send out to people who are struggling to navigate the complex system.

    If you’re looking for social solutions, Society Matters cic is your perfect partner. We have a training calendar or workshops we provide with regularity which you can book onto as an individual or employee.

  • What does the Chancellor’s Cost of Living Support package mean in practice?

    What does the Chancellor’s Cost of Living Support package mean in practice?

    In the last week of May 2022 UK energy regulator Ofgem said the typical household energy bill was set to rise again in October by another £800, bringing it to £2,800 a year. This comes after bills have already risen by average £700 in April, while prices of food, fuel and other goods have also gone up significantly, pushing inflation (the rate at which prices rise) to a 40-year high at around 9%. Charities and campaign groups had already been calling for emergency support to people and to bring welfare benefit rates in line with inflation, so this latest announcement made this an even greater imperative for the government to take action.

    On 26 May 2022 the Chancellor announced a number of important packages of support for people in the UK in an attempt to combat the ever-increasing impact of the cost of living crisis.

    Here’s our 5 point summary of what you need to know about the package, and who it will help.

    1. One-off £650 payment for households receiving ‘means tested benefits’

    More than 8 million UK households receive ‘means tested benefits’, which means the benefit applies to them because their income and capital are below a certain level. Universal Credit is one example – you can view a full list of means tested benefits here.

    £650 will be paid to qualifying households by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in two instalments, the first will be made in July and the second in the Autumn. Payments from HMRC for those in receipt of tax credits will follow shortly after.

    To qualify for the first payment, households will need to already be in receipt of a means tested benefit, or have started a claim for one of the qualifying benefits by no later than 25 May 2022. In the case of a joint claim, where someone claims a household benefit with their partner, they will receive one payment of £650 between them.

    Importantly, the Government has confirmed that this £650 payment is tax-free, will not count towards the benefit cap, and will not have any impact on existing benefit awards. There will also be no application process – payments will automatically be paid directly to households across the UK that are eligible.

    2. People on qualifying disability benefits will receive a one-off payment of £150 in September

    Around six million people across the UK who receive qualifying disability benefits will receive a one-off payment of £150 in September, and where they also receive a means tested benefit this will be in addition to the £650 one-off payment. So for example, a person claiming both Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment they will receive both payments. A full list of qualifying Disability benefits can be found here.

    Again, these payments will be exempt from tax, will not count towards the benefit cap, and will not have any impact on any existing benefit awards, and there will be no application process.

    3. All households will receive a non-repayable £400 grant which replaces the £200 Energy Rebate

    All households in England, Scotland and Wales will get a non-repayable £400 grant to help with rising energy bills, replacing the much criticised £200 repayable so called “loan not loan” energy rebate. You do not need to be on benefits to get this support.

    Energy suppliers will deliver this support to households with a domestic electricity meter over six months from October. Direct debit and credit customers will have the money credited to their account, while customers with pre-payment meters will have the money applied to their meter or paid via a voucher.

    Importantly, this support is in addition to the £150 Council Tax rebate for households in England in Council Tax bands A-D, which was announced in February, and which millions of households have already received.

    4. Pensioner Cost of Living Payment for people over pensionable age

    Over 8 million pensioner households will receive an extra £300 this year to help them cover the rising cost of energy this winter. Households that receive the Winter Fuel Payment – which is homes with at least one person of pension age – will receive a top-up payment of £300 in November or December. For most pensioner households, this will be paid by direct debit, will not be taxable and does not affect eligibility for other benefits or the benefit cap.

    Importantly households on lower incomes, who claim pension credit, will also receive the £650 mentioned earlier. A small group of pensioners with disabilities will receive a total of £1,500 when all the new payments and discounts they are eligible for are added up if they are on Attendance Allowance or DLA.

    5. Additional funding for the Household Support Fund

    The Government confirmed it is providing an extra £500 million of local support, via the Household Support Fund which was introduced to support those in most need with payments towards the rising cost of food, energy and water bills, and that the funding will be extended to March 2023, originally planned to end in October this year.

    The Household Support Fund is distributed by Local Authorities who are also responsible for determining their own eligibility criteria, however the Government has committed to issuing additional guidance to ensure support is targeted towards those most in need, including people not eligible for the Cost of Living Payments set out above.

    Adam Matthews, Social Welfare Instructor at Society Matters cic

    You can read a full breakdown of the Cost of Living Support Package here. If you’d like to learn more about the benefits outlined, including means tested benefits and disability benefits, you may be interested in the Society Matters social welfare learning and development programme.

    Get in touch for more information at hello@societymatterscic.com

  • What you need to know about the Universal Credit migration roller coaster

    What you need to know about the Universal Credit migration roller coaster

    The ‘managed migration’ of claimants to welfare benefit Universal Credit is set to restart this month. This short article gives you an easy explanation of what you need to know to make sure the people who need your help get the information they need.

