Welfare Rights Team - Annual Report 2023/2024

The Welfare Trust is a combination of small charitable funds that we have administered on behalf of the Trustees since 2018.

To be considered for a Welfare Trust payment the applicant / family must:

• Reside in the Perth & Kinross area.
• Have no savings/capital that can be used to cover the cost of the need.
• Have a low income or be experiencing financial hardship, the same rules that apply to the FIF scheme.
• Be vulnerable due to age, ill-health, disability or other disadvantage.
• Be willing to undertake a comprehensive benefit check.

The Welfare Trust can only normally meet a one-off need and no more than one award can be made in a rolling 12 month period.

Welfare Trust payments cannot replicate / duplicate assistance that is provided elsewhere e.g. through statutory or other provision.

In 2023/24 the Welfare Trust received 261 applications from which 153 awards were made (58% award rate) with a total spend of £28,622.03.  With an average household award of £187.

201 applications were from households with children and 186 were from households where someone in the household had a disability.

The Welfare Rights Team identified a need and submitted 114 of the applications themselves. Members of the public submitted 135 applications on their own and 12 applications were submitted on behalf of clients by NHS, Scottish Welfare Fund, CHAS, Housing and Broke Not Broken.

Awards were made for a variety of items, including; clothing, electronic devices (tablets), TV, bedroom furniture, pram, cot-bed, water filter, smart-phones, insurance excess, swimming lessons, MOT, vet bill, recliner chair, school trip and professional registration to allow someone to work.

The scheme closed early last year in November 2023 as the fund was exhausted, however, we were allocated additional funding to the Financial Insecurity Fund to provide a similar discretionary scheme.

Case studies

Case study - Miss Dawson

An online self-referral was received from Miss Dawson requesting a benefit check because she was struggling financially with the cost of living rurally and the cost of getting back to work following a period of sickness. Miss Dawson had been under-going treatment for cancer. She was in receipt of Universal Credit and living in social housing with her adult son.

A welfare benefit check was completed and there were no entitlements missing.

Miss Dawson mentioned during diagnostic interview with the Welfare Rights Officer that she is trying to get back to work and the one last barrier that she faced was a professional subscription that would allow her to become a self-employed teacher. The subscription cost £238 and she did not have the means at that time to cover the cost. The Welfare Rights Officer submitted a Welfare Trust application on her behalf and a payment covering the cost was awarded in order to remove her barrier to work. As Miss Dawson lives rurally and met the eligibility criteria for FIF, an application was also submitted and a FIF Rural Hardship Payment was made of £100.

In addition, our Macmillan Welfare Rights Officer submitted a Macmillan Grant application on her behalf and an award of £300 was made by Macmillan Cancer Support.

A total of £638 was awarded to the household.

Case study - Mrs Travis

Mrs Travis is a lone parent with one child, 3 years old and she owns her own home. She is currently employed, earning around £1000 per month and she is also in receipt of Universal Credit (which includes help with childcare costs), Council Tax Reduction, Single Person's Discount on her Council Tax liability, Child Benefit and Scottish Child Payment. Her Universal Credit entitlement was checked as being correct for her circumstances.

Mrs Travis telephoned the Welfare Rights Advice Line as her upstairs neighbour had a leak/flood for the second time in the last 18 months resulting in water damage to her property (walls, flooring, furniture, clothing etc).  Her home insurance would cover the cost of replacement and repairs but Mrs Travis still had to find £500 in order to cover the cost of the excess.

Eligibility for a Financial Insecurity Fund payment was explored, however Mrs Travis did not meet the criteria for any of the payments available at the time.

Welfare Rights submitted a Welfare Trust application to cover the cost of her excess and Mrs Travis was duly awarded £500.

Case Study - Maggie

We received a referral from Housing for Maggie who lived alone in a two-bedroom Perth & Kinross Council property in a rural location.  She was in receipt of Universal Credit but had recently became a registered childminder. She was struggling to start her childminding business because of household debts and other barriers.

As Maggie had a low-income we submitted a Financial Insecurity Fund application for her and she was paid a Rural Hardship payment of £100 along with a contribution towards her priority debts including energy debt of £440. This payment cleared her debt with her energy supplier.

We advised Maggie about the Minimum Income Floor that Universal Credit applies after 12 months of self-employment (the Department for Work and Pensions assume a level of earnings before making any Universal Credit award so what she is paid in respect of Universal Credit could change after a year).  She was also receiving Council Tax Reduction and Single Person's Discount on her Council Tax liability and so she was in receipt of her full entitlements.

Maggie's car had failed it's MOT. Having her car was essential to Maggie's work as a childminder, so we submitted a Welfare Trust application on her behalf in order to cover the cost of these essential repairs to allow her to start her childminding business.  Maggie was awarded £230 from the Welfare Trust to allow her to start working.