Welfare reform: annual report 2018

Footnotes

1 The National Archives (2012), Welfare Reform Act 2012

2 The National Archives (2016), Scotland Act 2016

3 Please note that these figures refer to Housing Benefit claims. For most capped households, the Benefit Cap is applied by reducing the amount of Housing Benefit they receive, so their total benefits no longer add up to more than the cap level. Due to the early stage of Universal Credit rollout, most claims affected by the Benefit Cap are claims to legacy benefits rather than Universal Credit.

4 DWP (2018), Benefit Cap Statistics

5 DWP (2018), Child Tax Credit and Universal Credit claimants: Statistics related to the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children

6 Claimants can be exempted from the policy if the affected child is the second or subsequent child born in a multiple birth, is adopted from care by the Local Authority, or was conceived non-consensually. The full list of exemptions is discussed in section 3.2.2 of this report.

7 UK Parliament (2018), PIP, ESA trust deficit fails claimants and the public purse

8 These are referred to as 'Mandatory Reconsiderations' by the DWP.

9 DWP (2018), Personal Independence Payment: Official Statistics

10 DWP (2018), Tribunals and gender recognitions certificates statistics quarterly: January to March 2018

11 UK Parliament (2018), PIP back payments

12 National Audit Office (2018), Investigation into errors in Employment and Support Allowance

13 Child Poverty Action Group (2018), Charity takes legal action against DWP for disabled claimants' arrears

14 Child Poverty Action Group (2018), CPAG legal action leads to full arrears for disabled claimants

15 Office for Budget Responsibility (2016), Welfare trends report, p. 5

16 The National Archives (2017), Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017

17 The Scottish Government (2018), Every child, every chance – The Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2018-22

18 Landman Economics (2018), Forecasting Child Poverty in Scotland, p. 26 - 27

19 Equality and Human Rights Commission (2018), The effect of tax and welfare reforms, p. 150

20 UK Parliament (2018), Universal Credit: Written statement

21 Scottish government analysis using Stat-Xplore

22 Office for Budget Responsibility (2018), Welfare Trends Report, p. 69

23 Social Security Advisory Committee (2018), Government proposal to move claimants on 'legacy' benefits to Universal Credit: consultation announced, p. 29

24 Office for Budget Responsibility (2018), Welfare Trends Report, p. 24

25 National Audit Office (2018), HM Revenue & Customs 2016-17 accounts, p. R51

26 DWP (2018), Housing Benefit: statistics on speed of processing 2017 to 2018, p. 1

27 National Audit Office (2018), Rolling out Universal Credit, p. 36

28 National Audit Office (2018), Rolling out Universal Credit, p. 40

29 Office for Budget Responsibility (2018), Welfare Trends Report, p. 126

30 Resolution Foundation (2017), Universal Remedy: ensuring Universal Credit is fit for purpose, p.27

31 According to the DWP self-employment in a trade, profession or vocation should be the claimant's main occupation. It must also be organised, developed, regular, and carried out in expectation of profit.

32 Social Security Advisory Committee (2018), The Universal Credit (Miscellaneous Amendments, Savings and Transitional Provision) Regulations. Other critical organisations include Policy in Practice (2018), Three significant but little known welfare changes for April 2018. The policy has also generated critical coverage in the wider media, such as Manchester Evening News (2018), The ridiculously complex Universal Credit change that could affect 240,000 people.

33 Child Poverty Action Group (2018), David Webster (Glasgow University) briefings on benefit sanctions, 24 July 2018 briefing p. 24