    First, a bit of background …

    When Universal Credit (UC) was introduced in 2013 a programme of ‘managed migration’ was introduced. In essence this meant that, as well as new claimants automatically being assessed for UC, existing claimants across a range of other benefits would gradually be moved to the new benefit. These so called ‘legacy benefits’ that were to be replaced by UC include working tax credits, child tax credits, housing benefit, employment and support allowance, income support and jobseeker’s allowance.

    The managed migration programme was fraught with difficulties, compounded by a lack of understanding in the support system of the workings of UC. That was a big driver for Society Matters cic introducing its Get to Grips with Universal Credit training course in 2019, with the objective of removing the confusion and ensuring that people were supported to understand their obligations when on this new benefit, and ensuring they were able to effectively manage their claim.

    Planned migration did go ahead, and by March 2020 millions of people were claiming UC, but there were still millions claiming legacy benefits that needed to be managed across. However the migration programme was disrupted significant as a result of the pandemic. The requirements of people already claiming were changed, with sanctions pretty much abandoned (as the requirement to seek work and attend appointments which are fundamental to the UC ‘Claimant Commitment’ were no longer feasible) and the migration programme came to a standstill whilst a massive 1.5 million people claimed UC for the first time.

    The Universal Credit Migration Roller coaster starts again, but this time with a safety net

    There has been some transition from legacy benefits over the past couple of years, as a change in personal circumstance (such as moving house, co-habiting, new children in a family) automatically triggers a reassessment and shift to UC – this has been termed ‘natural migration’. However as at April 2022 the government has estimated that around 2.6 million households in the UK are still claiming legacy benefits, compared to 5.6 million claiming UC, and so it’s now time for that to stop. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has therefore announced the restart of the managed migration programme in full force, with the objective of getting all claimants moved to UC by the end of 2024, building on learning from a pilot that started in Harrogate in 2019.

    The government has estimated that more than half of current legacy benefits claimants will be better off on UC, and around 1.4 million households should voluntarily move to gain the increased income outside of the migration programme. Only time will tell whether that comes to fruition, but in the meantime a welcome safety net has been put in place by the DWP they’ve called transitional protection that may top up a person’s UC so it matches their previous benefit income to ensure they are not worse off due to the move.

    Transitional protection is achieved by including an extra element of UC in the claim to the value of the difference to the amount received on the legacy benefits and this will last until there is no shortfall between the amount awarded under UC and the amount previously received on the legacy benefits, taking into account changes in circumstances that would have impacted on their original benefits too.

    Migration to UC will be triggered with 3 months’ notice

    Whilst people are being encouraged to voluntarily migrate to UC, this will no longer be an option when they appear in the migration programme – they will receive a migration notice from DWP giving them a deadline date no less than three months after the migration notice.

    There will be some flexibility for people who need longer to adjust or need additional support, but this needs to be formally agreed. Otherwise, if they haven’t made their first UC claim by the deadline day their entitlement and payment to most existing benefits will stop, other than if housing benefit applies this is likely to be paid for two further weeks.

    The DWP have said that claims made within one further month after the deadline day will be treated as having been made in time and automatically be backdated to the deadline day, however importantly if a claim is made after that time it will be treated as a new claim altogether. In these circumstances, there will be no transitional protection so there’s a risk people may lose out on a significant top up to maintain their original level of benefits received through the legacy system, so It is very important to let the DWP know if someone might struggle with the migration due to a learning disability or mental health condition for example, so extra support and extended timescales can be agreed.

    Help is available

    We would always recommend getting a full benefit check whenever there is a change in circumstances (and a ‘better off’ calculation to give people a reading of what their UC payments will be so they can budget), especially during these really challenging times. If help is needed to make a UC application it’s also recommended that people are referred to the ‘Citizens Advice Help to Claim service’.

    If you’d like to understand more about UC to help you to improve your confidence and the service you can offer to people please get in touch with Society Matters cic – we provide social solutions, including social welfare training, to help you to make your mark.

    Adam Matthews, Social Welfare Instructor

  • Autumn Budget Changes to Universal Credit Explained in 5 minutes

    Autumn Budget Changes to Universal Credit Explained in 5 minutes

    Social Welfare Instructor Adam Matthews talks to Lee Booth about the changes to Universal Credit which is a shift in the right direction for working claimants, but unfortunately falls short for people who are looking for work.

  • Bitesize Benefits Briefing 6.8.21 / Universal Credit uplift is ending

    Bitesize Benefits Briefing 6.8.21 / Universal Credit uplift is ending

    The Universal Credit £20 uplift awarded to all UC claimants as a result of the pandemic is now due to end on 30th September. What does that really mean to the people it will affect most?

    Our Social Welfare Instructor Adam Matthews talks through the implications with Jayne Graham in this 9 minute Bitesize Benefits Briefing.