Does the Cap Fit?
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Does the Cap fit? An Analysis of the Impact of Welfare Reform in London A research report commissioned by London Councils © Navigant Consulting (Europe) Ltd. All rights reserved November 2011. This document is expressly provided to and solely for the use of London Councils and must not be quoted from, referred to, used by or distributed to any other party without the prior consent of Navigant Consulting (Europe) Ltd who accepts no liability of whatsoever nature for any use by any other party. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Executive Summary.............................................................. 5 1.1 Introduction 5 1.2 Methodology 5 1.3 Data Analysis and Findings 6 1.4 How will the households affected respond? 6 1.5 Impact on Local Government Services 7 1.6 Conclusions 7 2 Introduction ........................................................................... 9 2.1 Purpose and Scope of the Study 9 2.2 The Welfare Reforms: Introduction to Universal Credit 9 3 Literature Review ................................................................ 11 3.1 The Department for Work and Pensions 12 3.2 Professional and Associative Bodies 13 3.3 Academic and Research Institutions 14 3.4 Lobby Groups 15 3.5 Conclusion 16 4 Methodology........................................................................ 18 4.1 Affordability Assessment 18 4.2 Case Study Group 19 4.3 London-wide Projections 19 4.4 Alternative UC Cap Assessment 20 4.5 Local Government Service Impacts 20 5 Data Analysis and Findings ............................................... 21 5.1 Case Study Borough Analysis 21 5.2 Affordability/Unaffordability by Borough 21 5.3 Degree of Affordability by Borough 22 5.4 Affordability by Household Type 27 5.5 Affordability by Bed-size by Borough 38 5.6 Assessing the Overall Impact on London of the UC Cap 38 5.7 Affordability Shortfalls for London 44 6 A Universal Credit Cap to fit London ................................ 48 6.1 Exemption of Child Benefit from the UC Cap 52 6.2 Comparison of the Impact of the UC Cap and Amended Caps 55 7 Potential Consequences of Universal Credit Housing Unaffordability..................................................................... 57 7.1 Economic Variables 57 An Analysis of the Impact of Welfare Reform in London November 11 Page 1 7.2 Rental Inflation 57 7.3 Benefit Levels 57 7.4 Unemployment 58 7.5 Household Responses 58 7.6 Finding Employment 58 7.7 Absorbing the Shortfall 58 7.8 Overcrowding 58 7.9 Household Division 59 7.10 Migration 59 7.11 Assessing Future Impacts 59 8 Implications for local government services ..................... 60 8.1 Housing 60 8.2 Children and Young People’s Services 62 8.3 Adult Social Care 62 8.4 Community Cohesion 63 9 Conclusions ........................................................................ 65 9.1 Recommendation 68 Appendix 1 - Implications for local government services of Welfare Reform ................................................................... 69 Children and Young People’s Services.................................... 72 Introduction 72 Issues 72 Impact on Service Delivery 73 Impact on Local Authority Budgets 74 Policy Options 75 Adult Social Care ....................................................................... 76 Introduction 76 Issues 76 Prevention 78 Impact on Local Authority Budgets 79 Policy Options 80 Community Cohesion ................................................................ 81 Introduction 81 Impact on People and their Communities 82 Impact on Service Delivery 83 Impact on Local Authority Budgets 84 Policy Options 85 Housing....................................................................................... 88 Introduction 88 Issues 89 Impact on Service Delivery 90 Impact on Local Authority Budgets 91 Policy Options 92 An Analysis of the Impact of Welfare Reform in London November 11 Page 2 Appendix 2 - Bibliography......................................................... 94 TABLES OF FIGURES Figure 1: Impact Evaluation from the White Paper ........................................................... 11 Figure 2: Boroughs in Each Group..................................................................................... 20 Figure 3: Case Study Boroughs: Affordability/Unaffordability by Borough.................... 21 Figure 4: Comparison of UC and LHA impact on degree of Unaffordability by number of households............................................................................................................................. 22 Figure 5: Degree of Unaffordability Arising from the LHA Cap as % of living expenses by number of households..................................................................................................... 23 Figure 6: Degree of Unaffordability Arising from the LHA Cap in £ by number of households............................................................................................................................. 24 Figure 7: Degree of Unaffordability Arising from the UC Cap as % of living expenses by number of households .......................................................................................................... 25 Figure 8: Degree of Unaffordability Arising from the UC Cap in £ by number of households............................................................................................................................. 26 Figure 9: Degree of Unaffordability by Household Type for UC & LHA Cap as % of living expenses................................................................................................................................. 28 Figure 10: Degree of Unaffordability by Household Type for UC & LHA Cap in £.......... 29 Figure 11: Degree of Unaffordability by Household Type for LHA Cap as % of living expenses................................................................................................................................. 30 Figure 12: Degree of Unaffordability by Household Type for UC Cap as % of living expenses................................................................................................................................. 31 Figure 13: Degree of Unaffordability by household type for UC Cap in £ ...................... 32 Figure 14: Degree of Unaffordability by Number of Dependants as % of living expenses ................................................................................................................................................. 34 Figure 15: Affordability/Unaffordability by bed-size by Case Study Borough ............... 35 Figure 16: Ranking of Boroughs by % of Households whose Rent is not Affordable ... 39 Figure 17: Levels of Affordability in Respect of the UC and LHA caps for all London Boroughs ................................................................................................................................ 41 Figure 18: % and Number of Households with and without Dependants in all London Boroughs ................................................................................................................................ 42 Figure 19: Overview of Affordability across London – Number of Households ............ 43 Figure 20: Overview of Affordability across London - Percentage of Households ........ 43 Figure 21: Degree of Unaffordability from LHA and UC caps together by Borough (for 24 Boroughs).......................................................................................................................... 44 Figure 22: Average Loss for those Impacted by the LHA and UC Caps by Broad Household Type and the Aggregate Loss for all London per Week ................................ 46 An Analysis of the Impact of Welfare Reform in London November 11 Page 3 Figure 23: Impact of London-weighted UC Cap (£399 for a single adult and £570 for other households) on affordability ...................................................................................... 49 Figure 24: Degree of Unaffordability of the LHA Cap with a London-weighted UC Cap, in £........................................................................................................................................... 50 Figure 25: Degree of Unaffordability for London-weighted UC cap, in £......................... 51 Figure 26: Degree of Unaffordability for London-weighted UC Cap by household type by % of living expenses ........................................................................................................ 52 Figure 27: Affordability by Borough with Child Benefit exempted from the UC Cap .... 53 Figure 28: Degree of Unaffordability for LHA cap with Child Benefit exempted from UC Cap, in £ .................................................................................................................................. 54 Figure 29: Degree of Unaffordability for UC Cap with Child Benefit exempted from UC Cap, in £ .................................................................................................................................. 55 Figure 30: Comparison of impact of UC Cap for standard and varied UC Caps............ 55 Figure 31: Comparison of impact of LHA Cap for standard and varied UC Caps .......... 56 An Analysis of the Impact of Welfare Reform in London November 11 Page 4 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.1 Introduction The Government is planning fundamental reform of the welfare benefits system in order to simplify the existing system and improve work incentives. The cornerstone of these reforms is the introduction of the Universal Credit, from 2013. The Universal Credit will integrate