Welfare Rights Team - Annual Report 2023/2024

Awareness raising, advice and training sessions

Throughout the last financial year we delivered over 40 sessions to internal teams and to Partner agencies including regular monthly/ 6-weekly sessions to the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Group and the Health and Wellbeing/Dementia Café. We also delivered talks to all PKC Sheltered Housing complexes for the second year running to ensure that the residents are aware of the advice services that are available.

We delivered training to a range of Partner organisations last year including, Perth Citizen's Advice Bureau, Turning Point, Simon Scotland, NHS Tayside (Macmillan Nurses, Cancer Nurse Specialists, Health Visitors, midwives, Family Nurses and Murray Royal Hospital staff), Letham 4All, Perth & Kinross Foodbank, Kinloch Rannoch Community group and the Breadalbane Community Larder and the Employability Network.

Internally, we delivered sessions to teams and groups including, the Early Intervention & Prevention Team, Head Teachers, Cairnwell Mental Health Team, Social Prescribers, Early Years Practitioners, Child Protection Team, Children & Families Field Work Teams, Carer's Strategy Group and the Cost of the School Day Working Group.

Second tier advice

As well as providing awareness sessions, talks and training we also provide second tier advice to the Council's frontline support workers and the frontline of external agencies. Advising workers is an integral part of the work that we do and we would not be able to assist so many households were it not for the many relationships with we have with teams and agencies.

We are part of the toolkit for our colleagues on the front-line, working together towards better outcomes for households throughout Perth and Kinross.

Case study

Marella is a Support Worker that works for a third sector agency in the Perth and Kinross area, she contacts the Welfare Rights Team for advice regarding rent arrears and a benefit check for her client. The Welfare Rights Officer undertakes a comprehensive welfare benefit check for the client based on the information provided by Marella and explains the actions that Marella should take with her client's consent. She's sent an email that contains all of the advice in step-by-step format with the benefits to be applied for in order of priority (some benefits have to be claimed before others can be claimed). Marella duly assists her client based on the advice provided by the Welfare Rights Team. She contacts us later to advise that all but one benefit claim was successful and we advise Marella on how to request a mandatory reconsideration of the decision and to apply for a Crisis Grant for her client to alleviate the crisis.

This is one example of the interactions that we have on a regular, often daily, basis with agencies inside and outside of the organisation. Following training sessions we actively encourage support workers to contact us so that we can help them to navigate the benefit system and we do this because of the ever-changing nature of the benefits system. Most Support Workers know enough about the benefits system to know of the risks that mis-information or mis-advice can pose to household incomes. We therefore encourage workers to come to us for advice as much as they need to. We sit behind agencies and strengthen their services in doing so.