Under the scheme, the first involving benefit, the council will get the £24m in five years' time – but only if it meets various targets such as cutting its benefits bill and reducing benefit fraud reoffending rates. A target for the savings will be set soon.
Kent spends a total of £1.5bn a year on benefits – more than on health and education combined.
Last week, it commissioned Oxford University researchers to monitor benefit expenditure. They will report to the council every three months for five years.
We will invest any welfare we get back into welfare services in particularly deprived areas
Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, leader, Kent council
Kent is the first council to take such a step. The project is part of the government's Public Service Agreements plan, where local authorities get extra resources and spending flexibility in return for meeting targets. The authorities get one grant when they begin the scheme and a second if they meet their targets in five years.
Eighty local authorities have signed up to the scheme and 140 more have expressed an interest.
As well as homelessness and drug projects, Kent plans to spend the money it saves on schemes such as the "school that never sleeps", which opens from 7am to 7pm and offers courses for parents and pupils at weekends, family centres and 16 Plus, an education and social inclusion scheme for care leavers.
Source
Housing Today
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