JRF/ JRHT Information Bulletin

Summary of News and Publications from the Week ending 6 December 2013

JRF Activity
JRFs response to the Autumn Statement.

Poverty
Autumn Statement 2013 Poverty The state pension age is to increase to 68 in the mid-2030s and to 69 in the late 2040s. In April 2014, the state pension will rise by 2.95 a week. Overall welfare spending is to be capped from 2015 limit to be set in spring 2014. Anyone aged 18 to 21 claiming benefits without basic English or Maths will be required to undertake training. People unemployed for more than six months will have to start a traineeship, take work experience or do a community work placement or lose benefits. The personal income tax allowance will rise to 10,000 from April 2014, and then increase from 2015-16 by inflation (CPI). A married couples and civil partners tax break, is proposed to start in April 2015, enabling people to transfer 1,000 of their income tax allowance to their partners. An additional 20,000 apprenticeships are to be funded over the next two years. All pupils at state schools in England in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are to get free school lunches from next September.

Following the highly critical report last month from the Public Accounts Committee, Iain Duncan Smith has confirmed that the rollout of Universal Credit programme may not be complete by 2017, as people receiving the Employment Support Allowance may not be transferred in time. 2,150 people started on Universal Credit between April 2013 and 30th September 2013 in the four pilot areas, according to statistics this week from the DWP. The UKs attainment gap in reading, maths and science between the best and worst performing 15 year old pupils, remained virtually unchanged in 2012 from 2009, according to the latest OECD PISA report. See Key findings for the UK. A group of doctors and academics have sent a letter to the British Medical Journal saying the food poverty in Britain has reached the level of a public health emergency, calling on the Government to urgently monitor the ability of vulnerable people to afford food. A petition has been launched by a former foodbank user with the aim of forcing a parliamentary debate on food poverty. There is evidence that families are beginning to benefit from the Troubled Families and Families with Multiple Problems programmes and local agencies are working together better, but it is too early to assess their value for money, says a new report from the National Audit Office. Local authorities in England have, however, not referred as many families to the programmes as expected and the DWP programme has achieved only 4% of its target for employment outcomes. The report highlights that the DWP and the DCLG did not work together enough in designing and implementing their programmes, and there is considerable overlap.

A new report from Demos suggests that middle-earners are too optimistic about their financial future. 22% are not saving what they need to, and most are prioritising the needs of their children to support them in paying for education or a first home, with only 10% of 35-44 years olds making provision for financing their own long term care. The report recommends that the squeezed middle need to be encouraged to take a more reasoned view about the risks they face over their life course with policies that help them save more and insure more. Report Irrational Optimists. Since the start of the recession, middle income households have seen a fall in income of 3.8%, according to ONS statistics. For non-retired middle income households, the fall is even higher at 6.4%, while retired households in this income bracket saw an income rise of 5.1%. A report this week from the Treasury Committee has called the Governments Money Advice Service not currently fit for purpose, and has recommended an independent review, to be completed no later than summer 2014, into whether the service should continue to exist as a statutory organisation. The Red Cross is launching its first winter food aid programme in the UK since the Second World War.

Place
Autumn Statement 2013 - Housing Councils will be allowed to bid for up to 300 million of additional borrowing against their housing revenue accounts to provide new affordable housing. A 1 billion 6 year investment programme will fund infrastructure needed to unlock new large housing sites that are forecast to deliver around 250,000 homes. Councils are to sell off the most expensive social housing and rundown urban housing estates to be regenerated, and workers who live in council houses are to be given priority on housing lists if they need to move home to find a job.

Welfare reform is having a disproportionate effect on disabled people, who face a postcode lottery regarding whether they are made exempt from the bedroom tax by their local authority, according to a new report from Habinteg. The report shows that two thirds of their tenants affected by the bedroom tax are disabled people and of these, only at third have been exempted from paying. Only 15% of tenants who receive Disability Living Allowance (DLA) but live in standard properties have been given bedroom tax exempt status. What Price Independence? Benefit Cuts and Disabled Tenants. Developers who reap windfall gains from major Government projects should be required to donate land for a new generation of garden cities or suburbs. This is among ten recommendations designed to help ease the problem of housing supply, in a new report from Co-operatives UK. The report also advocates establishing special funds providing low interest capital to community land trusts. Commons Sense: Co-operative place making and the capturing of land value for 21st century Garden Cities. The number of households found to be unintentionally homeless and in priority need in England in the third quarter of 2013 was 4% lower than in the same quarter last year, but in London, the number increased by 13% and homelessness in the capital now accounts for 33% of the England total.

Changes are being made to the Green Deal scheme from January including: an on line tool to help consumers take steps to improve the energy efficiency of their homes; making the survey report easier to understand; changing legislation to make it clearer that landlords and tenants can benefit from the Green Deal; starting to increase the range and availability of top up loans to work alongside Green Deal finance if needed. National Energy Action has started The Many Faces of Fuel Poverty campaign, which highlights stories from individuals. House of Commons Environment Audit Committees latest report on energy subsidies warns the Government not to weaken its commitment to eliminating fuel poverty, following its proposed change to the definition which places fewer people in fuel poverty and a change to only seek to address rather than eliminate it. It also warns that cuts to green levies will only assist affordability of energy bills in the short term because the largest component of the levies are the schemes currently directed at addressing fuel poverty. The Department of Energy and Climate Change says households will see an average saving of 50 a year on fuel bills due to the Energy Company Obligation being scaled back. There are fears that this leaves fewer funds to be targeted at the fuel poor and relies on energy companies passing on the savings to consumers. Households will get up to 1,000 to spend on energy saving measures when they buy another home. The Scottish Government has announced it is on target to delivery 30,000 affordable homes by 2016, with 16,000 delivered since 2011. The House Builders Federation has reported an annual increase of 31% in planning permissions granted for new homes in the third quarter of 2013. Quarter three also saw the highest total number of permissions granted in a Q3 since 2007.

An Ageing Society
A new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research looks at how the health and care system in England can move towards whole person care. It recommends guarantees should be in place including a single point of contact for all care needs; a personalised care plan covering health and care; the option of a personal budget; online access to health and care records and access to peer support networks. The Guardian is running an Ageing Population survey and asking for responses from older people and their families and carers, professionals working with older people and from interested members of the public. They are seeking views on society's perceptions of older people, how you would like your own older age to be and on the political response to dealing with an ageing population. Regular exercise may slow the progression of dementia, according to the conclusions of a new study - the study analysed 16 previous studies which used physical exercise to try to improve memory, attention and function. A study by Aksa Homes and Oldham Housing Investment Partnership has found that older people from Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities are reluctant to use specialist housing and support services. Despite efforts by housing providers and other agencies, this situation remains unchanged from a similar study 12 years ago. The main factors for lack of take-up include language barriers, strongly embedded cultural traditions and a lack of understanding of housing options. Respondents were particularly unclear about the difference between sheltered housing, extra care or residential care, all of which were perceived as places for the infirm.

Old Age is changing and housing associations must adapt too says Lord Best on the Guardians Housing Network website. The National Institute for Social and Economic Research has compared the costs of supporting an ageing population if Scotland becomes independent and if it stays part of the UK. Over 2,000 people have died from dehydration or malnutrition in care homes or hospitals over the last ten years, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Other
The Autumn Statement announced that there would be extra funding of 308 million for the Scottish Government, 100 million for the Welsh Government and 136 million for Northern Ireland. This Information Bulletin is produced on a weekly basis as an update for staff at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT) for the purposes of their work it is not intended to be comprehensive but represents a selection of news and reports appearing in the last week. The items contained in this Bulletin are for information only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the JRF and JRHT.