34 These findings are supported by a range of studies, which are discussed in more detail in section 4.6.5.

35 The National Archives (2012), Welfare Reform Act 2012

36 DWP (2015), 2010 to 2015 government policy: welfare reform

37 HM Treasury (2017), Autumn Budget 2017

38 DWP (2018), First Universal Credit payment paid quicker

39 DWP (2018), Universal Credit Advances

40 HM Treasury (2018), Autumn Budget 2017: documents

41 HM Treasury (2018), Autumn Budget 2017: policy costings, p. 12

42 HM Treasury (2018), Autumn Budget 2017: policy costings, p. 13

43 UK Parliament (2018), Housing cost element of Universal Credit and 18 to 21-year-olds

44 The Scottish Government (2017), Annual Report – 2017 Welfare Reform (Further Provision) (Scotland) Act 2012, p. 32

45 The Scottish Government (2018), Support with housing costs

46 HM Treasury (2015), Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015

47 The Scottish Government (2017), Annual Report on Welfare Reform Follow up Paper: Housing and Social Security

48 UK Parliament (2017), Local Housing Allowance and the social rented sector

49 UK Parliament (2017), Local Housing Allowance caps and the social rented sector,

50 Those receiving Working Tax Credit, Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Allowance, Carers Allowance and Guardians Allowance are exempt from the Cap. People living in London are subject to a slightly higher benefit cap (£23,000/£15,410).

51 UK Government (2018), Benefit Cap

52 DWP (2018), Benefit Cap Statistics, p. 2

53 Scottish government analysis using Stat-Xplore

54 This row shows the proportion of single-adult households affected by the Benefit Cap where the adult is female.

55 UK Government (2018), 2 child limit: claiming benefits for more than 2 children

56 HM Revenue & Customs (2018), Tax credits, Child Benefit and Guardian's Allowance

57 DWP (2018), Universal Credit: What you'll get

58 DWP (2018), Child Tax Credit and Universal Credit claimants: Statistics related to the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children

59 The number of exceptions of other types are not currently provided for Scotland, due to both rounding and suppression of small numbers of cases.

60 In these statistics, "in work" is defined as eligible for Working Tax Credit within the tax credit system

61 HM Treasury (2016), Budget 2016

62 The Scottish Parliament (2018), Official Report of the Social Security Committee meeting of 16 April 2018

63 Scottish government analysis using Stat-Xplore

64 DWP (2018), Personal Independence Payment (PIP)

65 Child Poverty Action Group (2018), Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook, 20th Edition

66 Scottish government analysis using Stat-Xplore

67 DWP (2018), Personal Independence Payment: Official Statistics, p4

68 UK Parliament (2018), PIP, ESA trust deficit fails claimants and the public purse

69 DWP (2018), Challenge a benefit decision (mandatory reconsideration)

70 DWP (2018), Personal Independence Payment: Official Statistics

71 DWP (2018), Appeal a benefit decision

72 DWP (2018), Tribunals and gender recognitions certificates statistics quarterly: January to March 2018

73 England and Wales High Court (2018), Transcript of Resolution Foundation v Secretary of State for Work And Pensions court decision

74 UK Parliament (2018), PIP back payments

75 OBR (2018), Economic and fiscal outlook

76 National Audit Office (2018), Investigation into errors in Employment and Support Allowance

77 Scottish government analysis using Stat-Xplore

78 UK Parliament (2018), Employment and Support Allowance inquiry

79 Child Poverty Action Group (2018), Charity takes legal action against DWP for disabled claimants' arrears

80 Child Poverty Action Group (2018), CPAG legal action leads to full arrears for disabled claimants

81 OBR (2016), Welfare trends report, p. 4

82 OBR (2016), Welfare trends report, p. 5

83 Please note share of spending is used where available, otherwise a share of caseload is used. For a full methodology please see Annex II.

84 The National Archives (2017), Child Poverty Act (Scotland) 2017

85 Scottish Government (2017), Tackling child poverty

86 Landman Economics (2018), Forecasting Child Poverty in Scotland, p. 26 - 27

87 Scottish Government (2018), The Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan

88 Equality and Human Rights Commission (2018), The effect of tax and welfare reforms, p. 150

89 Women's Budget Group (2018), Intersecting inequalities: The impact of austerity on Black and Minority Ethnic women in the UK

90 Scottish Government (2018), The Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, p. 11

91 Further information on each of these policies is available at Scottish Government (2018), The Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, p. 65 - 71

92 Scottish Government (2018), Annual Report on Welfare Reform Follow up Paper: Housing and Social Security

93 OBR (2018), Welfare trends report, p. 3, 5

94 Transitional Protection is discussed in detail in section 4.5.

95 OBR (2018), Welfare trends report, p. 126

96 Resolution Foundation (2017), Universal Remedy: ensuring Universal Credit is fit for purpose

97 DWP (2018), Universal Credit: full service and live service areas

98 As discussed in paragraph 8 of this explanatory memorandum, the DWP intend to test managed migration on a small number of cases, beginning in January 2019. Based on the results of these smaller migrations, the DWP intend to modify the process to allow a smoother roll out for the large scale roll out which will begin in June 2019.

