Flicking Your Switch

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @hotpixUK

or LinkedIn here uk.linkedin.com/pub/tony-smith-bsc-hons-acih/a/979/351/

Thank you those two contacts who reminded me it was a year ago this month, our benefit changes started and the bedroom tax subsidy came into being. I was obviously too busy celebrating with two litres of 'White Lightening' and a budget Aldi 'Sunday Roast' for one to knock out my blog, on that last week. 

Seriously though, I and every RSL & RP out there, (well all the ones I work with, I can 100% be definitely sure of...) are still working with what facts they have. While IDS is storing 115% on his Universal Credit belief-o-meter, facts are still pretty thin on the ground unfortunately. This is still as far as I can see, hampering everyone. Housing Associations cannot plan and organise, HMS software providers have little to specify with. So frankly, its actually a bit of a mess on the ground, from where I am looking.

One bright-spot on the Universal Credit horizon, to address benefit paid direct, to citizens who many are ill-equipped to cope sensibly with it, is Switchback. The process of allowing tenants to switch back to having HB paid direct to their landlord / RSL provider, if they are getting into difficulty, specifically racking up rent arrears.

Now I say bright-spot, even this does not appear to have been well thought through. If your organisation just works in a discrete region, you just have one set of criteria to satisfy. If you are a housing group, many I work with span 20+ local authorities, life has got pretty complex on this one. bad news if you are a Sanctuary, Bromford or YourHousing.

Here's the current details, no-doubt subject to change and development....

• Southern England, (but not London) - Tenant has eight weeks arrears
• London - Can be switched after 8 weeks in arrears, after 4 weeks receive support from Rents officer. Placed on a ‘probationary’ category  and monitored and help with managing finances.  If tenant pays rent for 2 months they will receive direct payment again.
• West Midlands - After 12 weeks of arrears
• Wales - Tenant underpays by 15 per cent over 12 weeks
• Northern England - Tenant has eight weeks of arrears, Tenant makes no payment for eight weeks, Tenant underpays by 15 per cent over 12 weeks
• Scotland - Tenant has not paid before 25th of the following month

Early adopers have also encountered delays when applications have been made, when systems become paper based inside the DWP. More on that here - http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/nhf-calls-for-overhaul-of-universal-credit-payment-rules/7001881.article where my local ALMO Golden Gates, has already encountered difficulties.

 As I have mentioned, the nature of this being obscure, mean that to date to my knowledge, only one of the main HMS suppliers, have incorporated these rules neatly, into their next release. A major advantage for their cross-region housing customers. So if you are not on OpenHousing, these rules need to be embedded in processes or workflow elsewhere.

Are your IT or Better Business team looking into this? Worth flagging up if you aren't.
The wise will keep a careful weather eye on it, as with all of Universal Credit, this is a movable feast.

The early local authority adopters are quickly finding the limitations of the poorly specified and delivered Universal Credit systems. This week (11th April 2014), new welfare claimants in Shotton, near me in North Wales, discovered problems in the system, to replace existing benefit strands. The Welsh Government in particular are finding they are wrestling with UC at every turn http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/regulation/welfare-reform-will-cost-wales-almost-%C2%A31bn-a-year/7003165.article

Universal credit sure isn't going to go away, but it isn't coming in fast, particularly not too fit for purpose yet either. Tread carefully social housing brothers & sisters....

You can link with me on LinkedIn here - uk.linkedin.com/pub/tony-smith-bsc-hons-acih/a/979/351/ It would be great to connect !

Read on to, Universal Credit:

http://tonysmiththathousingitguy.blogspot.com/2012/09/universal-credit.html

Ladytron - Flicking Your Switch.

(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854655009

PS As usual, if there are subjects you might like me to tackle on this blog, please get in touch and let me know!

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We Are The Super Cool

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @hotpixUK
or LinkedIn here uk.linkedin.com/pub/tony-smith-bsc-hons-acih/a/979/351/

Last week I completed an IT strategy for a housing association and as you do, updated my section on PESTLE factors. Key in these over the last few years have been UC - Universal Credit and UK Benefit Reform.

On updating my information I was struck how the recent storms and weather related news had managed to further keep the heat off how this big wayward project is going. The last set of updates of any substance (if you could call it that), was delivered at the NHF Welfare Reform – Keeping on Track Conference, back in October.

If you attended that one in London, you would have heard the aptly named Jean Cooling, doing her best to be upbeat, while not actually able to provide solid facts to the assembled housing folk and system suppliers in attendance. In fact you got the distinct feeling that even though delegates were asking point blank, "When is this all coming", Ms Cooling was doing her best to answer different questions entirely.

