Help at Hand in Broughty Ferry for Folk Trying to Cope with Changes to Their Social Security Benefits

Are you or anyone you know affected by the Welfare Reforms including the Benefits' Cap and Bedroom Tax?

Finding it hard to make ends meet?

Do you know about the upcoming changes in benefits and how they will affect you?

Do you or someone you know claim any of these benefits?

• Income Support
• Job Seekers Allowance (income based)
• Employment Support Allowance (income based)
• Working Tax Credits
• Child Tax Credits
• Housing Benefit
• Disability living allowance (DLA)

These benefits are changing – find out more from your local CONNECT officer for Broughty Ferry, Gail Watson. Gail is at the Ferry Library in Queen Street every Wednesday 2pm 4:30pm
email gail.watson@dundeecity.gov.uk

For a full list of regular surgery times across the City including the Wellgate Library read/download the list or to speak directly to an Adviser ring 01382 431205 and ask to be put through to a member of the CONNECT team.

The CONNECT team is a new initiative which is funded from the Big Lottery until March 2015 with the aim of addressing  the key issues people face as a result of the Welfare Reforms in Dundee. The project has created a Task Force of 8 officers, a Team Leader and 7 frontline multi-skilled staff which cover all eight Local Community Planning Partnerships. 

Welfare Rights and Wrongs for Older People in Dundee

At the Policy and Resources Committee last night we considered a report, "Hospital Fund and the Johnston Bequest",  which recommended that:
"..... a budget of £25,000 be provided from the Hospital Fund and Johnston Bequest to pilot a targeted welfare benefit advice service for older people in Dundee 2013/14."

What could be controversial about such a proposal at a time when, according the Department of Work and Pensions, 1 in 6 pensioners in Dundee are living on a low income? Additionally, that group of older people in our city will be finding their incomes severely squeezed by significant rises in their day to day living costs for essentials such as food and fuel. It is also widely recognised that as the benefit system is turned on its head, some of our older citizens will need help to navigate their way from one set of cash benefits to another and with submitting Internet only applications for government cash benefits. Furthermore, we know that our existing welfare rights advice agencies in the city are already under pressure.

While most Councillors were satisfied with reassurances that the new focus for some of the resources from these funds was legally acceptable, Liberal Democrat Councillor Fraser Macpherson, moved against this proposal with an amendment which read:
"I move as an amendment, that there should be no change to the current arrangements whereby from time to time, when funds allow, all 29 Councillors on the City Council are invited to nominate another deserving pensioner for addition to the list of beneficiaries and that the Chief Executive should be instructed to investigate the possibility of funding a pilot welfare advice service for older people in Dundee ass part of the process for setting the 3013/14 Revenue Budget."

In a nutshell, Councillor Macpherson, supported by Conservative Baillie Scott, wanted to keep the status quo whereby periodically, all 29 City Councillors were asked to nominate a deserving pensioner in their ward for an annual lifetime 'pension' of £70.

I thought that, in the context of the Fairness Strategy for Dundee which the Council had previously adopted, this proposal was a creative and constructive way of using some of the resources from these bequests, to benefit a wider number of older people. Furthermore, this proposal has the prospect of adding a more significant sum to many, not just a few, pensioners' pockets. 

The amendment by Councillor Macpherson (West End), supported by Conservative Baillie Scott (The Ferry) was defeated by 26 votes to 2.

Welfare Rights and Wrongs in Dundee

At the Policy and Resources Committee on Monday 12 March 2012, councillors were considering the Report on Changes to Housing Benefit and Welfare Reform. Here is a copy of my speech in support of my proposed improvements to recommendations in the report. My amendment, on behalf of the Labour Group, was approved.

Convener, I welcome this report but loath what it tells us about the combined reduction in benefits which will be paid out in our city.
It is indeed crucial that we address the issues affecting our citizens from the combined effects of the Westminster Government's cuts in social security benefits in Dundee. The paper from the Finance Directorate calculates that the combined annual reduction in cash benefits in the city will total £27.5 million.

This will significantly reduce household incomes that are already being squeezed by price increases in the shops, hikes in electricity and gas bills, increases in fares and at the petrol pumps. Every one of those families and households in receipt of less money reduces the cash in purses and wallets. That level of cash reduction not being rung up on the tills will inevitably have an effect in our city shops and businesses. As a result, I am sure that the council will find it a more challenging times in which to recover rent and council tax arrears.

The Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government at Westminster is the source of these changes and are to blame for heaping so many combined cuts on households.  It makes David Cameron's claim that "we are all in this together" sound rather hollow.
But there one matter that receives rather less attention in this report. Are the Council using their existing powers to the full to protect our citizens from the financial tsunami that is advancing towards us?
The paper has little to say about the evidence of growing demand for welfare rights advice in our city. Switching more benefit administration to the Department of Work and Pensions will mean many more folk interacting with a faceless service via a call centre or on a computer screen. Given the scale and complexity of the changes and the difficulties each household will have understanding and coping with the changes, demand for face to face welfare rights advice will inevitably grow. This will put a further strain on the existing providers of welfare rights advice in the city including the council.

So we need to know whether we have enough welfare rights advisers in Dundee and are these available in the right places? Where, for example, is the Broughty Ferry access point for at least a weekly surgery for Advice and Information on Welfare Benefits?

