Monitoring the impact of welfare reform in the North
Real Life Reform
The NHC is proud to be involved in and supporting our members as part of the Real Life Reform study. Our first report was published in September 2013, and the most recent was made available in March 2015. All of the reports are available to download.
You can follow activity and interest through our Twitter accounts: @CharlotteH_NHC, @NHC, and the Real Life Reform Twitter account @RealLifeReform.
This is an important and unique study that tracks over a period of 18 months how people are living and coping with Welfare Reforms across the North of England. Our reports include hard hitting and emotional facts and experiences. It was clear from the first phase of six, that many people are struggling to cope: poverty is evident, debt is a concern, and so is the health and well being of tenants and customers. This was all before the winter months and increased spending. This study is intended to help us highlight the real experiences and impact and track whether the aims of welfare reform work, and understand the unintended consequences. It will and already has helped us lobby and raise awareness. But it is also about helping NHC members understand how the issues are affecting them locally and enables them to consider how they respond to the findings and support tenants, residents and neighbourhoods.
We would like to thank everyone who has been involved in this study so far: it has the potential to make a really big difference.
What is Real Life Reform?
Downloads
Welfare reform changes are beginning to affect the lives of social housing tenants. As the voice of housing for the North, the Northern Housing Consortium know that these and future changes will impact our members’ tenants, their families, social networks, and their communities and many will struggle to manage.
As well as ongoing advice and support for members and their tenants affected by these changes, we wanted to further understand how individuals were managing in their day-to-day lives.
Alongside seven Registered Providers from the North of England and with support from York University we have launched a research project that will bring together case studies of social housing tenants affected by these welfare reform changes. The research will track their journey over a period of time to really understand and capture the financial and human impact welfare reform changes may have.
Project Details
Following the introduction of the Under Occupation Deduction (known as the bedroom tax) our members have identified a number of tenants that are affected.
Each participating organisation will work with 10-15 households over a period of approximately 18 months to monitor record and understand their experiences. The questionnaire covers the under occupation deduction, applying for and receiving benefits, responding to non-benefit dependency, how they manage their finances now and when Universal Credit comes into play and generally how they cope.
Methodology
Each organisation will have 10-15 households they will intensively track and monitor. These case studies will aim to provide a cross section of household and benefit claimant types. Each case study household will undertake a survey/interview every three months using an agreed questionnaire being completed by trained staff. Each organisation will complete these questionnaires within a similar time frame. The interviews will begin in July 2013 with the first report expected in September 2013.
Communicating the results
We will use the results and insights that we gather from the research to form a joint report each quarter. The report will also be split by organisation to get a local perspective.
We will use both the national housing and local media to promote and share our findings as well as regular updates on our website and through communication with members.
More information
There are seven Registered Providers involved in the research alongside the Northern Housing Consortium and York University. You can find more information on each organisation by visiting their website. A number of other organisations have expressed an interest in taking part in the study by conducting the research and feeding into the results to widen the scope and impact of the research.
Contact
If you would like further information on the project or would like to be involved please contact Charlotte Harrison, Executive Director (Policy and Public Affairs), on 0191 566 1000 or email charlotte.harrison@northern-consortium.org.uk.
Impact of Welfare Reform on Housing Employees: Research Project
We are hearing more and more about the impact welfare reform is having on our customers. The Real Life Reform project is providing real insight in to families and the challenges they are facing. In addition, we are hearing more about how challenging employees are finding their day to day interactions with customers.
As more customers face financial difficulties, housing employees are encountering customers (who they have built relationships with) really struggling and in some cases finding them close to suicide or certainly not knowing where to turn. This could have a real impact on employee wellbeing and consequently an impact on organisation performance.
We thought it would be useful for Housing organisations to have a better more informed understanding of the impact on employees, so we can understand what we need to do to support them during these difficult times. More information on the project can be found here.
