Welfare Rights Team - Annual Report 2023/2024

Partnership working is at the heart of all that we do. We would like to thank all of our Partners for their support. It would not be possible to reach as many households as we do were it not for the ongoing efforts and collaborative work that takes place each and every day across all sectors in Perth & Kinross.

Child poverty

We have a statutory duty to report on the income maximisation activities we undertake in respect of households with dependent children.

Throughout the last financial year we provided advice and assistance to 1,734 families with dependent children. Of those, we can report a minimum of £2.5m in additional income to these families. This is an average household gain of £1440.

The areas of our work that specifically centres around children and families includes our seamless referral service with Midwives, Health Visitors and Family Nurses; our partnership working with Aberlour, our work with schools and our seamless referral service around Kinship Carers.

Maternity Services, Health Visiting and Family Nurse Partnership

Since 2017, following a test of change pilot with the Improvement Service, we receive seamless, online referrals from midwives, Health Visitors and the Family Nurse Partnership.

Last year we received 177 referrals from these Healthcare practitioners which resulted in £290k in benefit gains for the families referred. An average of £1638 per family.

We deliver talks and presentations to these practitioners on an on-going basis to ensure that we raise awareness of the service we provide and to promote the difference that we can make to low-income families.

Case study

A couple, with two children referred by Health Visitor via our online seamless referral agreement. The family were living in a Council property in Letham. Dad, Rab has severe mental health problems, and the family's entitlement to additional Universal Credit reflects this (Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity element). Mum, Jasmine had to attend Work Focussed Interviews at the time of referral. They have two children, Johnny and Tommy both under 5 years old. One of their boys had a diagnosis of Autism.

The case was allocated to our Families Worker to assist with Adult and Child Disability Payment claims that we'd identified as missing following a comprehensive benefit check.

At the time of referral their weekly income was £553.83 made up of:

• Universal Credit (including £115 to cover rent) of £463.93
• Child Benefit of £39.90
• Scottish Child Payment of £50

Both disability benefit claims were successful. Rab was awarded Adult Disability Payment Standard Daily Living at £68.10 per week with a £1979 backdate payment and son Johnny awarded Child Disability Payment of Middle Rate Care also £68.10 per week with a £1503 backdate payment.

These awards allowed Jasmine to claim Carers Allowance for looking after Tommy. This meant that she no longer had any Universal Credit conditions to satisfy (she didn't have to attend Work-Focussed Interviews due to her caring responsibilities being acknowledged by Carers Allowance being in Payment).

These awards increased the family's income by £211.78 per week.

When contacting the family to establish the outcome of their claims, Jasmine advised that Tommy was also being assessed for autism. We assisted with a further Child Disability Payment claim and Tommy was also awarded at Highest Rate Care and Higher Rate Mobility with benefit arrears of £3666.

Following our involvement the family's weekly income has almost doubled from £553.83 per week to £1102 per week, increasing their weekly income by £546.60.

The family will also be paid the Winter Heating Assistance annual payment of £251.50 and Jasmine will receive the Carers Allowance supplement bi-annual payment of £288.60 (£577.20 per year).

Aberlour - Tayside Hardship Project 

During 2021/22 we established a partnership with Aberlour and our Tayside counterparts to provide a comprehensive and enhanced welfare rights service to vulnerable families with dependent children. 

Last year, through our formal referral agreement with Aberlour 11 families with children on the "edge of care" were referred to us for comprehensive benefits advice and assistance.

We made payments to the value of £3k from the Financial Insecurity Fund to these families and they benefited from almost £3k in additional income with an average household benefit gain of £272.

In addition, we are now delivering a programme of training sessions around Reducing Council Tax Liability in partnership with our colleagues in Aberlour to frontline agencies across Perth and Kinross. We kicked the programme off in March 2024 and these will continue throughout 2024/25.

Testimonial from Aberlour

"PKC Welfare Rights have demonstrated exceptional expertise and passion in raising awareness of financial strategies aimed at alleviating the burden of debt and financial hardship on the families we support.

Their commitment to empowering individuals and families with practical knowledge on maximizing income and accessing available resources has been instrumental in our shared mission of providing holistic support. PKC Welfare Rights collaborative approach, coupled with their deep understanding of the challenges faced by vulnerable families, has undoubtedly made a significant impact on the lives of those we serve.

