Welfare reform –informing activities East Oldham District Partnership Corporate Research & Intelligence Team 17 December 2012/ April 2013

2 Introduction This briefing contains information to help District Partnerships develop further activities to mitigate the impacts of welfare reform in their areas. It contains sections on: Impact of Welfare Reform - with maps showing areas where residents in receipt of a range of benefits likely to be affected by welfare reform live Debt – with maps showing areas where residents are already experiencing problems with debt which may be made worse by welfare reform Targeting messages – with information that can be used to help District Partnerships tailor their communications to residents in their area and including information about internet use

3 Impact of Welfare Reform maps The following maps show areas where residents are claiming particular benefits and may be affected by welfare reform. The maps include: Out of work benefits claimants – these residents are likely to be affected by the introduction of Universal Credit (to be phased in in Oldham from July 2013) and by other welfare reform changes to one or more of the benefits/ credits they receive Work capability assessment – some claimants have already been or will be moved from Incapacity Benefit (IB) to Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and then possibly to Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) Disability living allowance (DLA) / Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – DLA will be replaced by PIP in a phased approach starting with new claims in ‘M’ postcodes in Oldham from April 2013 then from June 2013 in the rest of Oldham Children living in poverty – these maps show where the impact of freezing Child Benefit and changes to tax credits are likely to have been/ will be felt most Housing Benefit changes – highlights the areas where the impact of Local Housing Allowance and Under-occupation (‘bedroom tax’) changes are likely to be felt most Council Tax Benefit – shows areas where the impact of changes to Council Tax Benefit are likely to be felt most

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5 Percentage of out of work (all) claimants

6 Percentage of Jobseekers Allowance claimants

7 Employment Support Allowance and Incapacity Benefit claimants

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9 Percentage of children living in poverty

10 Percentage of children living in poverty in workless households

11 Percentage of children living in poverty in working households

12 Percentage of households claiming Council Tax Benefit and and/or Housing Benefit

13 Claim rates for Registered Provider households claiming Council Tax Benefit and and/or Housing Benefit

14 % of households receiving Council Tax Benefit and and/or Housing Benefit by tenure

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19 East Oldham Nearly half (48%) of households are Moderate Means, one third (32%) Hard Pressed Largest types (in size order) are: o Families and single parents, some financial uncertainty o Poorer Asian families o Elderly People in Traditional terraces o Singles and couples in small terraces o Comfortable families

20 East Oldham St James’ and Waterhead have a proportion of wealthy residents, in St James’ case mainly “Aspirational older families!. These are likely to be associated with the rural fringes in these wards. St. James’ also has the highest proportion of Hard Pressed residents, particularly “Squeezed Social Renting Families” and “Overstretched Social Renting Families”.

21 East Oldham St Mary’s has roughly 2/3 rd s of residents in the Moderate Means category, 1/3 rd Hard Pressed, with “Poorer Asian families” making up 1/3 rd of households Waterhead ward has relatively speaking the least poverty of the three. Largest categories are “Families and single parents, some financial uncertainty”, and “Elderly People in Traditional terraces”.

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26 Potential issues relating to impact of Welfare Reform on East Oldham’s residents online applications only monthly payments direct to claimants increases in levels of homelessness and destitution

27 Some groups won’t be shifted

28 Facebook and web services

29 Debt The following maps show areas where residents are already experiencing problems with debt which may be made worse by welfare reform. The maps include: CAB debt clients Credit refusals Difficulty in repaying loans Debt consolidation Current difficulties and future vulnerabilities Credit card ownership Credit card regular usage Paying off cards Mortgage vulnerability There is also a chart showing the proportion of residents aged 16+ without a current, credit union or building society account by ward.

30 CAB Debt clients

31 Credit refusal

32 Difficulty with repaying loans

33 Debt Consolidation

34 Credit card ownership

35 Credit card regular usage

36 Paying off cards

37 Mortgage vulnerability

38 Residents aged 16+ without a current, credit union or building society account

39 Targeting activities Preferred contact by phone/text, or to a lesser degree by post. Visits and are non-preferred. Mobile phones are almost universal (80%). Tapping into Facebook and other social networks is likely to be worthwhile, especially in St Mary’s where there is double the number of “Frequent Socialisers” as elsewhere. St Mary’s has an extremely hostile attitude to any marketing, dramatically more so than Oldham as a whole. They are also less likely to even notice marketing channels. This reinforces the importance of social networking as a lever with this community. The only other channel likely to impact is leafleting.

40 Targeting activities Under half of households are ready to embrace internet transactions- Online Groceries are the main transaction area, and perhaps this can be a driver for encouraging channel shift for council services Initiatives aimed at family/self/home improvement may be more successful than appeals to help others: DIY more than ‘do it to them’

41 Targeting activities Struggling Singles are easy to target geographically, but tend to have different characteristics from other segments, and thus may require different marketing strategies to reach and different forms of support Many residents in this segment are living in rented accommodation

42 Targeting activities Poorer Asian Families have already been identified as a key segment for the Universal Credit pilot/s, and thus profiling has already been carried out for that group. Geographically this group is very compressed, which will make communications easier. The remaining two segments are likely to be spatially more nebulous- to some extent, particularly Families With Difficult Finances. There is a concentration on Oldham’s traditional social housing estates (including St Mary’s and Sholver).

43 For further information please contact: Susan Kirkham at or on Jon Taylor at or on or Martin Burroughs at or on