We all know what a money pit this project is. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has talked about write offs anywhere between £140m and £425m of wasted IT work, although that old cove IDS is always quick to tell us that "He believes it's all on track now, with all those fears and allegations must be based on 'old news', before its been recently sorted".

While housing staff and systems providers are justly appalled by the rampant waste of our own taxpayers money, their primary interest is planning strategies and systems to support it if/when it comes. No doubt, there is a lot to do in the sector. The only good thing about this, is that it gives us more time to help residents access simple bank accounts, move to payment cards or Direct Debit and stabilise arrears, in order to be 'ahead' or at the very least, always clearing their balance totally, at each debit period.

In the meantime, stay cool(ing), people!

Related Post :

http://tonysmiththathousingitguy.blogspot.com/2012/12/last-christmas-before-universal-credit.html

You can link with me on LinkedIn here - uk.linkedin.com/pub/tony-smith-bsc-hons-acih/a/979/351/ It would be great to connect !

Space Monkeys - We Are The Super Cool .

(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

PS As usual, if there are subjects you might like me to tackle on this blog, please get in touch and let me know!

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Plan A

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @hotpixUK
or LinkedIn here uk.linkedin.com/pub/tony-smith-bsc-hons-acih/a/979/351/

  
A few recent mop up type projects I am involved with have led me to ponder on the effects of poor planning at the start of many software application purchases and major business projects. There is a lot that the recent IDS Universal Credit and HS2 projects can teach us about how to get projects right. As the M&S lorries scream, There is no Plan B. But what if Plan A is somewhat wibble?


The Iain Duncan Smith visit to the Commons Select Committee this week is the latest in a long line of British Government IT projects that have become a horrendous money pit, often being abandoned, rather than delivering anything remotely useful. Watch this latest IDS UC car crash unfolding here in slow motion - http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=14420  For MBA courses, surely this will become a great case study in how not to manage projects. 


So what can we learn in our own projects from this. Well quite a lot, IDS is doing us a service by highlighting how not to do it. Firstly, know what your objectives are, right from the start. The IDS aims for UC were ‘To generate £38b in savings over the next 12 years’. This has now been modified to ‘emphasis the economic benefits of the programme’. Digging down, that breaks down as ‘38% of these savings are to come from fewer overpayments and increases in employment, while the bigger savings – 68% - will come from the economic benefits to claimants’. Thus only £14.44b might be generated in overpayment savings.


So a goal-post in objective has changed here. Also no mention of where the new UC IT system may also tackle the issue of under-payments. Bringing all benefits under one roof means that claimants may well now be able to claim for things they are entitled to, that they were not currently aware of.


HS2 (high speed rail 2 connecting London with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds faster, by 2032), is another project with rapidly changing aims, as casters are added to its goal posts and expected costs double to over £42b. It started off as being about ‘savings in business time, spent travelling on trains’, now mysteriously as many people work via the internet while on the move, the raison d’etre is now ‘Enhanced capacity’. As anyone in the know already suspects, if HS2 was about bringing prosperity to ‘The North’, it would be a high speed train line between Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds & Hull, with a spur up to the East Coast main line, connecting Newcastle & Edinburgh.


This reveals two important areas of any successful project. Number one is know what the project is for. Changing aims reveals that there is probably no basis in benefits for the project in the first instance. Where benefits in ROI (Return On Investment), enhanced customer service, measurable social good etc are expected, document them clearly. These can be measured later. Also examine negative effects of the project and clearly document them. These might offset some benefits, much like the IDS under-claimers, or cities not connected on HS2 losing out. Burying these facts reveal issues that have not been honestly put in the mix.


Number two is do enough detail analysis before committing resources. What my old Bsc Applied Computing lecturer Ian Beeson used to call ‘not being prematurely physical’. For example, if IDS had spent £3m up-front on decent analysis of benefit process, UK Govt PLC would not now be writing off £40m of wasted IT project. Take the project in stages, ensuring each is closed / completed adequately before moving on. Basic PRINCE2 in practice that one.


Number three is set your budget, based on the above, and what you know thus far. Set your contingency too, maybe 15-20%. Where a supplier will give you a capped price on your service/training/implementation days AND your requirements are well researched and firm, then you have something very attractive. Also find out what the additional day rate is. Very important for those valid ‘Out of scope’ elements. Not good to find they may cost you £1,000+ per day. Better to have fixed a more acceptable rate, much earlier on.


