Teign_Annual Report 2018

10 11 Providing opportunity / Annual Report 2018 Tenancy Renting our properties in a fair, transparent and efficient way and develop homes that meet local need. Provide you with themost secure type of tenancy that we can and making sure you canmaintain your tenancy with us. Universal Credit support We are focussing a lot of our resources on helping people to prepare for the introduction of Universal Credit. We have developed a Welfare Reform Action Group that ensures that we have a robust plan to prepare customers for welfare reform. Digital Universal Credit launched in the Teignbridge District during September 2018 and combines a number of core benefits into a single monthly payment which includes any housing costs. The introduction of Universal Credit is a significant change for the way benefit payments are made. In response to this we have launched Keeping in Touch visits and have been running events to raise awareness and provide important information to support customers. TeignCare In 2017/18 we had 1,259 TeignCare customers. Our TeignCare team completed 338 alarm installations. The net growth was 3.6%. Keeping in Touch Visits (KIT) This is a new approach developed to stay in contact with customers, to better understand the needs of individuals and how best we can support households. We now visit all customers in their own homes once every two years. KIT’s ensure we keep all customer information up to date and also helps maintain tenancies. These meetings also allow us to help customers access key advice on jobs and skills, health and wellbeing, digital inclusion and volunteering. One such visit resulted in a 93-year-old customer downsize to a property better suited to meet health needs, and also attracted a payment towards moving costs. Head Start In November 2017 we relaunched our Go 2 service to widen our tenancy support to customers. The team has helped more than 95 customers get to grips with their finances, access local services to find jobs, work towards health goals and build up digital skills. We helped customers gain additional income of more than £68,000, this is made up of additional benefit claims, discretionary housing payments and other grant applications. We hosted five community clear up days We helped customers access additional income of some £68,000 We supported 95 customers with free financial and employment advice We attended 252 new Keeping in Touch visits At a glance... In 2018/19 we will: Carry out 50% Keeping in Touch (KIT) visits across our all homes to provide support Increase Direct Debit take up by 50% in order to increase financial confidence Grow our Teigncare alarm business by increasing our customer base by at least 5% Increase actions identified through estate inspections including reporting repairs to communal areas, rubbish clearance, health and safety issues and similar Increase and improve when and howwe engage with our customers and communities through delivering patch promises and also developing a Community Charter £