We are immensely grateful for PKC Welfare Right's invaluable contributions to our partnership and look forward to continuing our impactful work together in the future"

Richard Lister, Financial Wellbeing Co-ordinator, Aberlour

Kinship Carers

Established in 2015, our Kinship Care Seamless Referral Process in partnership with our colleagues in Children & Families Service seeks to ensure that all kinship carers have access to the correct benefits advice, assistance and representation as well as to ensure that they receive the correct financial support from the Local Authority. We also identify kinship carers who are missing out and refer them to Children & Families for additional support.

Last year we supported 61 kinship care families.

The partnership generated £141k for the families with an average of £2,311 for each household.

We also assisted the Kinship Care Team to undertake their annual reassessment of Kinship Care payments to by offering comprehensive advice and assistance to all Kinship care families in order to ensure they were receiving the correct Department for Work and Pensions and Social Security Scotland benefit entitlements, therefore allowing the Kinship Care Team to ensure that the correct level of relevant Kinship Care payment was also being paid.

Case study

Marie was referred to us by the Kinship Team as a Residence Order had been granted for the 4 children in her care.

At the time of referral she had income-related Employment & Support Allowance, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction in payment along with Kinship payments.

Marie's change of circumstances triggered a claim for Universal Credit (becoming responsible for the children in her care, we assisted with claims for Universal Credit, Child Benefit and Scottish Child Payment.

Marie needed birth certificates for Child Benefit to be paid so we supported her to obtain these.

Her eldest grandson suffered from debilitating anxiety so we helped her to claim Child Disability Payment (CDP). Daniel was attending Navigate as he could not cope with mainstream schooling. We await the outcome of the CDP claim.

We also assisted with a CDP claim for her youngest grandson because he struggles with emotional issues and ongoing trauma from serious neglect.

A further CDP claim is to be completed for one of the other children who has similar mental health problems.

Marie also has some physical and mental health problems fibromyalgia and we've identified that Adult Disability Payment should be in payment for her however she's adamant that she wants us to concentrate our efforts on her grandchildren first while she considers the claim for herself.

There are on-going housing issues as the family are living in overcrowded conditions which compounds all of the issues. This is being co-ordinated by both Housing and Social Work colleagues.

We await the results of the benefit claims that have been made, however, to this date the household has benefitted from a Welfare Trust payment of £500 and a Financial Insecurity Fund payment of £500.

Macmillan

Macmillan Cancer Support funds the Welfare Rights Team to provide an enhanced Welfare Rights service to people affected by cancer throughout Perth and Kinross. 

This enhanced service includes:

• undertaking benefit checks
• arranging for benefits to be claimed and forms completed
• lodging benefit appeals and representation at appeal tribunals
• providing basic money/debt advice
• giving advice on any other available support that may be available.

Last year we assisted 461 clients affected by cancer which is a 10% increase in people affected by cancer using our service.

Our involvement resulted in £2.4m in benefit gains for those clients which is a 60% increase in benefit gains for clients affected by cancer. This is an average of £5,200 per client.

Macmillan case study

We received a referral from Cornhill Macmillan Centre for a mixed age couple (this means that one partner is pension-age and the other is working-age).

The Macmillan Nurse explained that the couple (Mr & Mrs Cross) were reluctant to be referred for advice because he had been working cash-in-hand latterly and had not been submitting self-assessments. He was doing small jobs here and there every so often and so felt that he would have no entitlement to any benefits. Unfortunately, Mr Cross was diagnosed terminally-ill due to cancer.

Following advice from The Macmillan Welfare Rights Officer, Mr Cross reluctantly agreed to apply for Attendance Allowance and a Blue Badge as they were currently living off of what limited savings they had left. After many lengthy discussions with Mr Cross he also eventually agreed to make a claim for State Pension, we explained that he would have qualified 12 years ago and so should expect a substantial amount to be paid to him under the State Pension deferment rules whereby he could take a lump sum amount or a higher weekly amount.

The Macmillan Welfare Rights Officer met with the couple and contacted the Department for Work and Pensions to stress the urgency around the State Pension claim and the fact that Mr Cross would like to take up the lump-sum payment due to his circumstances. The Department for Work and Pensions reassured the Macmillan Welfare Rights Officer that a decision would be made quickly and that Mrs Cross would be paid in the unfortunate event that Mr Cross passed away. The Macmillan Welfare Rights Officer reassured Mr Cross that the likelihood was that his lump-sum would be significant and that if any tax was owed that this could be paid from his lump-sum. Mr Cross felt instant relief after having lived in fear for many years.

A claim for Carer Support Payment was also made for Mrs Cross in respect of her caring for Mr Cross.

