Revised level of service from LCC's Welfare Rights Service.. January 2016

 The core purpose of the Welfare Rights Service is to provide a high quality, comprehensive and independent personal welfare rights service. The key functions of the service relevant to our advice partners and Lancashire residents are:

formation, advice and help on all DWP benefits, Housing Benefit/Council Tax Support and Tax Credits

 Information, advice and help on all DWP benefits, Housing Benefit/Council Tax Support and Tax Credits

 Appeal tribunal representation

 Consultancy and training

Why is the Welfare Rights Service changing?

The Welfare Rights Service (WRS) has been in existence for almost 30 years and throughout this time we have always managed to maintain a comprehensive service and respond to all benefit enquiries no matter what the issue or pressures we have had to bear. However, due to a reduction in staffing although we are doing our best to maintain as much of our advice provision as we can, we can no longer keep doing what we were.

As a result of previous savings that we are committed to making which date back to 2014 we are losing a further 12 staff by the end of March this year. This will mean the WRS will have 20 staff (19 full time equivalent) operating across Lancashire. There is of course further spending reviews underway which may mean the loss of more staff. All this is set against a back drop of considerable changes in Social Security provision, not least the impact of Welfare Reform which is gathering pace in the changes it brings. Despite these challenges we can still help people with their benefit problems, but in order to maintain our specialist work we need to reduce the more generic help that we have been able to provide until now.

Alternative support with form completion.

From 4th January 2016, we have had to stop providing assistance with Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) forms, Personal Independence Payment (PIP) forms, and Housing Benefit/Council Tax Support forms. We have asked our contact centre to redirect people in the following way:

 

Welfare Rights Service

If a customer rings for help with an ESA50 form which is a self-assessment form for Employment and Support Allowance, they can get guidance with the form from Maximus which is the medical assessment service of the DWP by ringing 0800 288 8777. Here's a link to the information: https://www.chdauk.co.uk/updates/2015/10/chda-launches-esa50-support-team

If a customer rings for help with a PIP form which is a self-assessment form for Personal Independence Payment, they can get guidance with the form and if need be an extension to the time they have to complete the form by ringing 0845 850 3322 (Textphone: 0845 601 6677). Local advice agencies have been swamped with requests to help people with these forms and are struggling to manage so customers may not find help with the form from other local agencies.

If a customer rings for help with a Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support form, they should ring their local District Council who can make an appointment to see them and go through the form with them if appropriate.

We are very aware that some customers have complex needs and therefore may still need specific help with a form and are unable to utilise the above services, so where necessary we can still refer people to the DWP Visiting Service but this will be in exceptional cases. With all other benefit forms we do not normally provide assistance in their completion, but in some cases where we cannot give advice by phone, we will also refer on to the DWP visiting service if appropriate.

Help with benefit checks.

For those customers who simply want to know if they are entitled to any benefits help or if they are getting the correct amount of benefit based on their income, if they are able to go online we are asking customers to use the benefit calculators that are available on Gov.uk. We have put a link to them on our website here http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/benefits-and-grants/benefits-advice/benefits-information.aspx We have used the 'entitled to' benefits calculator when training some volunteers, it works well and gives accurate information, but it is only of use to those whose circumstances are clear and they are just checking if they are getting everything they are entitled to.

Referrals for advice and response times.

We are still receiving a high number of requests for help and advice. We have therefore had to change our response times as we may struggle to get back to people within 5 working days, so for now we are advising people that we can take up to 10 working days to get back to them. If we can see from the enquiry that the matter is urgent we will of course still respond quickly, but many enquiries simply state they want a benefit check, and therefore will be treated as low priority.

If you are referring a customer to us for help, we do have an online enquiry form that you can use on our website here: https://eforms.lancashire.gov.uk/AF/an/default.aspx/RenderForm/?F.Name=LcvTz1gtKUv

Alternatively you can continue to ring our contact centre on 0300 123 6739, they will take all the necessary information and pass the details on to us to respond to.

 

Welfare Rights Service

If you do refer people to us, it is helpful if you can provide as much information as possible relevant to the enquiry so that we can better assess the help required and the priority. We do receive many enquiries that simply request a benefit check, but many actually need advice and this needs to be clear in the enquiry if at all possible.

It's helpful if anyone who is challenging a benefit decision is referred on to us at the earliest possible opportunity, as this gives us time to properly assess their case, obtain any further evidence that may be needed, and to prepare them if the case proceeds to an appeal hearing.

For more information

If you have any queries or need further information please do get in touch.

Joanne Barker          Service Manager

Welfare Rights Service , County Hall, Preston, PR1 0LD

Tel: 0300 123 6739

Email: joanne.barker@lancashire.gov.uk