DWP move to UC stakeholder forum - July

SFHA attended the DWP’s Move to UC Social Rented Sector Stakeholder July forum. There are a few updates/reminders that may be helpful to members, included below.

For any questions or requests for additional information, please email the stakeholder engagement team at their general address: UNIVERSALCREDIT.ENGAGEMENTTEAM@DWP.GOV.UK. 

DWP updated the 3rd Party Guide

The Move to UC stakeholder engagement team shared an updated version of the ‘3rd Party Guide - supporting households required to Move to Universal Credit’, included in the downloads section of this page. This version 2.0 replaces the original shared in April this year to reflect some feedback and suggestions received (further informative content and signposting).

Reminders of Advanced Customer Support Senior Leaders (ACSSLs) in the DWP and visiting officers

The forum included a presentation from Advanced Customer Support Senior Leaders (ACSSLs), who work across all DWP product lines to support customers with additional needs, complexities, or vulnerabilities. ACSSLs are part of multi-agency safeguarding groups and can work quickly to contact other specialist support organisations and resolved DWP issues. Multi-agency partnerships include, for example, NHS, Mind, Samaritans, Women’s Aid, Citizens Advice, Step Change, Refugee Action, and many others. RSLs are reminded that ACSSL can be accessed through Partnership Managers or Senior Case Workers.

The forum also included a reminder of DWP visiting officers who can go in-person to tenants who cannot engage with mainstream channels for any reason. DWP case managers can refer a visit to a customer/tenant at any point in time, so referral requests should be made to Partnership Managers or Senior Case workers.

For questions or additional information about local ACSSLs or visit referral processes, please contact UNIVERSALCREDIT.ENGAGEMENTTEAM@DWP.GOV.UK.

Opportunities to feedback

Face-to face engagement – stakeholder toolkit

DWP is developing a potential face-to-face engagement product as part of the revised campaign toolkit to help stakeholders, including RSL staff, in 1-2-1 conversations with customers/members. This toolkit is currently in draft. It follows the format of existing content on the Move to UC microsite and in the campaign stakeholder toolkit, and is labelled to help ensure that it’s clear that it isn’t a migration notice letter. If you are interested in providing your feedback to DWP, please email UNIVERSALCREDIT.ENGAGEMENTTEAM@DWP.GOV.UK to express your interest by COP on Friday 26th July 2024 and they’ll follow up with further info on next steps.

Housing Journey Feedback – Paying back UC overpayments (including direct housing cost payments)

DWP stakeholder engagement team is testing elements of the housing journey and looking for additional feedback on some changes in an upcoming pilot. They will seek feedback on the topics of ADPR delays, housing cost overpayments, and notifying changes when APA is in place, to understand how often overpayments are happening and what the financial sums involved are. The pilot review will begin August 20th. If you would like to volunteer to participate in the feedback pilot, please email UNIVERSALCREDIT.ENGAGEMENTTEAM@DWP.GOV.UK.

Notification of update to verification of the landlord automation – additional checks

DWP alerted stakeholders that there will be a minor change upcoming to the verification process in the landlord portal, to avoid errors about housing costs. Soon, if the housing cost input into the landlord verification portal is higher than the Local Housing Allowance, the portal will produce a challenge message along the lines of ‘Are you sure this is correct?’ that will be require an answer. DWP announced that a note is being added into the portal today (July 25th) to alert users of the upcoming change and the date of enactment.