The impact of Welfare Reform and the new Universal Credit

The benefit system is undergoing radical change. Benefit changes have been made to cut welfare spending arising from the Emergency Budget and Comprehensive Spending Review and more is on the way as part of the Welfare Reform Act 2012, including the new Universal Credit.

Significant changes have already been made to Housing Benefit, Tax Credits, and Employment and Support Allowance, and DLA is to be restructured and replaced with a Personal Independent Payment.

The benefit system is to be ‘simplified’ with a new Universal Credit that combines in-work benefits with means-tested benefits and aims to make work pay.

Key aims

• To give participants a detailed understanding of the benefit changes and their implementation in more detail. 
• To enable discussion on the potential impact on clients, service users and their own organisation and to consider options for alleviating the effects of these changes.

Seminar content

• Universal Credit – an overview of how it will work and the likely effect on different categories of claimants - direct payments and impact on social housing tenants and how UC affect benefits for older people.
• Housing Benefit – the impact on tenants of capping the Local Housing Allowance and transitional protection – extending the LHA shared accommodation rate to under 35’s and the impact of introducing a new size criteria for those living in social housing. 
• The new ‘benefit cap’ – who will it affect? 
• Tax Credits – the effects of changes to childcare costs, backdating, treatment of income and what’s changing next year.
• Disability Living Allowance – discussion on the new assessment for the Personal Independent Payment which replaces DLA in 2013.
• ESA – the roll out of ESA for claimants on incapacity benefit and Income Support and time limiting Contributory ESA.
• Social Fund – the future of loans and community care grants. 
• Benefits for children, pregnancy and lone parents – what’s changing.

Suitable for

It is essential that those advising clients or tenants can give practical and proper advice on what the benefit changes will mean.

Housing advisers, RSL and local authority housing officers, supported housing workers, social workers and anyone giving welfare advice as part of their job should consider this seminar essential. 

Some prior knowledge of the benefits system is required. 

Meet the trainers

Eve Turner (London, 4 May)

Eve worked for over 16 years managing and delivering frontline advice services in the public sector in London. She became a freelance trainer and consultant in 2002 and has trained for Shelter since 2003.

Eve uses her extensive welfare benefits experience to deliver bespoke courses for the social housing and voluntary sector and works hard to ensure her training is enjoyable, easy to understand and of benefit to both organisations and service users.

David Stickland (London, 28 May)

David has been a Shelter trainer since 2003. He has extensive experience as a Citizens Advice and local authority benefits caseworker.

He works as an independent trainer and consultant in the voluntary, public and private sectors on behalf of advice services, housing services, landlords and welfare to work providers.

Stuart Freeman (Manchester, 12 June)

Stuart has trained for Shelter since 2010, and has more than 30 years experience in housing and debt advice.

Stuart is a trainer and consultant on housing, debt and welfare benefit matters for staff of housing organisations and community groups.

Enquiry line

Please call 0344 515 1155 or email training@shelter.org.uk

In-house training

We can also run this course in-house. Find out more about in-house training