Agenda item

Purpose of Report

To provide the Joint Committee with an update on the activity undertaken and the outcomes achieved by the Welfare Advisers in the Revenues and Benefits Shared Service.

Decision

(1)  That the report be noted.

(2)  That the success stories be publicised to illustrate the difficulties in negotiating the benefit system or dealing with debt and how the Welfare Team could support residents.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None.

Reason for Decision

The Welfare Team offered two distinct but closely linked services, noted as benefits advice and money advice. The benefits advice service offered a help-desk facility during Council opening times and was effectively a duty officer who was available to answer customers’ enquiries, book appointments and home visits, calculate individual entitlement to means-tested benefits and see drop-in customers if necessary, help with crisis situations, such as the provision of food larder vouchers. The money advice side of the service was operated under the administrative umbrella of Community Money Advice and was regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority which required that there was a clear and distinct separation between the line management of staff who were responsible for the collection of income. As a result of this requirement the Welfare Team reported to the Customer Services Manager at the City of Lincoln Council.

The report provided an overview of the 2020/21 financial year which highlighted that the team had dealt with 6,830 customers for benefit related queries. This was a small decrease on the previous 12 months when the total was £7372. However, this was excellent performance given that the team had spent much of the year working from home and had not been able to see customers at drop-in sessions or complete home visits.

In the year 2020/21 the team issued a total of 1,047 food vouchers for local community larders and food banks. This was a very large increase on the previous year when the total was 535 vouchers. Previous years had shown very small and gradual increases in numbers seeking emergency food and prior to the current Covid-19 situation it seemed that demand was reaching a plateau.

Additional benefits claimed by customers who had sought the advice and assistance of the Welfare Team were set out in paragraph 4.6 of the report and the total value of additional income paid over 52 weeks for both districts in the Shared Service equated to a weekly value of £1,515,510.44.

In addition to the weekly amounts of benefit awarded to individuals, in many cases customers had backdated awards or lump-sum payments, which were outlined in paragraph 4.10 of the report. This equated to £423,467.49 for 2020/21.

In terms of money advice casework, in 2020/21 the team received 152 referrals for money advice, compared to 281 in the previous year. 104 individuals, couples and families were signed up for casework and given support to deal with their debts. This was about two thirds of the number of casework customers as the previous year. It was believed that the reduction in money advise casework because during the restrictions less  debt recovery work had been undertaken and therefor customers had not been facing debt crisis. It was expected that this would mean that there would be an increase in demand as the freeze recovery action started to be lifted,

The total debt managed for 2020-2021 was £153,992 for 38 North Kesteven Residents and £299,480 for 66 City of Lincoln Residents compared to £281,252 for 59 North Kesteven residents and £491,550 for 97 City of Lincoln Residents for 2019/20. The total level of debt managed across the shared service was £453,472.

The committee discussed the individual success stories highlighted within the report and requested that these be publicised to illustrate the difficulties in negotiating the benefit system or dealing with debt and how the Welfare Team could support residents.