Number Four is to run the project in a transparent manner. IDS in his UC project has been dogged by ‘Bad News’ getting in the way of ‘Good News’. Don't suppress bad news, when it comes up, deal with it and correct the little blips that all projects encounter.  Smoothing over blips with good PR and what start as white lies, will dig a hole that will become exponentially difficult to dig yourself out of. As IDS has found out to his cost, £40m has already been written off, in a project at least 2 years late, with over 700,000 benefit claimants still expected to be outside the new IT system. 


We are all aware of projects initiated, where the project director has left way before any deliverables are seen. One particular ‘industry strength’ financials package, that need not be named, generally follows that route. The finance director ordering it will have a new job shortly afterwards (as it looks so good on a CV), be in it two years or more, before the original organisation is anywhere near having it in and working. It has not missed anyone’s attention that one such implementation is ongoing at the moment at a large prominent midlands based housing group. It will be interesting how that goes, all of the bigger HMS suppliers I speak to are aware of it, watching it extremely carefully. If it is delivered on time, to budget and can perform to what UK housing needs. If not, it may well mirror the expensive slow motion car crash unfolding for UC.


Unless he has a ‘road to Domestos’ type conversion, IDS will continue to hype the UC good news, in order to dispel that label he acquired from George Osbourne, just a few months ago. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/02/george-osborne-iain-duncan-smith-bit-thick
While IDS is only wasting all our taxpayer cash, poor execution of housing system projects impact directly on our residents and communities. Think how many new kitchens or improved efficient heating systems, to lift residents out of fuel poverty, could have been put in with your systems project overrun....

You can link with me on LinkedIn here - uk.linkedin.com/pub/tony-smith-bsc-hons-acih/a/979/351/ It would be great to connect !

Read on, to a great book on Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains

http://tonysmiththathousingitguy.blogspot.com/2013/06/paperback-writer.html

Dandy Warhols - Plan A .


(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

PS As usual, if there are subjects you might like me to tackle on this blog, please get in touch and let me know!

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Private Universe

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @hotpixUK

or LinkedIn here uk.linkedin.com/pub/tony-smith-bsc-hons-acih/a/979/351/


It was very interesting on the 1st May to see how pruned down the Universal Credit (UC) trial has become. Day one of what was going to be a representative test of the new IT and back office systems for six months has been reduced to a very restrictive test in Ashton-Under-Lyne, borough of Tameside, Greater Manchester. To their credit as plucky northerners, they have already thought about internet access for claimants, at libraries and the town hall.

Ashton-U-Lyne you have your 15mins of fame.

Having grown up in social housing in the Glossop area I was familiar with Ashton, long journeys on the (far from express) 236 (formally the no 6) and 237 bus  which passed through it. My first job took me close to Ashton old road too at GEC Higher Openshaw (lovingly called the Go Easy Club). That part of east Manchester had been by-passed from much of the regeneration going on elsewhere. My fathers brother, my uncle Arthur lived there in Pennel street. When my Auntie Gladys died in 1999 their two up, two down terraced house fetched just £8K. So it is an area with some deprivation.

Times have changed though, for the better. My auntie and uncle missed the Commonwealth games at the stadium and its conversion to The Etihad, also the Metrolink extension up to Oldham is trickling wealth eastwards. It’s a place where a new system could be tested as all human life is there. The funny thing is that it’s not actually happening that way.

No more than 300 people will be processed over 6 months on this system. Only straightforward stuff, nothing complicated, single people, no children or dependence, no care responsibilities, no homelessness, everyone must have a bank account and a valid NI number. Almost certainly this will be a resounding success. If it isn’t, the IT development so far has got to be absolute pants. Well no-one is stretching the testing here and just as well, there has been four different directors overseeing the IT development in the last 6 months. I think this reveals what a hot potato this one is. You would think they would be thinking outside the jacket then?

Well seemingly not. This trial will test only the simplest group and only a minuscule number of them. Is this usual IT system testing practice? Not at any company I have ever worked at. The ‘use cases’ I have always worked with have always been the most complex we can devise. You learn quite soon that if you don’t start there, your system designs are guaranteed to fail. 

This £550M IT project has had its challenges, see http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/11/universal_credit_project_director_hilary_reynolds_replaced/
There are some interesting links at the bottom of that page too.

The Guardian on day one of the trial had this to say:
If the quality of the spelling on the first page of the universal credit online application offers any insight into the overall readiness for the launch, then it is tempting to speculate that preparations were somewhat rushed.
The first step of the claim form for the government's flagship welfare reform initiative, billed as the biggest change to the benefits system for 60 years, invites people to input a security code, "separating" each word with a space.

