Responding to Welfare Reform in Wales
Responding to Welfare Reform in Wales
The
Auditor General for Wales published its Local Government report Managing the Impact of Welfare Reform
Changes On Social Housing Tenants in Wales in January 2015.
The Public Accounts Committee undertook an inquiry to consider how the changes to Housing Benefit introduced by the UK Government’s welfare-reform programme, impacted on local authorities and housing associations in Wales, and how they are addressing the challenges they face. The Welfare Reform Act 2012 heralds a significant change to the administration and distribution of benefits and will have a major impact on many citizens. In April 2011, the UK Government embarked on a programme of reform, which will culminate with the phased introduction of Universal Credit between October 2013 and 2017. A major focus of the UK Government’s plans are changes to Housing Benefit, aimed at reducing annual expenditure by around £2.3 billion. These changes will mean that millions of households in Great Britain will receive less in benefits, creating hard choices for them about how they use their money and manage financially on a day-to-day basis. In recent years, the numbers claiming Housing Benefit in Great Britain have increased significantly.
Business type: Committee Inquiry
Reason considered: Senedd Business;
Status: Complete
First published: 19/03/2015
Documents
- Public Accounts Committee Report - July 2015 (PDF 565MB)
- Welsh Government Response - August 2015 (PDF 588KB) PDF 588 KB
- Letter from the Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty - 3 November 2015 PDF 703 KB
- Letter from Director General, Local Government and Communities - 18 June 2015
- Additional information from Community Housing Cymru - June 2015 PDF 154 KB View as HTML (5) 377 KB
- Additional Information from the Welsh Local Government Association - June 2015 PDF 66 KB View as HTML (6) 14 KB
- Additional Information from Wales and West Housing Association - May 2015