Many of the existing network of advice agencies lurch from year to year on insecure funding like the clients they serve. There should be scope for the Council to ensure that those agencies that provide front line advice and advocacy and meet quality standards have their funding guaranteed for three years.

In April 2013 there will be an important transfer of powers from the UK to Scotland when the responsibility for the payment of crisis loans and grants from the Department of Work and Pensions transfers to the Scottish Government. It’s not yet clear whether this will be administered by local councils or the Scottish Government. In the Council's submission to the Scottish Government consultation, the council indicated that their preferred option was for a national scheme with national guidance that is administered by local councils. We concur with that position and hope that the Scottish Government will as a matter of urgency clarify its position. The Council will need good notice of its additional responsibilities if it is to be ready to exercise these in a fair and efficient way to some of our most vulnerable citizens confused and disadvantaged as they migrate from one or more benefits to another. We need therefore as a committee to know how we are preparing to take on our responsibilities for this additional duty.

Convener, I so move.

Councillor Laurie Bidwell

12 March 2012

Policy and Resources Committee Monday 12 March, Report on Changes to Housing Benefit and Welfare Reform

Welfare Rights and Wrongs in Dundee

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. 

They also identify that many council staff might provide more comprehensive advice to the public and that better first time advice might reduce debts owed to the council in rent and council tax arrears. So far so good.

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. 

More needs to be done to convince us that this strategy will really deliver. I think the existing specialist roles of the welfare rights service in the Council should be protected while also improving the quantity and quality of welfare rights advice in the city. 

At a time of continuing recession, economic insecurity and squeezed family budgets, Dundee deserves better.

SNP's Mistaken & Meanest Cut of All?

Surely, one of the meanest and most mistaken cuts so far anticipated in Dundee has been set in train by the SNP led City Council. They have initiated a short term review of welfare rights services in the city. This is part of the Changing for the Future measures they devised to identify savings to deal with the anticipated £20 million shortfall in the council's budget for the next financial year.

Recent news on the Dundee economy have made for grim reading. Rising levels of unemployment, combined with job losses at Realtime Worlds and low vacancy rates. And the prospects are not looking good with alarming levels of combined public sector cuts in the city amounting to 1000 jobs disappearing. Add to that the impact on low income households of proposed cuts in social security benefits announced by the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition. Already some agencies such as CAB in Dundee are reporting that demand for welfare benefits advice and debt counselling are stretching their resources.

Councillor Laurie Bidwell said:

"At a point when many Dundee folk are exposed to the negative side effects of the bankers' excesses, why do our SNP councillors think that there is any scope for significant savings to be made in welfare rights agencies in Dundee? As a council, I think its our civic duty to protect the citizens of Dundee when they experience reductions in household income. If we don't have a vibrant range of free and independent advice agencies in the city, we can't guarantee the rights of our citizens when they are experiencing financial hardship or treated unfairly by public bodies and private organisations. Without access to free and independent advice services, these rights would only be reserved for people who can afford to buy their own financial and legal advice from solicitors and accountants. It's also common sense that if you maximise a household's income by helping them claim the welfare benefits they are entitled to, it not only raises the household's income but also increases the money circulating in the local economy in Dundee. It's a 'no brainer' that the demand for debt counselling and welfare rights advice in our city is likely to escalate rather than reduce in the near future. Why are the SNP being so unsympathetic to our citizens at times in their lives when they are experiencing real hardship?"

Councillor Richard McCready said:

"I am outraged at these proposals. The welfare rights services across the city offer a diverse service to a diverse group of users. We need to ensure that there is as much support as possible for those who need welfare rights advice. I think that proposals which might lead to a diminution of the service available to the people of Dundee are misguided. Our top priority must be prosperity and we need to do all we can to promote jobs in the city and for those who need welfare rights assistance we need to support the best service possible."

Notes

As part of the wide ranging 'Changing for the Future' package of measures, approved at the Policy & Resources Committee of Dundee City Council on Monday 23rd August, there was a Review of Welfare Rights provision.

Link to the Policy & Resources Committee Agenda and Papers which run to 204 pages. NB you will only need to examine/print out pages 7 - 16.
http://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/reports/agendas/pr230810-1.pdf

The Review of Welfare Rights was one of the reasons why Labour Councillors voted against the 'Changing for the Future' agenda but the SNP group pushed ahead using their majority on the Council.

There is a thirteen week time frame for the review, led by the Assistant Chief Executive, Chris Ward, concluding at the end of November 2010.

End Legal Loan Sharking

The UK now has one of the highest levels of personal debt in the world - in April this year the British people owed over £1,460bn in private debt.

Irresponsible lending can cause debts to become unmanageable: some loan and credit companies are charging annual interest rates equivalent to over 2500% (despite the Bank of England base rate being just 0.5%).

Borrowing at these rates repeatedly tips customers into inescapable cycles of debt and poverty. High debt repayments are linked to rent, council tax and utility arrears, constraints on job seeking behaviour, poor diets, cold homes, and mental and physical health problems.

This is legal loan sharking, a national scandal which must be stopped. It's come to our main streets. I agree with those who think its time to pressurise for government action to cap lending rates for all consumer credit.

Click to go to the online petition