In this blog post Tom Pottrill, Policy Officer at Resolve Poverty, explains why devolved access to social security data is essential for local councils to tackle poverty more effectively and reach households most in need of financial support.
Local and regional government play a critical role in responding to the financial challenges faced by their residents, exercising a unique ability to deliver strategic and policy responses tailored to local conditions. However, the degree to which they can improve outcomes for those in poverty is constrained by inadequate access to social security data currently held by central government.
Greater data sharing, alongside further devolved powers, funding and resources, is central to the whole-system approach set forth in our Mission Critical report. We are encouraged that central government has committed to pilot Universal Credit data sharing with some councils from next Spring.
But the evidence is already clear: devolving access to social security data to all local and regional authorities would enable them to tackle poverty more effectively now. Here’s how.
Not just a ‘nice to have’: auto-enrolment in local welfare
Fundamentally, local and regional authorities require DWP/HMRC data on households in receipt of Universal Credit (UC) and legacy benefits to identify and target financial support. Take Free School Meals (FSM), a locally administered benefit for children in low-income families. Central government recently announced that eligibility for FSMs will be extended to all children living in households in receipt of UC, beyond just those with a household income of up to £7,400.
This welcome announcement has potential to lift 100,000 children out of poverty, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). Although schools will not receive additional Pupil Premium funding, estimated at almost £1300 per pupil by Policy in Practice, low-income families should still reap the additional benefits of passported eligibility for the Holiday, Activities and Food (HAF) programme.
For these children to be lifted out of poverty, however, their family still must enrol them for FSMs. This rests on the strong assumption that eligible families overcome well-documented practical barriers. These include the stigma or embarrassment attached to registration, or low IT skills, digital exclusion and low literacy that make the application process complex and inaccessible for many parents.
For the reform to achieve its desired impact in bringing down child poverty rates, the most watertight approach is for local authorities to auto-enrol all children living in households that claim UC into FSMs, as we called for in our submission to the national Child Poverty Strategy.
This brings us in a full circle: to auto-enrol eligible children into FSMs, local authorities must first know which children are eligible, in turn requiring devolved access to UC data currently housed in central government.
FSMs are just the tip of the iceberg. While FSM auto-enrolment could save low-income families around £561 per year, Council Tax Support (CTS) auto-enrolment could generate even greater savings for low-income households – to the order of almost £1300 per person according to Policy in Practice. An estimated £3.3 billion in CTS is unclaimed by almost 2.6 million eligible people each year. Although eligibility criteria are at individual councils’ discretion, CTS is designed to support those on low incomes, often passported by receipt of national benefits.
While exact figures are unavailable, if extending FSM eligibility can support 100,000 children out of poverty and CTS provides significantly higher savings for low-income households, it is reasonable to assume that CTS auto-enrolment would lift a significant number of people out of poverty and reduce the depth of poverty for other families.
Better data sharing between central and local government is not, therefore, just a ‘nice to have.’ The Child Poverty Strategy should recognise this and support local authorities to introduce auto-enrolment in local welfare, through a robust commitment to devolve the requisite social security data.
Devolved data access can help overcome the ‘postcode lottery’
Not only is better data sharing the key enabler for councils to introduce auto-enrolment into local welfare, but it can also support councils’ welfare rights and debt advice services to be more effective in improving outcomes for those experiencing poverty.
A central component of the local welfare patchwork, in-house and commissioned welfare rights services provide an essential service helping low-income households access the support they are entitled to. Yet, as participants in our Mission Critical research highlighted, patchy access to relevant data limits how effectively these services can identify and reach people who have “fallen below the radar” under existing powers.
National policy has further weakened these services over recent years. One participant in our Mission Critical research told us that subsuming Housing Benefit, a locally administered benefit, into UC “sucks the data back up” to central government, making it harder for councils to identify those in need of support.
To compound this, since they are not on a statutory footing, the Local Government Association (LGA) note that many councils’ welfare rights services have been at the brunt of funding cuts, with some areas like Nottingham and Herefordshire losing them entirely.
All this only strengthens the case to end the ‘postcode lottery’ of local welfare support. To help rectify it, and to strengthen the impact of the Child Poverty Strategy, central government should devolve data access alongside ring-fenced funding for local welfare rights and debt advice services. Over the longer-term, they could consider a for local provision of such services, backed up with protected funding.
As in our Mission Critical report, we recommend that councils utilise this investment and data powers through three key means:
- Increase take-up of UC housing costs element
- Target and signpost eligible recipients to utility bill social tariffs
- Automatically offer advice on their financial situation to all recipients of local financial support to help overcome underlying needs
A cash-first, advice-based approach should apply across councils’ provision of discretionary support, including crisis support funded by the new Crisis and Resilience Fund, as we have argued recently, to maximise financial gains for those experiencing socio-economic disadvantage.
It’s time to devolve the data
In sum, despite often being lamented as “dull”, data holds exciting potential to deliver better outcomes for those living in poverty. Whether through auto-enrolment for local welfare or effective targeting of households by welfare rights and debt advice services, better data sharing can help ensure that fewer people fall through the net. This supports a broader effort by local and regional government to sustainably reduce and prevent poverty. The Child Poverty Strategy must commit to devolve the data.
This article forms part of a serialisation of recommendations for a whole-system approach to tackling poverty, from our recent Mission Critical report, designed to look more closely at their strategic and policy ramifications for different tiers of government. For further info, you can read the full report and sign up to our newsletter for future articles on this topic and many others.
About the author
Tom Pottrill is a Policy Officer at Resolve Poverty.
Tom focuses primarily on how different levels of governance can design, implement and evaluate strategic and policy responses that more effectively address poverty. This involves policy development, rigorous qualitative and quantitative research, and delivery of strategic consultancy and training.
Resolve Poverty is an independent, not-for-profit organisation working with local authorities and partners across the country to see an end to poverty.
They believe in the power of places to boost living standards and create communities where everyone can thrive. Their vision is to maximise the impact of local responses to poverty in order to resolve poverty nationally. In this spirit, they provide leading guidance and support for localities and regions to develop powerful strategic, policy and practical responses to poverty.
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