Making the most of a Welsh Benefits System

As a Welsh Benefits System begins to get off the ground, Victoria Winckler, Director of the Bevan Foundation, sets out four key actions to make a big difference. 

The Bevan Foundation has long argued that the Welsh Government should establish a Welsh Benefits System to bring together means-tested devolved grants and allowances into a coherent framework that would help to solve poverty in Wales.

The Welsh Government has supported the idea for some time, but to date there has been little detail  about its plans. We were therefore pleased to see some of the next steps outlined it its response to a recent Senedd committee inquiry.

Central to the proposed delivery of a Welsh Benefits System is a Charter. This document commits the signatories to working together to design an inclusive system, focusing on local authority-controlled benefits in the first instance.  

It is encouraging that the Charter has been agreed by a broad range of organisations, and we welcome the principles that should underpin delivery.  But welcome though it is, there is a need for further action to realise the transformative potential of a Welsh Benefits System.  The Bevan Foundation is therefore urging the Welsh Government to take four additional and vitally important steps. 

1. Include all organisations

The current arrangements are based on collaboration and partnership. This is of course very welcome, but as participation is therefore voluntary there is a risk that some bodies do not participate at all while others do their own thing. We are therefore urging the Welsh Government to put participation on a firmer footing, for example by using the Local Government Finance Bill progressing through the Senedd to require local authorities to align their administration of the Council Tax Reduction scheme with other devolved schemes that they administer.

2. Clear route map

The original idea of a Welsh Benefits System brought together 7 different schemes into a common framework.  While we understand that managing the process may mean focusing on fewer schemes, there is a risk that arrangements will not progress beyond them.  We are therefore urging the Welsh Government to set out a clear route map to bring other means-tested grants and allowances into the system.  

3. Review the value of payments and eligibility thresholds

The full impact of a Welsh Benefits System on solving poverty will only be achieved with an increase in the eligibility thresholds and value of payments associated with the various schemes within it. The Welsh Government has already increased Education Maintenance Allowance and extended free school meals to all primary school pupils, but the eligibility thresholds for free school meals for older pupils, School Essentials Grant and Education Maintenance Allowance have been frozen for several years.  A household has to be very much poorer to be eligible for these schemes today than four years ago.

We are urging the Welsh Government to address the value of payments and review and align the  different eligibility thresholds as part of its implementation arrangements – ideally with annual inflation-linked uprating to both. 

4. Fund greater take up

The other way that a Welsh Benefits System will help to reduce poverty is by increasing take up.  One of the biggest impacts is likely to be through increased take up of the Council Tax Reduction scheme, although additional costs may also arise in other schemes.  Unless the additional costs are funded, public bodies have a disincentive to participate. The Bevan Foundation is therefore urging the Welsh Government to reimburse local authorities (and others in due course) for additional costs, starting with the Council Tax Reduction Scheme where there is expected to be the largest increase in take up.

The Bevan Foundation welcomes the Welsh Government’s commitment to a Welsh Benefits System. But to have the biggest impact on poverty it needs to take four key additional steps to ensure full participation, plan to include all relevant grants and allowances, raise eligibility thresholds and the value of payments, and remove disincentives to participate.