A clean bill of health

Catalyst has recently audited its welfare reform planning and activities. The report was compiled by KPMG and gave us a “substantial assurance” rating – the highest possible – for the second year in a row. This shows that our plans and preparations and work around welfare reform are in line with, and in some places ahead of, our peers in the housing sector. This is how we achieved this rating:

We have effective structures to identify risks and manage welfare reform. Catalyst has a Welfare Reform Project Manager who leads on this work and keeps colleagues updated with regular training and welfare reform updates. Our Income team dedicates one day a week to welfare reform case work – identifying affected customers and working with them to reduce and manage their debt.

An example of this is a customer with serious mental health problems who had rent arrears of over £5,000. We liaised with the customer’s local authority and secured Discretionary Housing Payments to cover their arrears and a shortfall in their future rent payments

Regular analysis and benchmarking. We check that our organisational structures, roles and responsibilities are fit for purpose, and we measure and benchmark the relative effectiveness of these compared to similar-sized landlords, whilst maintaining the flexibility to respond to any sudden changes.

Doing our homework. With a protracted eviction process costing up to £50,000 in staff time and legal costs (not to mention the massive stress and upheaval for the tenants), it makes sense to do all we can to support those who are affected by welfare reform.

We collect data on our customers and gain intelligence from customer-facing staff to identify people at risk and where need is greatest. We engage with tenants to ensure they get the most relevant and appropriate support and intervention that they need to sustain their tenancy, including reducing their bills and supporting them into the job market.

Network with peers. As well as partnerships with the National Housing Federation, Chartered Institute of Housing, local authorities and our own residents’ forum, Catalyst is an active member of the newly-formed London Welfare Reform Working Group. KPMG highlighted our work to shape the group’s agenda toward greater intelligence gathering, shared communications and using our combined strength to lobby the Department for Work and Pensions.

Monitoring and reporting of welfare reforms. We have a strong performance management, monitoring and reporting regime for welfare reform cases. We regularly model the impact of benefit changes and ensure that our IT systems can continue to support welfare reform casework, monitoring and reporting.

Clear communication. We make our arrears letters as clear and easy to understand as possible and we are currently trialling the use of visuals, graphics and behavioural insight driven changes to encourage more customers to read and respond to them. We have also hosted welfare reform Q&As on Facebook and regularly inform residents at resident groups and forums.

Ongoing welfare reform training for colleagues. Currently training is face-to-face but we are developing e-learning modules too. Regular welfare reform bulletins, articles, research and policy developments are disseminated and circulated to colleagues.

Up-to-date policies. Our policies and procedures for welfare reform are continuously updated and new procedures have been developed for Universal Credit with clear roles and responsibilities for key functions and tasks.

Welfare reform will continue to bite as Universal Credit is rolled out and the lower benefit cap level takes effect in April 2016. However, we feel that we are well prepared for the future and will continue to support our customers throughout this difficult time for them.