Housing Benefit and the Appeals Service

The review system, also known as appeals, allows Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit claimants to challenge the determinations made by local authorities. There are two stages to the review process: the first stage, known as an ‘internal review’, is conducted by local authority officers; the second stage, known as a ‘further review’, consists of a hearing conducted by a ‘Review Board’ which comprises local authority councillors. Throughout this report, the terms ‘appeals’ or ‘appeals cases’ refers to requests for an internal review or further review. To bring the review system into line with arrangements for decision making and appeals in child support and social security, it is intended that the second stage of the review process will transfer from local authority Review Boards to the Appeals Service (Section 1.2). The Centre for Research in Social Policy was commissioned by the Department of Social Security to conduct a study of current Housing Benefit/Council Tax Benefit appeals activity in local authorities (Section 1.3). The aim of the research was to inform the transfer of the second stage of the review process from local authorities to the Appeals Service. The research involved nine local authority case studies. There were three elements to the research design: depth interviews with Housing Benefit managers and appeals officers (or equivalent); recording of details from cases which went to a Review Board hearing during the period April 1999 to March 2000; and collection of data on the volume of appeals activity. The fieldwork took place in August 2000. The nine local authorities were selected to provide a range of local authority types, locations and experience of appeals activity

New Deal for Disabled People extensions : examining the role and operation of new Job Brokers

The New Deal for Disabled People (NDDP) is the major employment programme available to people claiming incapacity-related benefits, and is an important part of the Government’s welfare to work strategy. NDDP provides a national network of Job Brokers to help people with health conditions and disabilities move into sustained employment. This report presents findings from the third wave of qualitative research conducted in 2005. It forms part of a comprehensive evaluation of the programme and builds upon two previous waves of qualitative research designed to explore the organisation, operation and impacts of the Job Broker service from the perspective of key stakeholders. In particular, this third wave aimed to explore why Job Brokers’ performance can vary. The research involved five case study areas, which were purposively selected to include both a new and an existing Job Broker, a mixture of different regions and both urban and rural areas. Interviews were conducted with Job Broker managers, local Jobcentre Plus managers and staff and Contract Managers

A literature review of the use of random assignment methodology in evaluations of US social policy programmes

The (then) Department of Social Security commissioned CRSP to undertake a brief review of the use of social experiments in evaluations of social security, welfare-to-work, education and training and other relevant social policies. The review focuses on potential difficulties with implementing and operating random assignment and the strategies and options for overcoming them. It was commissioned in the context of the extension for New Deal for Disabled People. Social experiments provide the estimate of the impact of a programme, the difference between what happens and what would have happened in the absence of the programme. They involve the random assignment of individuals to at least one treatment group and a control group. The advantages and disadvantages of social experiments (Section 1.1) and their uses are summarised (Section 1.1.1)

Report of the survey of Job Brokers.

This report presents the findings of a postal survey of Job Brokers, who deliver the New Deal for Disabled People (NDDP) at local level. The survey is designed to gather information on Job Brokers and the services they deliver, and to provide a sampling frame of Job Brokers for a study of costs for the cost-benefit analysis element of the wider evaluation of NDDP. Questionnaires were posted to Job Brokers during the Summer 2002. Replies were received from 76 Job Broker establishments; a response rate of 80 per cent. The relatively small sample size does limit the analysis that could be undertaken

Earnings Top-up : staff views

Background The Department of Social Security introduced Earnings Top-up (ETU) on a pilot basis in October 1996. ETU was an income-related, in-work benefit. It aimed to encourage single people and couples without dependent children to take up work or stay in work of 16 hours a week or more. The pilot ran for three years in eight areas: four received Scheme A ETU at a lower rate; and four matched areas received Scheme B ETU at a higher rate. Four additional matched control areas did not receive ETU. The areas covered four different types of labour market. ETU was operated in the pilot areas through Benefits Agency (BA) and Employment Service (ES) offices, and was centrally processed and administered by the BA in liaison with ES. The design of the evaluation of the pilot integrated three complementary approaches: two quantitative impact studies conducted by the Institute for Employment Research (IER) and the Policy Studies Institute (PSI), and a process evaluation using qualitative methods carried out by the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP). Staff panels of BA and ES staff were held each year in the eight pilot areas and the central administration unit. Reports on earlier meetings were published in an Interim Report (Vincent et al 2000). This is the report on the third round of meetings held early in 1999, it also makes comparisons with the meetings earlier in the pilot

