The Parliamentary Work and Pensions Committee has highlighted the lack of an IT system to make automatic cross checks of housing data to prevent fraudulent claims for Universal Credit.

Housing benefit will form a significant part of Universal Credit when all benefits are rolled into one payment.
Under the current housing benefit system, local authorities can cross-check claims across a range of data relating to other council services. The Committee believes that it is vital that a fully developed and tested IT system, which allows DWP to cross-check data, is in place before Universal Credit is implemented on a national scale. Worryingly, it appears that there is no automated system in use in the Pathfinders and is not clear when or how a system will be available.

Read more on MPs EXPOSE GAP IN UNIVERSAL CREDIT ANTI FRAUD SYSTEMS…

The Public Accounts Committee has criticized departments for delivering less than 20 per cent of the regional growth fund to businesses and for failing to create the predicted number of jobs.

Read more on REGIONAL GROWTH FUNDING NOT REACHING BUSINESSES…

Landlords blame the steep rise in repossessions on changes in Government policy and are worried that the radical changes that will follow the introduction of Universal Credit will bring a threat to the rental market.

Read more on LANDLORDS CONCERNED UNIVERSAL CREDIT WILL FUEL REPOSSESSION…

Projects to trial local services in supporting claimants who have difficulty in coping with the all computerised Universal Credit benefits system are to be set up in six areas.

Universal Credit is currently being operated in 10 Pathfinder areas. By the end of year it will be rolled out further to cover more of the north-west and expansion will continue for the following two years. By 2017 all but 700,000 claimants will be able to use the system. This revised timescale represents a delay of two years compared to original projections.

Read more on UNIVERSAL CREDIT: TRIALS TO SUPPORT VULNERABLE CLAIMANTS TO START…

MPs want free schools to be monitored more closely and they call for a greater openness about how free school approvals are carried out.

The Public Administration Committee believes that the Department for Education and the Education Funding Agency’s oversight arrangements for free schools are not yet working effectively and consequently there is an urgent need to ensure that public money is used properly. The Committee’s view has been influenced by recent high-profile failures at Al-Madinah School, Discovery New School and Kings Science Academy.

Read more on CALL FOR BETTER OVERSIGHT OF FREE SCHOOLS…

Universal Credit is due to expand to new areas in the north west from June. The programme, which is two years behind schedule, is relying on a prototype system which will be scrapped in three years. Development of a new system which will use open source to store and access data and take account of learning from the prototype is progressing.

Read more on UNIVERSAL CREDIT TAKES ON MORE CLAIMANTS…

Over 100 communities have signed up to the Our Place programme which provides support for is designing and and delivering local services that focus on local priorities and reduce costs.

This major expansion of the programme, which brings together councillors, public servants, voluntary and community organisations and the community themselves to tackle local issues and revolutionise the way an area works, follows a successful pilot scheme.

Read more on BOOST FOR OUR PLACE INITIATIVE AS MORE COMMUNITIES GET INVOLVED…

PARLIAMENTRY COMMITTEE WANTS MORE COMPLAINTS AND BETTER LISTENING

The Commons Public Administration Select Committee says complaints are valuable management resource, but the culture of denial and failure of leadership in public services in handling them is what leads to failures like the Mid-Staffs hospital disaster.

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Delivery of the ‘troubled families’ programmes which are designed to turn around the lives of some of the most disadvantaged families is so far behind schedule that targets are unlikely to be met.

The DCLG programme to turn around the lives of 120,000 troubled families by March 2015 is 13% behind its own expectations of performance. By October 2013 it had achieved lasting improvements in the lives of 22,000 families, leaving a further 98,000 to be ‘turned around’ by May 2015.

Read more on TROUBLED FAMILIES PROGRAMMES LIKELY TO MISS TARGETS…

Because of confusion over how rent arrears will be tackled under the Universal Credit, almost four in 10 larger landlords intend to reduce the number of properties they let to welfare recipients according to research from the British Property Federation.

The Federation said that landlord groups, NGOs and Government should all act to reduce the uncertainty of the impact of the Government’s flagship welfare reform after it found that 39% of landlords with more than 10 properties were intending to reduce the number of properties they let to those on housing benefit, when the change comes in.

Universal Credit combines six benefits into a single monthly payment. It is designed to offer greater protection to landlords from rent arrears, but the Federation said today that the result of its survey meant that this message was not accepted by many landlords. It called for greater dialogue between landlords, tenants, NGOs and government to clearly explain the implications of Universal Credit.

Read more on UNIVERSAL CREDIT: LANDLORDS SCALING BACK ON RENTING TO WELFARE CLAIMANTS…