99 DWP (2018), Explanatory memorandum for the Social Security Advisory Committee

100 OBR (2018), Welfare Trends Report, p. 69

101 Social Security Advisory Committee (2018), Government proposal to move claimants on 'legacy' benefits to Universal Credit: consultation announced, p. 29

102 People with over £16,000 of capital are normally unable to claim UC, whereas under Tax Credits there were no such capital limits. The UK government estimate that there are around 50,000 Tax Credits claimants with capital of over £16,000 across Great Britain.

103 Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (2018), Housing federations across the UK say "flawed" universal credit is causing debt and hardship for families in social housing

104 COSLA (2017), Welfare Reform, p. 3

105 Scottish Government (2018), Social Security for Scotland

106 The Scottish Government (2017), Scottish Government Response to the Consultation on Universal Credit, p. 4

107 Social Security Advisory Committee (2018), Government proposal to move claimants on 'legacy' benefits to Universal Credit: consultation announced

108 OBR (2018), Welfare trends report, p. 69, 84

109 OBR (2018), Welfare trends report, p. 24

110 Resolution Foundation (2017), Universal Remedy: ensuring Universal Credit is fit for purpose, p. 27

111 This may include earned income from employment, self-employment, investments, savings interest, and other types of unearned income.

112 DWP (2018), Universal Credit: How to claim

113 DWP (2018), Universal Credit Full Service Survey

114 National Audit Office (2018), HM Revenue & Customs 2016-17 accounts

115 DWP (2018), Housing Benefit: statistics on speed of processing 2017 to 2018

116 National Audit Office (2018), Rolling out Universal Credit

117 More information on UC claim processing and payment is available at DWP (2018), Universal Credit: different earning patterns and your payments (payment cycles)

118 Trussel Trust (2018), Left Behind: Is Universal Credit truly universal?

119 OBR (2018), Welfare trends report, p. 126

120 Resolution Foundation (2017), Universal Remedy: ensuring Universal Credit is fit for purpose, p. 31

121 DWP (2018), Transitional Protection explanatory memorandum p.25

122 OBR (2018), Welfare Trends Report, p. 121

123 DWP (2018), Universal Credit Full Service Survey, p. 75

124 Save the Children (2018), Childcare debt set to soar as Universal Credit hits families with £1,000 bills upfront

125 This means that self-employment in a trade, profession or vocation should be your main occupation. It must also be organised, developed, regular, and carried out in expectation of profit.

126 This estimate applies a Scottish share of self-employed people, and people claiming UC to estimate the number of people who will lose out from MIF in Scotland.

127 Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (2017), Self-employed claimants of universal credit – lifting the burden, Trades Union Congress (2017), Is self-employment compatible with Universal Credit?

128 House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee (2017), Self-employment and the gig economy

129 Social Security Advisory Committee (2018), The Universal Credit (Miscellaneous Amendments, Savings and Transitional Provision) Regulations. Other critical organisations include Policy in Practice (2018), Three significant but little known welfare changes for April 2018. The policy has also generated critical coverage in the wider media, such as Manchester Evening News (2018), The ridiculously complex Universal Credit change that could affect 240,000 people

130 Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (2017), Self-employed claimants of universal credit – lifting the burden

131 The £300 disregard, or de minimis will be temporarily increased to £2,500 during the 2018/19, the first year of the SE policy's operation. For the purposes of this example the de minimis will be assumed to be £300 as this is more representative of how the policy will affect most claimants.

