Deven Ghelani, Director and founder of Policy in Practice, was invited to speak at the Neath Port Talbot Poverty Symposium on the topic of the impact of welfare reform on personal debt and financial resilience. In his session Deven talked about the general impact of welfare policies on our living standards and how Neath Port Talbot Council is using their own household level data to identify vulnerability, target support and track change. Deven then shared Policy in Practice's new research on transitioning to Universal Credit. For further information visit www.policyinpractice.co.uk, call 0330 088 9242 or email hello@policyinpractice.co.uk

1. Deven Ghelani
Policy in Practice
NEATH PORT TALBOT
POVERTY SYMPOSIUM

2. Agenda
• About Policy in Practice
• The impact of recent policy changes on low income households
• Initiatives to help support vulnerable consumers

3. A team of
professionals
with extensive
knowledge of the
welfare system
who are
passionate about
making social
policy work
We help over 80
local
authorities use
their household
level data to
identify
vulnerable
households,
target support
and track their
interventions
Our benefit
calculator engages
over 10,000 people
each day.
We identify the
actions people can
take to increase
their income,
lower their costs
and build
resilience

5. Our analysis of Budget 2018
• £1.7 billion boost to benefit support, benefiting
2.5 million households (1.9m with children &
600k with limited capability for work)
• £1.0 billion to help 1.1m people migrating onto
Universal Credit (one-third of those left to
migrate)
• Employed households gain
• Self-employed, disabled, ill or out of work don't
gain
• Download our report

6. • 1.6 million people on Universal
Credit today
• A further 1.6m people moving onto
Universal Credit this year
• 2 million people moving on
through ‘managed migration’ from
2020
Universal Credit is rolling out fast

7. • UC work allowances: increase by £1,000 per year (from April 2019)
• Two week run-on for those on existing DWP benefits (JSA, ESA, IS) in addition to
those receiving housing benefit (from July 2020)
• Self employed: Protection extended to all; assessed on actual income (not MIF) for
12 months (from July 2019)
• Deductions from UC: Max rate down from 40% to 30% (from Oct 2019)
• Delay in increasing the earnings limit that triggers surplus earnings (remains the
same until 2020)
• Period for recovery of advances extended from 12 to 16 months (from Oct 2021)
• Slower roll-out of Universal Credit (end now Dec 2023)
• Plus increase in minimum wage & changes in tax allowances (from April 2019)
Budget 2018: UC changes

8. People are still worse off

10. We pool your datasets on
low income families, and link
them over time to create a
single view
Our policy engine shows
the impact of all policies,
now and in the future, on
each family
The insights enable you to
proactively identify who
needs what support,
engage people and track
impact
Household data + Advanced Analytics

11. 16,934 low income households in Neath Port Talbot

12. 2,596 are in council tax arrears

13. 1,255 owe more than one month’s council tax

14. 205 of them are impacted by welfare reform

15. 59 of whom face an ongoing cash shortfall

16. … and seven will be worse off under Universal Credit

17. Focus on 1 household

18. Engage through tailored calculation

19. Use data to more widely understand the drivers of child poverty
Turn data insights into actions that have impact (this afternoon’s breakout session)
What we’d like to do next

20. www.policyinpractice.co.uk
Thank you
Deven Ghelani
deven@policyinpractice.co.uk
07863 560677
Peter Carter
peter@policyinpractice.co.uk
07805 254371