After nearly a year's deliberation, the Changing for the Future Welfare Rights Review Group on the city council have come up with a report. Unfortunately their report will not set the heather alight. This report will be considered by the Policy and Resources Committee on Monday evening.
In their strategy, the review group point out that:
- many Dundee citizens are not claiming social security benefits to which they are entitled,
- there are many 'Condem' government cuts to welfare benefits coming up over the next year or two and - that the combination of these factors already has a negative impact on the economy of our city.
What is inadequate is the level and range of responses by the Council. The report's preferred response is to redeploy our welfare rights advisers (based in the Social Work Department) to train other staff to improve their advisory skills. This small team of welfare rights staff are recognised as the elite social security advisers in the city. If you had a social security appeal coming up, you would want one of these staff to advise you about the paperwork and represent you at the tribunal. These staff are also the only accredited advisers in the city in this particular field. So while this small and specialist team's resources are diverted into training others to provide better first level advice, the queue for help with the tribunals will just get longer. Additionally as more claims are submitted, it is inevitable that the volume of appeals in the city will grow. How will the already stretched Welfare Rights council staff and paid and unpaid staff in voluntary advice agencies manage?
This report has nothing to say about these issues.
At a time of continuing recession, economic insecurity and squeezed family budgets, Dundee deserves better.