Unfortunately, Mr Cross passed away a month prior to receiving his lump-sum payment. Mrs Cross received a backdated sum of £97k following numerous contacts with the Department for Work and Pensions where the situation had to be explained over and over again to different departments. Adding to the frustration and stress at a time when she was grieving the loss of her husband, Mrs Cross was also refused Carers Support Payment which we have also challenged and await a decision.

Testimonials from Cancer Nurse Specialists (CNS) and Improving the Cancer Journey service (ICJ)

"I have found the service very helpful. The information session they did in the IPU Cornhill was very informative and any time I have made contact they have very promptly contacted the patients I requested. Patients have also fed back to me how helpful they have been when they have spoken to them." (Suzanne CNS)

"Welfare Rights is an invaluable resource. Patients appreciate the support with financial advice at a difficult time in their life when they are often overwhelmed. To have someone support them through the application process and also looking at what they are entitled to, it helps relieve a lot of associated distress and provides a lot of relief particularly in recent months with the rising cost of living. From a professional perspective I always appreciate their advice particularly those scenarios that are less straight forward, they are quick to reply and always helpful." (Katie CNS)

"I have found Welfare Rights Team to be very helpful and supportive towards clients. The team have also been fantastic in providing advice and training to ICJ team and helping us navigate any changes such as transition from DS1500 to SR1. I refer all my clients who have money worries or are looking for advice on benefits to Welfare Rights Team.  Feedback from clients who have been referred to welfare rights service has been very positive. Clients are very pleased that they hear from welfare rights quickly usually within one or two days after being referred. Clients also always praise the help, advice and compassion they have received from the team." (Sian Hislop, Link Worker - Improving the Cancer Journey)

Macmillan Welfare Benefit Group

We attend the weekly Macmillan Welfare Benefit meetings chaired by Macmillan Cancer Support to liaise with other Macmillan funded advice agencies throughout Scotland, which includes our neighbouring authorities, Dundee City Council, Angus Council and Stirling Council. The group is chaired by the Macmillan Partnership Assurance Lead and discussion takes place regarding all aspects of the benefits system.

Social Security Scotland (SSS)

We work in partnership with Social Security Scotland and have done so since its inception in June 2018. The Local Partnership SSS workers are located within our office, and we have a referral process in place whereby they can refer clients to us. The service is complementary to ours providing form-filling assistance and advice on SSS benefits.

Perth & Kinross has been the pilot area for the introduction of Child Disability Payment, Adult Disability Payment and most recently Carers Support Payment.

We were involved in working groups, provided feedback and influenced the approach taken by Social Security Scotland in the rolling out of the benefit.

Feel the pinch campaign 

The Welfare Rights Team are key players in the Council's Feel the Pinch campaign which invites people who may be struggling with the cost of living (especially during winter months) to contact us to ensure that all statutory and other entitlements are in place and to make seamless referrals to other relevant agencies to ensure that the correct measures are in place to reduce the cost of heating homes. 

Joint Welfare Reform Steering Group (JWRSG)

The Welfare Reform Lead Officers (Alan Taylor, Lynn Brady and Nicola Sutherland) provide regular updates to all relevant stakeholders, including elected members, on our progress, impacts, emerging issues (local and national), risks and successes.

The Perth & Kinross Joint Welfare Reform Steering Group (JWRSG), established September 2012, which meets quarterly throughout each year and led by the Welfare Reform Lead Officers (Chair, Alan Taylor), has a wide membership including; cross-service representation, NHS Tayside, DWP, Jobcentre Plus, Registered Social Landlords, Scottish Business in the Communities, Perth CAB and Perth & Kinross Association of Voluntary Service (PKAVS). The JWRSG is responsible for overseeing the implementation of Welfare Reform changes and communication of the same to all relevant stakeholders in our communities.

In order to mitigate the impact of these benefit changes on the people of Perth and Kinross, the Welfare Rights Team offers training and awareness raising sessions around both of these changes to frontline staff.

The JWRSG meetings were suspended in 2021/22 due to other demands placed on the service, however, we have continued to communicate relevant updates to the membership via email. 

Tayside Advice Workers Forum

The forum includes representation from third sector and local authority advice agencies across the three Tayside authorities where we meet to discuss topical issues affecting clients and sharing best practice for our customers.

The forum usually meets quarterly, however due to the increase in demand for our services and retasking of officers during the Covid emergency these meetings have been suspended since 2020/21 and we await confirmation of them recommencing in the new financial year 2024/25.

We have agreed with Perth Citizen's Advice Bureau that we will form an Advice Practitioner's Forum and we will meet on a monthly basis from June 2024 to discuss local and national issues.