Thank you for all those of you who attended the Benefit Updater 2014 courses recently (open and in house courses). We'd like to share a few of the points during the many interesting discussions that were had-
Debt- is becoming an increasingly common feature of all households on benefit as increases in basics such as food and fuel have increased above inflation and multiple benefit cuts can often affect the same households. Local Welfare Provision- varies between areas often with vouchers for white goods being paid. It is very rare for cash amounts to be given. We spoke of the importance of getting hold of copies of your local scheme guidance. There was little knowledge/ publicity around short term benefit advances.
Sanctions- are increasingly common with many examples of clients coping without money for weeks and sometimes months on end. Hardship payments were discussed as a temporary solution as well as challenging decisions by revision/ appeal. In one case a security guard at a Job Centre was said to have turned away a man with learning disabilities who had arrived 20 minutes early to sign on. He then returned 2 minutes late to sign on and had his JSA sanctioned for 4 weeks. Lack of computer literacy has also contributed to sanctions. Mandatory reconsideration(revision) before appeal- can be confusing for clients who are challenging ESA decisions, often meaning that they need to sign on for JSA whilst awaiting the outcome of the mandatory revision, and then later return to ESA(and supply sick notes) at the assessment phase rate whilst then appealing.
There were worries about how long clients would have to wait for the outcome of a revision and how they would cope with the JSA conditionality in the meantime.
Bedroom tax/ spare room subsidy- many of you had tried to be very pro active to mitigate the effects. Only a small number of clients were able to downsize, and this was especially difficult where mainly 2 and 3 bedroom properties had been built in the local area. Various legal challenges were discussed including MA and others [2013] EWHC 2213(QB) which may proceed to the Supreme Court. In the meantime we talked about claiming DHP's and challenging decisions by means of a late appeal to avoid the anti test case rule.
Discretionary Housing Payments- some councils were reported to be on track to spend all their allocation but a considerable number were probably going to have to hand back a sizeable chunk to central government. Local Council Tax Reduction- most of the schemes discussed did charge those on passporting benefits at least a minimum although a number still replicated the Council Tax Benefit scheme for all.
Click here for our in house Benefit Updater Course.