Probably more a reflection as to the country that the software was written, maybe Vietnam, India or Russia.

The whole point of a successful pilot is to try the new system in a number of regions (the initial intention) and use that as an opportunity to learn. With the hindsight of experience, I would guess that many of the real-life complex cases that occur have not yet been designed into the system or not yet delivered. Hence the charade of a micro test in Ashton-Under-Lyne. As mentioned, IDS will surely be able to declare this trial a “complete success” in October when it’s planned to be in the can. It’s doubtful though that anything that falls out of the ‘strictly normal’ can be validated in this box ticking exercise.

In my experience when you gloss over detail or problems it bites someone on the bottom before long. It might be an age thing, but I do like this stuff all coming out (or sometimes looking for it) up front, rather than finding it later and having all the stress of that. Failure to do it costs someone money, fills the pockets of consultants and suppliers. This time it will be the taxpayer picking up the bill, not politicians or the DWP, for badly specified, tested or implemented Universal Credit IT.

So it will give me no pleasure to see this fail, as I (and you my friend) are paying for it.


You can link with me on LinkedIn here - uk.linkedin.com/pub/tony-smith-bsc-hons-acih/a/979/351/ It would be great to connect !

Read on to : Life In the hacked Lane

Crowded House - Private Universe.


(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

PS As usual, if there are subjects you might like me to tackle on this blog, please get in touch and let me know!

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Four Long years

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Well, the Christmas party is over, the tinsel and the top of tree angel are boxed for another December. time to get out teeth into the next four years of austerity.

For everyone in housing it’s going to be a busy year. Fortunately most have been planning for it over the last 18 months. So what’s coming peeps? Here is a quick crib sheet if you think you may be behind the curve. As ever, my belief is that you IT and system scan be helping you with a lot of this stuff. If its not, ask "Why Not"?

Jan 2013 – If you are with a local authority, you will no-doubt be well ahead with publishing your ‘Tenancy Strategy’. This lays out all the things that social landlords in your area need to ‘have regard to’ (in the terminology) when dealing with fixed term tenancies. The old policy expires at the end of January.

Apr 2013 – The Housing Ombudsman Service takes on responsibility for all social housing complaints in England. Your complainants need to be referred to it by a designated individual (this could be an MP or local councillor) or can contact it after eight weeks after they have exhausted your own internal complaints procedures.

Several areas of the welfare Reform Act start to kick in too. Many landlords I am aware of are already putting substantial resource into informing residents of what is coming down the line. The (total) benefit cap of £350 or £500 per week for couples was planned to come into force. This has been delayed now until the summer. Details are vague, but this will be while four trial programmes in London are trialled. (Thanks Joe Halewood for flagging that one up!). 

Bedroom tax starts. Working age households under-occupying stand to lose 14% for one room and 25% for two+ rooms.

Residents you may have receiving DLA (Disability Living Allowances) will now move over to PIP (personal independence payments). This will affect new claimants first with others migrated over from autumn 2013

May 2012 – The Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Bill is expected to be  passed. This attaches maximum penalties of two years in prison and unlimited fines for tenancy fraud. How wel do you vet your tenants on sign up? Do you take a photograph or photo ID, recording that on your systems? Are your residents encouraged to report suspected fraud? Dedicated fraud investigation staff may also be useful.

Oct 2012 – UC (Universal Credit) kicks in for new claimants. It is estimated that existing claimants will be migrated over between then and December 2017.

So, quite a lot of change coming. Information distilled from your data (as there is a substantial difference!) should be assisting with identifying and informing your under-occupiers and others likely to be hit by the benefit cap. Depending if residents already use a bank account or not, these groups will need different types of assistance.

Vulnerable tenants should be prioritised. Your housing management system will probably provide the means of recording this information, although if it is up to date and can be relied on is a different matter. To equip front line staff, training may be needed in dealing with tenant questions and anxieties. This may include helping them budget.

Where bank accounts are a viable option, residents should be able to move to direct debit. You may be able to introduce extra DD cycles to support UC payment cycles. For some, the move to monthly budgeting will be a struggle. As will the occasional 5 rather than 4 week month, in which to pay their rent.  I would not be surprised if some landlords resort back to rent collectors in some areas. A return to the ‘Gilbert strip’ might be imminent. By that I do not mean Arizona’s best gentleman’s club either!


Four long years left (so far).


