Agenda item

The Chair welcomed Lisa Scullion, Professor of Social Policy at the University of Salford, to the meeting. A presentation was delivered on learning lessons from lived experiences of Universal Credit.

Universal Credit was the most important and fundamental reform since the inception of the welfare state. Some of the ambitions of Universal credit were to:

·  Reduce poverty

·  Simplify the benefits system

·  Ease movement in and out of work and taking on extra hours

·  Financial incentives to make work pay

Other countries were looking to the United Kingdom to see how Universal Credit was working.

The committee was informed that a lot of research had been done around some of the issues regarding Universal Credit in terms of its implementation and impacts. Over the last few years there had been calls to pause and fix the Universal Credit roll out.

A summary of the key points raised at the meeting is set out below:

·  Job Centres were viewed as a benefits administration place, rather than somewhere to go to find a job.

·  Job opportunities were felt to be largely agency based and temporary and people did not feel secure.

·  Evidence suggested that sanctions backed system was not beneficial and sometimes led to disengagement – the cost of which was then displaced and picked up by the third sector and the NHS. In some circumstances this could undo the good work of all other agencies.

·  A need to recognise that for some people the transition from legacy benefits to Universal Credit proved difficult to manage, navigate and understand – in particular people who were vulnerable and had complex needs.

·  The North West was the primary site for service leavers (veterans).

·  Significant variation in support provided by work coaches in particular the manner in which they engaged with people. Particular reference was made in relation to people with mental health problems.

·  Five week wait for the first payment. The implications of which meant that people accrued rent arrears and had little or no income to cover the basics.

The committee in considering the points raised at the meeting felt that there were two key points to investigate with the county council's Welfare Rights Service being; issues of dehumanisation as people try and work the system rather than finding work and how people would fall into a hole while they wait for the first payment (five week wait – or longer in some circumstances).

The following key lines of enquiry in preparation for when it hears evidence from the Welfare Rights Service were developed:

·  How fit for purpose the county council's Welfare Rights Service was?

·  Where can the most disadvantaged people go to for help and how the county council might assist?

·  How can we use the county council's influence as the fourth largest local authority to instigate change?

·  How will the gap in funding the county council's crisis support scheme be bridged?

Resolved: That;

1.  The presentation as delivered be received as part of the External Scrutiny Committee's ongoing review of Universal Credit.

2.  The key lines of enquiry set out in the minutes above be used in preparation for a future meeting of the External scrutiny Committee when it will hear evidence from the Welfare Rights Service.