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We believe that the welfare system should support people who are homeless to get back on their feet and that homelessness organisations and people with lived experience of homelessness hold the key insight to making this a reality. 

With welfare issues remaining high on the agenda, Homeless Link’s policy team take you through some of the recent changes and seek your input on two issues currently being examined by Government.

What we know about the welfare system and homelessness

We know from our member surveys that changes to the welfare system have been one of the key challenges facing their services and the people they support.

For example, 92% of survey respondents in our Young and Homeless research identified that delayed Universal Credit payments were having an impact on youth homelessness, with 90% and 80% respectively reporting that sanctions and the capping of the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) also having an effect.

The National Audit Office’s 2017 report on homelessness highlighted that recent changes to the welfare system, such as the LHA freeze and cap, have directly contributed to an increase in homelessness.

Signs of improvement?

Some recent changes to the welfare system have been extremely welcomed.

At a national level, the 2017 Budget announced that people experiencing homelessness will no longer be subject to the ‘seven waiting days’ under Universal Credit, a measure Homeless Link called for in our Budget submission. More recently, the decision to remove automatic entitlement to housing costs for 18-21-year-olds was reversed, an issue that Homeless Link and our members have been campaigning on for some time.

“This decision ensures that there are no unintended barriers to young people accessing housing on the basis of their age alone and getting into work, and is in line with the Government’s launch of the Homelessness Reduction Act and our commitment to eradicating rough sleeping by 2027.”  Esther McVey (The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions)

We have also heard from members of positive changes to local practice. Members have engaged with their Jobcentre Plus District Managers, working together to develop local practices and protocols to improve identification of people’s housing status and increasing access to easements and hardship payments. 

For an overview of some of the key changes to the welfare system this year, please see our latest briefing on the ‘Recent changes to the welfare system’.

What needs to change?

As a membership organisation, we are able to share the views of people with lived experience of homelessness and the homelessness sector to bring about change.

We are a member of the Rough Sleeping Advisory Panel, raising members concerns about the Local Housing Allowance, Universal Credit, and the support provided for people without a fixed address and limited access to IT. We have also raised the views of people with lived experience of homelessness and our members through our responses to consultations and inquiries, such as around Universal Credit, Universal Support, PIP and ESA Assessments and the Benefit Cap.

With Universal Credit continuing to roll-out across England, it is as important as ever that people’s views are heard by Government. There are two areas, in particular, we would welcome hearing from you:

Sanctions

The Government’s policy objective of sanctions, which take the form of docking a portion of benefit payments for a set period of time, is to get people off benefits and into work.

Our previous research A High Cost to Pay found that nine in ten people had experienced food poverty as a result of being sanctioned, with the impact of sanctions actually contributing to their homelessness. Rather than motivating people to find work, sanctions were, in fact, alienating many people from engaging with job centres.

There are safeguards in place. For example, work coaches can temporarily put job seeking requirements on hold while a person who is homeless finds accommodation (an “Easement” of conditionality). However, the uptake of this has not been monitored.  

Homeless Link will be responding to a Work and Pensions select committee inquiry into sanctions, and we want to hear your views on the following:

• To what extent is the current sanctions regime achieving its policy objectives?
• What improvements to sanctions policy could be made to achieve its objectives better?
• Are levels of discretion afforded to jobcentre staff appropriate?
• Are adequate protections in place for vulnerable claimants?
• What effects does sanctions policy have on other aspects of the benefits system and public services more widely? Are consequential policy changes required?

Please email chris.brill@homelesslink.org.uk by Wednesday 23 May with your views on any of the questions around sanctions.

Universal Credit

Working with members we have made calls to reform Alternative Payment Arrangements, within Universal Credit, and positive steps have been made in this area. However, challenges still remain, for example around delays in initial payments, repayment of debts and work coaches rejecting post office accounts as a means of claimants receiving their payments.

We want to continue to feedback to DWP where people experiencing homelessness are facing issues. All examples are welcome, but in particular, we would welcome people’s views on:

• Making claims for Advance payments
• Using Post Office accounts to receive payments
• Accessing IT facilities to make Universal Credit claims
• Identification/ verification process within Universal Credit 
• Supporting people to make a Universal Credit claim

Please email chris.brill@homelesslink.org.uk with your experiences/views on any of the questions around Universal Credit.

Your views are vital to bringing about real change in the lives of people experiencing homelessness. We will continue to keep the sector informed of changes as they occur.