Agenda and minutes

Venue: The Hall, Gloucester Guildhall, 23 Eastgate Street, Gloucester GL1 1NS. View directions

Contact: Simon Byrne  Democratic and Electoral Services Team Leader

Items
No. Item

19.

Declarations of Interest

To receive from Members, declarations of the existence of any disclosable pecuniary, or non-pecuniary, interests and the nature of those interests in relation to any agenda item. Please see Agenda Notes.

Minutes:

19.1    There were no declarations of interest.

20.

Declaration of Party Whipping

To declare if any issues to be covered in the Agenda are under party whip.

 

Minutes:

20.1    There were no declarations of party whipping.

21.

Gloucester City Council's Preparedness for the roll-out of Universal Credit. pdf icon PDF 93 KB

To receive an update on Gloucester City Council’s and external partners’ preparedness for the roll out of Universal Credit which goes live in February 2018.

 

*Please note that Any Public Questions, Petitions and Deputations must relate to the business for which the Special Meeting has been called.*

 

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

21.1    The Chair outlined that this was a meeting specifically to look at the implementation of the forthcoming introduction of Universal Credit in Gloucester. He stated that each partner organisation in attendance had had sight of questions which the Committee sought answers to, where possible:

 

What impact would Universal Credit have the organisation and the residents they worked with?

 

What was the organisation doing to prepare for the roll out of Universal Credit within Gloucester?

 

How could the organisation best work with Gloucester City Council to ensure that the roll out proceeded effectively?

 

Given the organisations experience and involvement with the roll out in Gloucester, was there anything further that could be done to ensure the roll out was effective?

 

21.2    The Chair welcomed the Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources, Councillor David Norman MBE; the Head of Policy and Resources, Jon Topping and Gloucester City Council’s Intelligent Client Officer, Stacey Jellyman to the meeting.

 

21.3    Councillor Norman thanked partner organisations, with whom the Council was working with closely, for attending. He stated that the Council had worked hard to get to a position where it was ready for the rollout in February and that he welcomed questions that would provide clarity in terms of the new benefit’s implementation. Jon Topping informed the Committee that the Council had been working with Civica and that considerable work had been undertaken in order to disseminate information to the public through social media, the Council’s website as well as printed literature. He further stated that the Council had worked with partners and learned from other authorities that had already implemented Universal Credit.

 

21.4    Stacey Jellyman outlined Civica’s role in administrating benefits and preparing for Universal Credit. She stated that Civica would see a decrease in Housing Benefit claims as Universal Credit claims increased and that the organisation was prepared for Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) claims and Council Tax Support claims as these were already processed by themselves.

 

21.5    The Committee were further informed that Civica sat on the Universal Credit board and that the implementation manager had successfully shared their experiences having being integral to the rollout in the Forest of Dean. Stacey also advised that there was a strong, long-standing relationship with Civica and they would continue to monitor Universal Credit’s impact on residents.

 

21.6    In response to a query from the Chair, Stacey advised that the Forest of Dean had not been under the Universal Credit system for a lengthy period and that a considerable level of knowledge had been gained from Bath and North East Somerset. The Chair enquired as to whether there would be difficulties administering two benefit systems given new claimants would receive Universal Credit while existing claimants would remain on their existing benefits. Stacey Jellyman advised that it would effectively be the same service with fewer Housing Benefit claims and that there would be a different focus.

 

21.7    Councillor Pullen asked what the key matters learnt from other authorities which could improve the rollout in Gloucester. In  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

22.

Date of Next Meeting

 

Monday 29th January 2018 at 6.30pm in the Civic Suite, North Warehouse.