New Deal for Disabled People: second synthesis report - interim findings from the evaluation

The New Deal for Disabled People (NDDP) is the major employment programme available to people claiming incapacity-related benefits, and is an important part of the Government’s welfare-to-work strategy. NDDP is a voluntary programme that provides a national network of Job Brokers to help people with health conditions and disabilities move into sustained employment. The evaluation design incorporates a longitudinal dimension, and this report presents selected findings from the evaluation. It covers developments up to and including spring 2004, and synthesises findings from fieldwork with NDDP participants, employers, members of the eligible population, those delivering the programme (notably staff from Job Brokers and Jobcentre Plus offices), and from administrative data. There are two recurrent themes running through this report: first, continuity and change in the programme, the institutions delivering NDDP and in respondents’ views and experiences; and secondly, identifying ‘what works’ in terms of securing job entries and sustainable employment. For findings covered in both synthesis reports, Chapter 2 maps the extent to which there has been continuity and change for selective aspects of NDDP. As might be expected there are some aspects of NDDP that are unchanged. However, there is also evidence of change and progression – for example, of improved relationships between Job Brokers and Jobcentre Plus locally

The Social Fund - current role and future direction

This report considers the role of the discretionary Social Fund in combating poverty and possible reforms to the scheme. It is mainly based upon secondary analysis of the Family Resources Survey and the Expenditure and Food Survey and qualitative research with benefit recipients: both discretionary Social Fund applicants and nonapplicants, and people from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. Participants in the qualitative research discussed times of particular financial hardship, experiences of the Social Fund and possible reforms to the Social Fund

The public sector and equality for disabled people

This report presents findings of a study of public bodies’ approach to implementing the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and provides evidence for a baseline against which to assess the extent to which the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 prompts authorities to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people

Receiving the LHA : claimants’ early experiences of the LHA in the nine Pathfinder Areas

As part of its reform of Housing Benefit, the Government has introduced a Local Housing Allowance (LHA) for private rented sector claimants in nine Pathfinder areas. This report gives early findings from the claimant stream of the evaluation of LHA and covers the period up to around six months after the start of LHA in each Pathfinder. It is important to stress that these are early, emerging findings. Many claimants will only just have gone onto LHA or received direct payment for the first time, so the behavioural impacts of LHA are unlikely to have fed through as yet. These will be monitored throughout the evaluation period to assess any future changes and so these findings may develop over time

New Deal for Disabled People : survey of registrants – report of Cohort 3

The New Deal for Disabled People (NDDP) was implemented nationally in July 2001. It is a voluntary programme that aims to help people on incapacity benefits move into sustained employment. NDDP is delivered by a national network of local Job Brokers comprising public, private and voluntary sector providers of varying types and levels of work-focused support and assistance. The evaluation design for the programme includes a Survey of the Registrants, which aims to obtain information on NDDP participant characteristics, their experiences of, and views on, the programme. The survey involves three cohorts, with the first two having two waves of interviewing and the third one wave. This report is of the third cohort. The survey for the third cohort entailed face-to-face Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) interviews with people who were registered between August and October 2004 as NDDP participants on the Evaluation Database. The sample was stratified by whether or not registrants were within Pathways to Work pilot areas and whether they had registered with new or existing Job Brokers. Disproportionately large numbers of those within Pathways areas and those with new brokers were sampled to allow robust analysis of these groups. The survey fieldwork was conducted between February and May 2005. After the opt-out process, and after identifying those out of scope, the field response rate was 77 per cent. The 2,531 interviews achieved represent an overall response rate of 64 per cent. Where the respondent had a partner living in their household, and the partner was available, a short interview with the partner was also conducted. If the partner was unavailable for interview it was possible for the interviewer to conduct the interview by proxy (with the respondent on behalf of the partner)