A report by the Head of Financial Services / Deputy S151 Monitoring Officer informed that the reform of the nationally administered Social Fund Scheme would see the introduction of a new, localised scheme of welfare assistance, to be administered by Local Authorities from April 2013.  The report sought the agreement of the Cabinet to the approach being adopted and informed that a further report on the options for a Wirral based scheme would be presented to a future Cabinet meeting.

The changes to the wider Welfare Reform Programme would have a significant impact directly on Local Authority administration and, as with much of the Reform programme; it would be the same households and individuals that were affected by each reform strand.

Members were concerned that the initial indication was that the current £178 million per annum national fund distributed to local authorities on a non-ring fenced basis although in reality authorities would only receive a proportion of the current spend and this would have serious implications for the crisis loans the Council would be able to provide and this was regrettable as lots of people needed them.

RESOLVED: That

(1)   the Cabinet supports the way forward for the Local Welfare Assistance Scheme for 2013/14 and officers continue to analyse and monitor the impact of this reform on the authority and its citizens and present a further detailed report for consideration of the composition of a final scheme for 2013/14; and

(2)   the timescale as set out in the report be approved.