The Welfare Reform Act brings radical change to the welfare environment. Come and hear Lord Freud, Minister for Welfare Reform and other key speakers discuss the changes to the delivery of welfare and be among the first to hear which councils have been selected to pilot the delivery of Universal Credit.  This legislation changes fundamentally councils’ role in the delivery of benefits; amongst other things it:

• subsumes a number of credits, allowances and benefits, including Housing Benefit into a new Universal Credit
• introduces a benefit cap to be delivered in the first instance through Housing Benefit
• makes provision for the abolition of council tax benefit, paving the way for the introduction of localised support for council tax
• gives greater powers for local authorities through localising welfare support harmonises the investigation of benefit
fraud across councils and DWP
• introduces Personal Independence Payment to replace Disability Living Allowance.
 

Most of these reforms will be introduced from April next year. Plans for the localisation of support for council tax need to be in place by as soon as the end of January 2013.

This is a challenging agenda for councils.  How ready is your council to implement these changes? Are you confident you can respond to the inevitable concerns of
some of your most vulnerable constituents/customers? How happy are you that you will be ready to handle new council tax support arrangements together with its
accompanying 10 per cent budget cut?

If you’re wrestling with these questions, whether you are an elected member or an officer; a chief executive or a revenues and benefits manager; a social services or
finance director, this conference is for you. It is an opportunity not only to hear more about the reforms from the experts, but also to share concerns and discuss problems and solutions with colleagues from other councils and partners from the voluntary and community and housing sectors.

Please see the agenda and list of speakers at the following link:

http://www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/events/-/journal_content/56/10171/3376361/EVENT-TEMPLATE

and a flyer for the event in the group library.

https://khub.net/c/document_library/get_file?p_l_id=6769065&folderId=6769055&name=DLFE-54343.pdf