Welfare reform – informing activities Failsworth and Hollinwood District Partnership Corporate Research & Intelligence Team 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 contacts 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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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/or Housing Benefit

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

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

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19 Failsworth and Hollinwood 35.3% of households are Moderate Means, 31.3% Hard-Pressed, 29% Comfortably Off. Largest types (in size order) are: o Families and single parents, some financial uncertainty o Elderly people in traditional terraces o Singles and couples in small terraces o Stable empty-nester couples o Satisfied retired couples

20 Failsworth and Hollinwood While the Failsworth Wards are very similar, Hollinwood is very much more deprived and socially distinct, indeed it bears most comparison with Alexandra ward. Over half of households in Hollinwood are Hard-Pressed, particularly “Squeezed social renting families”.

21 Failsworth and Hollinwood Failsworth West is 44% Comfortably Off, with half of those households made up of “Stable empty-nester couples” and “Satisfied retired couples”. 1/3rd of households are of Moderate Means, the largest type within that being “Families and single parents, some financial uncertainty". There is still significant poverty. Failsworth East is less well-off overall than Failsworth West, but has a prosperous Southern fringe with significant numbers of Wealthy Achievers.

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26 Potential issues relating to impact of Welfare Reform on Chadderton’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 This is a problematic District Partnership from a marketing perspective, as each ward responds to different messages, and in particular Hollinwood is markedly different from Failsworth. Where possible, it would often make more sense to market to Hollinwood as a unit with West Oldham. An alternative approach might be to develop projects aimed at linked smaller localities which would be more likely to share behaviours and aspirations (perhaps Woodhouses and Garden Suburbs).

40 Targeting activities Phone is the preferred means of contact throughout, and there is relatively little internet use, and not much scope for channel shift. Note that hardly any Hollinwood residents have landlines, so ringback services or local rate phone calls may be important in maintaining customer links. Hollinwood residents are more likely to use social networking tools, but not to use the web in a transactional manner. 58% are offline/infrequent users. Buying groceries online is popular.

41 Targeting activities Failsworth households are likely to be more aware of marketing materials than Hollinwood, where there is low acceptability of overt marketing, and of local government marketing in particular. Customer magazines are not likely to be well-received in Hollinwood, but may be more so in Failsworth. For Hollinwood, there seems to be more focus on caring for others than caring for themselves: possibly this could be channelled into self-help through messages like “you can’t help if you’re not here”.

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