HBAA - Full Case Review

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In August 2020, the DWP issued Housing Benefit Circular A9 2020, which is a special ‘bulletin’ to councils notifying them of a change to policy or process. This specific circular sets out the details of a Housing Benefit Award Accuracy (HBAA) Initiative and the funding LAs will receive to undertake activities to identify unreported changes of circumstances. The funding, from the DWP, is designed to support LAs undertaking specific activities to proactively identify unreported changes and make sure that the right amount of benefit is paid to the right person at the right time. This funding is awarded for councils carrying our Full Case Reviews (FCR).

A FCR requires a council to consider and look at all the current claim details and evidence associated with the claim, as well as any other fresher information or evidence they can source, in order for the weekly HB amount to be reviewed. The key elements are that:

• the Council reviews and validates whether the current information associated with the claim remains correct

• the Council seeks evidence from the claimant where it is possible to do so, in accordance with their review processes

All of this in order to identify any changes of circumstances and recalculate a claimant’s HB award accordingly.

In line with this, IEG4 has built a new form that leverages multiple elements from the eChanges form, which enables a citizen to:

• review all of the detail currently held on their claim about them

• proactively identify areas that have AND have NOT changed