(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

PS If there are subjects you might like me to tackle on this blog, please get in touch and let me know!

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Universal Credit

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Well, no doubt about it, if I had £50 for every passionate person in housing I have talked about this subject with, I would certainly have over a grand in my jeans back pocket by now! If you have been working under a stone for the last two years, Universal Credit will centrally replace six of the main means-tested benefits and tax credits in the UK into one single monthly credit. Many prominent figures including John Seddon (he of the ‘systems thinking’ approach), have already questioned the initiative. His open letter to IDS is here  I have more faith in John than "Iain Duncan Cough" (as Lord Gnome called him).

As you might have read in this month’s Housing Technology magazines article, "Welfare reform - Taking Credit where its due", which I was invited to take part in, I have strong feelings about it.  Download it here  it starts on page sixteen.

I don’t think it’s all bad however. I believe that the benefits system is a safety net provided by a fair and just society, it should not become a way of life. All my life I have been in employment and paid eye-watering amounts of taxes to support this and still do. Having seen systems in a number of countries around the world, imperfect as it is, this one is relatively good on the whole. A simplification should be a good thing. People like ‘simple’ don’t they?

Many of the changes that will have most effect on residents are the new way benefits will be received. Monthly not weekly rings alarm bells straight away. What percentage of poorer or aged residents now can navigate even through a week without the temptation of a ‘payday’ or loadshark loan? Many moons back I remember my teenage experience on suddenly moving from weekly to monthly pay. Even being money savvy, that s a big change. Even bigger is the way HB will be rolled up in that payment and will go straight to the claimant. I find it unlikely that the proportion that keeps the roof ever their head will be ring fenced in the family budget somehow.

Spookily enough so do thirty low-income households interviewed by Ipsos Mori this last week 17th September 2012, as reported in Inside Housing magazine. See this link to read the Inside Housing article.

‘This laissez-faire approach will create real problems not only for families themselves, but also for public service organisations, such as social landlords and childcare providers, that families will end up owing money to,’ he said.

The report notes the changes to housing benefit payments are also likely create ‘significant problems’ for social landlords, and could damage their credit ratings as their income would be seen as less stable.
It states: ‘The result would be that housing associations would have to pay more to borrow money, with knock-on implications for the building of affordable housing and new dwellings.’
A further angle on it from the Spectator Blog this week too here.

So what should RSL’s and Housing Groups be doing to prepare before October 2013 for this? Can IT and housing systems help? Most certainly your existing systems can help. I am sure there are few silver bullets to assist in this, however, don’t put faith in a great dashboard that for £20K can ‘drive insight into your resident arrears...’ or similar.

In my experience I have recently done work with a number of organisations who are only just tightening up the way their arrears procedures are married up with rent accounting and financial systems. Many are only just implementing workflow and (what I might term ‘smart’) arrears processing, including initial signup inductions. If your organisation does not use automated arrears or workflow in your systems, or maybe just in a cursory manner, it needs to be analysed and smartened up sharpish.

Auto arrears and particularly workflow is often left to phase 99 in a new HMS project. This is because its generally tricky, needs much involvement from the rents and management in a project team or capabilities were perhaps oversold in the first instance. Often too, solutions should span more than on system and supplier, so your prime provider will struggle to provide the best for you. In an internal project with one or more module ‘champions’, possibly utilising an outside consultant to inject new ideas and techniques and also engaging your suppliers too, you will stand a chance to drive improvements.

Signup and also annual tenant reviews are an ideal time to educate residents, link them with local credit unions, basic bank accounts and drive the move to a higher proportion of payments, in order to access HB via direct debit. If you are not already on AUDDIS, get on it either via your housing management system (if it supports it) or a supplier such as Bottomline . Closer relationships with residents will be needed, so your CRM module needs to be up to scratch, detailing all intercourse back and forth with your organisation. Consider opening up access to all your staff to CRM. Costs can be high, be sure to explore licensing models, often a ‘lite’ user licence can be available at reduced cost.Check you are leveraging all your communication options too, email, SMS TXT, autodailers, preferred languages, twitter, facebook etc.

Keep an eye too on how well your asset management system integrates. With the bedroom tax coming, that needs a serious consideration on bedroom / permitted person data. One for a future blogpost methinks!

Also don’t forget the economic times we are currently in.  Apart from whoever has got the gig to write the core system for the DWP, possibly usual suspects; Accenture and IBM, most suppliers keen for a deal can these days be more flexible on price. Don’t forget to ask for yours!


Many things are already universal.


(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk

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