Guidance

LA Welfare Direct 12/2025

Updated 17 December 2025

Contact

If you have queries about the:

• technical content of this bulletin, contact details are given at the end of each article 

• general content and distribution of this bulletin, contact lawelfare.correspondence@dwp.gov.uk

Who should read

All Housing Benefit colleagues, County Councils and wider if appropriate

County Councils: Please note the articles at paragraphs 16 and 18 are for your attention.

Action

For information

Editorial

It is my turn again to write the editorial. I must register my gratitude to my team for providing these updates throughout the year. Whilst I don’t always provide the editorial, I do read the bulletin with interest. What always strikes me is the level of collaboration between ourselves and local government. 

We continually seek ways to reduce administrative burdens on you and identify new ways of ensuring claims are correct. We could not do this without the support of those authorities who work with us; whether that’s on piloting new approaches, such as Identifying Local Vulnerability or providing input and feedback through our consultation forums. Your feedback is essential as we seek to continuously improve our engagement with you, whether that be through our regular surveys, workshops, all local authority (LA) calls or other communications.

One of the many ways we stay connected to the LA world is to host secondees in our team and you will find a call for expressions of interest in this month’s bulletin. We have benefitted so much from the real-world expertise of those who have worked with us before. In turn, our secondees have learned a lot about the Department for Work and Pensions and how we work (and that we don’t all have spiny tails and breathe fire!) 

As ever, it has been a busy year with many challenges but we continue to deliver for our customers and keep a roof over their heads. 

I hope you get some time for rest and relaxation over the Christmas period and wish you all a Happy New Year. 

Clare Elliot  

Head of the Local Authority Partnership, Engagement and Delivery division

Refresh of the Housing Benefit Assurance Process Module X for the financial year ending March 2025 (applicable to England only)

1. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has refreshed the Housing Benefit Assurance Process (HBAP) Module X: DWP reporting framework instruction for further work. The updated module applies to further work requests in respect of the financial year ending March 2025. 

2. The latest version of Module X can be found along with the other HBAP modules on GOV.UK.  

3. If you have any questions regarding this article or HBAP, contact lawelfare.hbassurance@dwp.gov.uk.

Update: Universal Credit Searchlight enhancements

4. Unfortunately, due to conflicting priorities, we were unable to deliver the housing costs Universal Credit (UC) Searchlight enhancements in November 2025 as we advised we would in LAWD11/2025. We now expect to deliver them in early 2026, along with additional data about any self-employed earnings and we apologise for the delay. 

5. In the meantime, if you have any queries, please contact the team by writing to lawelfaredatasharingtransformation@dwp.gov.uk.

Update: Decommissioning of UC Local Council Tax Reduction Version 1 data feed

6. We have written to the 35 local authorities (LAs) that continue to receive the UC Local Council Tax Reduction (LCTR) data feed Version 1 (V1) file to explain that we intend to fully decommission the V1 file on 12 January 2026. That means that from 13 January 2026 LAs will only receive the V2 file and we will no longer produce or support the V1 file.

7. We have also written to the LAs who originally monitored the effectiveness of the existing UC LCTR data feed. Their previous work enabled us to evaluate the expected savings and benefits of enhancing the data feed and we have asked them to conduct a similar exercise now this project is complete. This will help us understand if the benefits that we expected from the enhancements have been achieved. 

8. We are still keen to receive feedback on how the enhancements have affected your delivery of the LCTR scheme. Please contact us at lawelfaredatasharingtransformation@dwp.gov.uk with your thoughts on what went well and what, if anything, we could have done better.

Update: Identifying Local Vulnerability

9. In LAWD11/2025, we confirmed our ongoing engagement with wider strategic teams to ensure we build an end-to-end solution that meets LA requirements for UC data to identify local vulnerabilities.   

10. As part of this work, we held an options appraisal meeting internally to discuss the architectural design for the Identifying Local Vulnerability (ILoV) product, including a timeline for a Minimum Viable Product to be delivered.  

11. Following this, we have invited our valued LA working group members to a meeting on 11 December 2025, so we can share our progress during the Alpha phase of this data sharing product and provide an update with next steps.  

12. If you have any queries relating to ILoV, do contact the team at lawelfaredatasharingtransformation@dwp.gov.uk.

Conversion of Employment and Support Allowance contribution-based benefit to New Style Employment and Support Allowance

13. From 1 December 2025 the law changed so that claimants can no longer become entitled to income related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). Contributory ESA is now called New Style ESA.

14. ESA payments will not change and payments into the claimant’s bank or building society account will continue. 

15. DWP will write to all claimants receiving contribution-based ESA to tell them of this change and that they: 

• do not need to contact us 

• may be able to claim UC if they have a change in circumstances and need more financial support

The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025: Consultation on the draft Codes of Practice developed under the Act

16. The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025 introduces changes to DWP to establish a modernised legislative framework that enables the department to more effectively identify, prevent, and reduce fraud and error within the social security system.  

17. To ensure appropriate governance and transparency in the exercise of these new powers, DWP is undertaking a public consultation on the draft Codes of Practice developed under the Act. The consultation will run from Monday 8 December 2025 to Friday 27 February 2026 and will be published on www.gov.uk. We believe LAs will be most interested in the updates to the existing Code of Practice for ‘Obtaining Information to Support Fraud Investigations in the Welfare System’, which governs DWP Authorised Officers powers to compel information and would welcome any feedback once the consultation opens.

Pension Credit applications and awards: November 2025

18. The Pension Credit Application and Awards: November 2025, published on 27 November 2025, provides data on Pension Credit applications and awards between 3 April 2023 and 23 November 2025 in Great Britain only.

19. A supplementary release of statistical information was also published, which includes the geographic distribution of applications and awards by geography for Great Britain only.

Secondment opportunities in the Local Authority Partnership, Engagement and Delivery division’s Performance Development Team

20. Working with LAs, as one of our major stakeholders in Welfare Reform, continues to feature heavily and for this reason we value the expertise and knowledge that those administering Housing Benefit (HB) within LAs can bring.   

21. The Local Authority Partnership, Engagement and Delivery division has had a very successful programme of bringing HB experts from LAs in to work alongside data sharing, subsidy, change and performance teams on secondment. We are now looking for LA secondees to join our Performance Development Team (PDT).   

22. PDT comprises of business consultants and Performance Relationship Managers (PRMs), who have many years of experience and expertise of working with central and local government to deliver sustainable improvements in performance.​   

23. The consultancy and PRM roles offer a wide variety of working experiences, which complement each other and come together when supporting HB performance. We work collaboratively with LAs to help them evaluate their processes, identify efficiencies and improve service delivery. Continuous improvement is central to the work we deliver and our aim is to transfer our skills and knowledge to our clients.

Desirable skills

• strong stakeholder engagement and management – ability to build and maintain effective working relationships with LAs and other stakeholders  

• good drafting and communication skills  

• competent excel skills – enjoys working with and analysing management information  

• managing competing priorities

24. Through our long history of secondees joining our team we have gained a deeper understanding of what life is like within an HB service. This has helped us shape how we deliver our performance management offer and best support all 350 LAs. In turn, LA secondees have seen their own knowledge of the HB landscape widen.  

25. We do not want to stop there. We understand the fast-paced, ever-changing environment you come from and we want to continue this exciting learning journey together. These opportunities are ideally suited to those with a good understanding of HB procedures and who want to gain an insight into central government whilst learning new skills in a busy and supportive workplace.

Further information

26. Secondment posts would be offered for either 12 months or 24 months dependent on the role offered. Both the consultancy and PRM roles require some travel and overnight stays, this is more frequent for the consultancy role. The posts would usually be full time and based across the country. To give you an idea, we have hub locations in the following places:   

• Blackpool  
• Glasgow  
• Leeds  
• London  
• Manchester  
• Newcastle upon Tyne  
• Sheffield

27. Moves at public expense would not be considered.   

28. As a guide the:

• PRM role is the Higher Executive Officer grade in the civil service with a broad salary range of £38,772 to £44,335  

• consultancy role is the Senior Executive Officer grade in the civil service with a broad salary range of £44,447 to £50,044

29. If you are keen to register your interest, check with your LA that you can be released and then send your CV to laped.businesssupportteam@dwp.gov.uk by Tuesday 23 December 2025. 

30. If you would like and informal chat regarding these roles, please email jonathan.bottomer@dwp.gov.uk.

Practitioners’ Operational Group and LA Welfare Steering Group

31. The last LA Welfare Steering Group meeting took place on 20 November 2025. Agenda items included bringing together the administration of HB and Pension Credit, Legacy HB Discovery, LA funding, Move to UC, updates from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Crisis and Resilience Fund and Cost of Living.  

32. Both groups’ meetings are held bi-monthly (and alternately), so the next Practitioners’ Operational Group meeting is scheduled to take place on 18 December 2025.   

33. If you have any questions regarding topics raised at these consultation groups, email lawelfare.correspondence@dwp.gov.uk.

HB Decisions by the Upper Tribunal

34. Decision Making and Appeals (DMA) Leeds is aware of the following HB case that has been decided by the Upper Tribunal (UT): 

• UA-2024-SCO-000026-HB: This case is about whether the changes to the regulations 2(1) and 13D(3)(za) of the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, in respect of “members of a couple who cannot share a bedroom”, brought in after the Supreme Court’s decision in R(Carmichael) v SSWP [2016] UKSC 58, discriminated against a claimant who could not meet the statutory test on human rights grounds.

35. A selection of decisions of the UT are published on their website. Do be aware that there is an undefined time lapse between decisions being issued and their appearance on the website. 

36.  If you have any queries about cases before the UT Judges or courts, please contact us by email at quarryhouse.dmaleedscustomersupportservices@dwp.gov.uk.

HB cases awaiting decision by the UT

37. DMA Leeds has not been made aware of any HB case that is awaiting decision by the Upper Tribunal.

New Legislation

38. The following Statutory Instruments (SIs) have been laid:

• 2025 No. 1165 – The National Health Service (Help with Health Costs) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2025, made on 5 November 2025 

• 2025 No. 1198 – The Social Security (Residence in an EEA State or Switzerland) (Amendment) Regulations 2025, made on 17 November 2025 

• 2025 No. 1211 – The Occupational Pensions (Revaluation) Order 2025, made on 19 November 2025 

• 2025 No. 1213 – The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (Commencement No. 4) Regulations 2025, made on 19 November 2025 

• 2025 No. 1219 – The State Pension Revaluation for Transitional Pensions Order 2025, made on 25 November 2025 

• 2025 No. 1220 – The State Pension Debits and Credits (Revaluation) Order 2025, made on 25 November 2025

• 2025 No. 1239 – The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (Prescribed Purposes) Regulations 2025, made on 25 November 2025

39. Copies of SIs can now be downloaded from legislation.gov.uk.

What’s new on our HB pages on www.gov.uk

40. The following items can be found on the website links shown:

Document type	Subject	Link
LAWD bulletin	Editorial Update: Scottish Government disability benefits Funding for Department for Work and Pensions’ requirements provided by LAs IT software suppliers Care Home Information Service: Additional introductory workshops for System C LAs only Update: Decommissioning of Universal Credit Local Council Tax Reduction Version 1 data feed Update: UC Searchlight enhancements Update: Identifying Local Vulnerability Urgent reminder: Discretionary Housing Payment mid-year claims form return for the financial year ending March 2026 (England and Wales only) Child Benefit changes and HM Revenue and Customs correction exercise (England only) Invitation to the next Data sharing and IT consultation and engagement forum Publication of HB speed of processing statistics for April 2025 to June 2025 Practitioners’ Operational Group and LA Welfare Steering Group HB Decisions by the Upper Tribunal New Legislation What’s new on our HB pages on www.gov.uk	LAWD11/2025
Housing Benefit Assurance Process guidance	Module X refresh	HBAP Module X: DWP reporting framework instruction for further work for the financial year ending March 2025 (applicable to England only)