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<p><del class="ministerial">Housing Benefit regulations has powers which allow local
authorities to make payments of Housing Benefit direct to the landlord if it appears
to be in the interest of the claimant and their family. Serious rent arrears, for
example arrears equivalent of six weeks’ rent, may indicate it is in the claimant’s
best interests to arrange direct payment.</del></p><p> </p><p><del class="ministerial">When
deciding whether to make direct payments local authorities must consider the individual
circumstances of each case.</del></p><p> </p><p><del class="ministerial">There are
currently no plans to review this policy.</del></p><p> </p><p><ins class="ministerial">Since
its inception in 2018, the Intelligent Automation Garage (IAG) has delivered 65 automations.
This has enabled DWP to save money and operational hours as well as increasing accuracy
through transforming DWP services, making processes easier for users to deliver better
outcomes for our citizens. It has a culture of pioneering new and innovative technologies
to reduce the reputational risk and citizen impact across our systems.</ins></p><p><ins
class="ministerial"> </ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">The IAG works predominantly
in large scale processing supporting customer facing colleagues in quickly reducing
backlogs with improved accuracy and compliance. It does this across a range of benefit
lines including: Employment and Support Allowance, Jobseekers Allowance, Social fund,
Carers Allowance and Pension credit.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial"> </ins></p><p><ins
class="ministerial">Automations to date include: Bundle Builder, Letters of Entitlement,
Think Secure Chatbot, Budgeting Loans, Employment and Support Allowance Fit Notes,
Faster Payments and Department for Communities in Northern Ireland mail scanning.
Other supported functionalities include: sending SMS text messages to citizens, generating
letters to notify citizens about a change in benefit status and processing benefit
payments.</ins></p>
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