132 Social Security Advisory Committee (2018), Report on Universal Credit (Miscellaneous Amendments, Savings and Transitional Provision), p. 7

133 DWP (2016), Universal Credit and your claimant commitment

134 OBR (2018), Welfare trends report, p. 73

135 These claimants may be primary carer for a child aged under one, caring for a severely disabled person for at least 35 hours per week, severely disabled themselves, of pensionable age or in the later stages of pregnancy. More information is available at Citizens Advice (2018), Check you're in the right Universal Credit work-related activity group.

136 Gingerbread (2018), Unhelpful and unfair? The impact of single parent sanctions

137 DWP (2016), Universal Credit for the self-employed

138 DWP (2018), Universal Credit Programme Full Business Case Summary

139 OBR (2018), Welfare Trends, p.55

140 National Audit Office (2018), Benefit sanctions, p.9

141 Welfare Conditionality (2018), Welfare Conditionality Project 2013 – 2018, p. 18

142 Welfare Conditionality (2018), Welfare Conditionality Project 2013 – 2018, p. 23

143 Hansard (2015), Food Banks

144 Parliament (2018), Social Security Benefits: Children

145 FOI request (2018), Foodbank Signposting

146 Journal of Social Policy Volume 47, Issue 3, 2018. Loopstra et al, Impact of Welfare Benefit Sanctioning on Food Insecurity: a Dynamic Cross-Area Study of Food Bank Usage in the UK

147 Trussel Trust (2017), Financial insecurity, food insecurity, and disability: The profile of people receiving emergency food assistance from The Trussell Trust Foodbank Network in Britain

148 Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2016), Destitution in the UK, p. 29

149 University of Glasgow (2018), Lone parent jobseeking requirements negatively affect mental health

150 Scottish Government (2018), Practising Realistic Medicine: Chief Medical Officer for Scotland annual report

151 Child Poverty Action Group (2018), David Webster (Glasgow University) briefings on benefit sanctions, 24 July briefing p. 24

152 National Audit Office (2016), Benefit sanctions

153 OBR (2018), The Economy Forecast

154 Resolution Foundation (2018), Universal Remedy

155 Equality and Human Rights Commission (2018), The Effect of Tax and Welfare Reforms

156 England and Wales High Court (2017), Transcript of Resolution Foundation v Secretary of State for Work And Pensions court decision

157 UK Parliament (2018), PIP back payments

158 National Audit Office (2018), Investigation into errors in Employment and Support Allowance

159 Child Poverty Action Group (2018), Charity takes legal action against DWP for disabled claimants' arrears

160 Child Poverty Action Group (2018), CPAG legal action leads to full arrears for disabled claimants

161 Stat Xplore

162 Equality and Human Rights Commission (2018), The Effect of Tax and Welfare Reforms

163 The Scottish Government (2017), 2017 Welfare Reform report

164 The OBR (2016), Welfare Trends report

165 The OBR (2017), Policy costings

166 The Resolution Foundation (2017), Are we nearly there yet?, p. 31

167 DWP (2016), Impact Assessment for the Benefit Cap

168 Child Benefit (CB) caseload in August 2017 is available at UK and Scottish level from geographical analysis tables. The Scottish share of CB caseload is applied to UK outturn CB expenditure data to arrive at an estimate of Scottish CB spending.

169 Tax Credits (TC) caseload in August 2017 is available at UK and Scottish level from personal Tax Credits geographic statistics. The Scottish share of TC caseload is applied to UK 2016/17 outturn TC expenditure data to arrive at an estimate of Scottish TC spending.

170 Our estimates of the Scottish share of UK HB, IS, JSA, ESA and UC spending are based on the DWP's 2017 benefit expenditure and caseload tables, which are the most recent to include a breakdown of benefit expenditure by country and region. Scottish costs here are as reported in 2016/17 outturn data, while UK costs represent GB 2016/17 outturns scaled by 1.029 to represent the population increase when going from GB-scale to UK scale. Population estimates are derived from ONS (2018), Estimates of the population for the UK, England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland