Guidance

Withdrawn: Universal Support – delivered locally: information for local authorities

Published 6 October 2014

This guidance was withdrawn on 9 November 2018

This publication is no longer current. Find up to date information about Universal Credit for local authorities.

This publication is no longer current.

This document explains how local authorities and DWP will work together to trial local Universal Support for Universal Credit claimants.

1. Background

Universal Credit represents a major cultural transformation. By making sure that work pays, and that the experience of being on benefits more closely matches that of being in work, it enables people to take much more control over their own lives.

Evidence from previous reforms, together with data from the Direct Payment Demonstration Projects and local authority led pilots, indicates that for many people the change will be a relatively straightforward one.

However, we recognise that some people will need support with the transition, by helping them adjust to some new aspects of the way Universal Credit is designed. So for those who are new to monthly budgeting or getting online, they will get the help they need to manage that transition process.

2. Universal Support

‘Local Support Services Framework’ was the working title for the framework stage. The rebranding brings the service into the Universal Credit family and reflects that the support itself will be available and delivered locally.

We published the initial Universal Credit Local Support Services Framework in February 2013 and the Universal Credit Local Support Services Framework Update and Trialling Plan in December 2013.

This December document, produced in collaboration with local authority colleagues from England, Scotland and Wales, refocuses the Universal Support work and describes how we will work together over the course of the next 12 to 18 months to test different arrangements for:

• partnership working
• financial management
• the effective delivery of front line services
• other specific aspects of the Universal Support Framework

3. Trialling sites

In May 2014 we published a Universal Credit Local Support Services Framework Expression of Interest trialling prospectus to support DWP and local authority partnerships trialling elements of Universal Support Framework over the next 12 months.

In July 2014, Lord Freud announced the 11 selected partnerships that will trial aspects of Universal Support for a 12 month period from 1 September 2014. The formal trialling sites are:

• Derby City
• Islington
• South Staffordshire
• Argyll and Bute
• Dundee City
• Blaenau Gwent
• Carmarthenshire

There are also joint bids from:

• Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark
• Northumberland and South Tyneside
• West Lincolnshire including West Lindsey, Lincoln City, North Kesteven and Lincolnshire
• Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

The trialling sites will focus on a range of support options but with 3 main elements:

• triage
• digital inclusion
• financial inclusion

They represent a mix of demographics across England, Scotland and Wales. Each of the formal trialling sites will participate in a robust evaluation of their trial.

We will be working with the partnerships that were not selected, plus those partnerships that have already shown an interest in conducting informal trials to explore further elements in a less formal setting.

We are committed to sharing good practice and learning from these Universal Support trialling conducted during 2014/15 in line with previous piloting programmes.