Issue - meetings
Universal Credit and Local Council Tax Reduction - Support for Residents
Meeting: 28/11/2017 - Cabinet (Item 5)
5 Universal Credit and Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme - Support for Residents PDF 118 KB
Additional documents:
Decision:
The recommendations were amended and then agreed.
DECISION
1. To approve the creation of an internal advice and support service for residents affected by the roll out of Universal Credit and self-employed residents in receipt of Local Council Tax Reduction.
2. To agree that specialist services should be commissioned as set out at paragraph 1.2 of the report from a range of independent agencies.
3. To delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Resources, after consultation with Corporate Director of Governance, to enter into any necessary agreements following a procurement exercise for the specialist services
4. To note the budget from which staffing requirements were to be funded from the Tackling Poverty Fund.
5. That a meeting be arranged with the Tower Hamlets Community Advice Network.
6. That the proposed review of the in house advice team be undertaken within the first year of service.
Action by:
CORPORATE DIRECTOR, RESOURCES (Z. COOKE)
(Tackling Poverty Programme Manager (E. Kershaw)
Minutes:
Councillor David Edgar, Cabinet Member for Resources, introduced the report. He explained that it set out how the Council planned to support those impacted by the introduction of the Universal Credit system. The Mayor’s Tackling Poverty Fund had been established to provide support in these types of circumstances.
The report set out how support would be provided by the Council as well as from agencies. He noted that there had been a submission to the Cabinet meeting by the Tower Hamlets Community Advice Network in relation to this and he proposed that a meeting be arranged with them as soon as possible to go through the points they raised.
During discussion, Members noted that:
· The work being proposed was not in isolation from other advice support that was available to residents both internally and from external agencies.
· There were specific reason why a new internal advice services was being proposed as opposed to funding an external agency.
· The danger of residents getting into housing debts and the role of the Council in relation to that.
During discussion Members noted a number of issues including the work of the Tackling Poverty reference group, especially in relation to this proposal.
The Mayor thanked everyone for their contributions. He agreed that a meeting should be arranged as soon as possible with the Tower Hamlets Community Advice Network to discuss the points they raised in their submission. Turning to Paragraph 3.19 of the report he highlighted the proposed review of the in-house team after 1 year. He agreed with the idea of a review but requested that it be undertaken earlier. He agreed the recommendations in the report with those amendments.
RESOLVED
1. To approve the creation of an internal advice and support service for residents affected by the roll out of Universal Credit and self-employed residents in receipt of Local Council Tax Reduction.
2. To agree that specialist services should be commissioned as set out at paragraph 1.2 of the report from a range of independent agencies.
3. To delegate authority to Corporate Director of Resources, after consultation with Corporate Director of Governance, to enter into any necessary agreements following a procurement exercise for the specialist services
4. To note the budget from which staffing requirements were to be funded from the Tackling Poverty Fund.
5. That a meeting be arranged with the Tower Hamlets Community Advice Network and the Mayor.
6. That the proposed review of the in house advice team be undertaken within the first year of service.