Advice Dorset Partnership E News No 19: 5 January 2023

05/01/2023
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The Advice Dorset Partnership E news is published fortnightly on a Thursday, BUT if there is something urgent in-between we will send out a short supplementary edition. Welcome to the first edition of 2023.

As usual feel free to forward this email to colleagues and they can get in touch with us if they wish to go on the list. If you would like to send anything out via the bulletin, and for all other enquiries about the Advice Dorset Partnership, contact Caroline Buxton on her Citizens Advice Central Dorset email: mailto:[email protected]

You can view previous editions of the E news HERE

Jobs

Citizens Advice in East Dorset & Purbeck: Two roles:

Income Maximisation Caseworker to work across the Dorset Council area, supporting residents to maximise their incomes and manage their money more effectively in order to reduce the risk of homelessness. This post will work closely between Citizens Advice and Dorset Council. Hours: 37 Hours per week, Salary: NJC scale 17 £26, 845 p/a.
Outreach Worker to help support our marginalised communities. Hours: 37 Hours per week, Salary: NJC scale 17 £26, 845 p/a

Closing dates for both roles: 16 January 2023. Read more below:

Income-Maximisation-Caseworker-Dec-2022-1
Outreach-worker-Dec-22

Bridport and District Citizens Advice – Welfare Benefits Caseworker / Supervisor: Bridport CA are seeking to recruit an experienced welfare benefits caseworker, able to provide specialist welfare benefits casework and consultancy, including representation at benefits appeals. The role also involves supporting colleagues and volunteers within the benefits team with welfare benefit casework enquiries through one-to-one support, supervision, mentoring, and training. Although the post will be based at Citizens Advice Bridport there may be a need to travel to other Dorset offices and Tribunal venue in Weymouth to fulfil this requirement. Hours: 32 per week. Salary: Up to £26,975 gross FTE subject to experience. Job Type: 3 year fixed term. Closing date 16 January. Read more here and below:

Welfare-Benefits-caseworker-supervisor-job-advert-Dec-22

Information updates

COST OF LIVING ISSUES

Fuel support for those that missed out: Certain groups have missed out on energy support payments already made to most households. To remedy this:

households with no direct relationship to a domestic energy supplier (for example, care home residents and residents of certain parkhomes, caravans and houseboats) will be able to apply for a £400 discount under a new Energy Bill Support Alternative Funding Scheme; online applications will open in January 2023 via a government portal.
a £200 Alternative Fuel Payment will be made to households that use alternative fuels such as biomass or heating oil – eligible households will be paid automatically via their electricity supplier in February 2023 (those with no electricity supplier can claim via the online portal). Read the press release on the AFP here.

Government’s ‘It all adds up’ energy saving campaign: This campaign (read more here) is aimed at helping UK households cut hundreds of pounds off their bills this year by:

reducing the temperature a boiler heats water to before it is sent to radiators (known as the boiler flow temperature) from 75⁰C to 60⁰C, which will not reduce the temperature of your home but could save around £100 annually
turning appliances off at the plug, which could save approximately £70 per year
reducing heating loss from the property such as putting draught excluders around doors or by adding clear film across windows, which could save around £60 a year

Other money saving information

Checking how to switch phone, internet or TV supplier – on Citizens Advice
Energy supply issues – on Citizens Advice
Grants and benefits to help you pay for your energy – on Citizens Advice
Money Saving Expert: advice if struggling to pay energy bills is here, and how to check if your direct debit is right – and fair – here.

Cost of Living payments: The Govt has just announced 2023-4 payments totalling £900 for those on means-tested benefits. The first payment of £301 will be made in the spring, with a second of £300 in the autumn and a final £299 instalment in the spring of 2024. Exact dates are yet to be finalised, but ministers said the money would help households with high energy bills. There will also be a disability and a pensioner payment. Read the Govt press release here.

Local Information – food / energy efficiency / furniture:

BCP – access to food map – here.
Dorset Council – access to food – information here.
Healthy Homes Dorset: Free energy advice; checking if people qualify for assistance with increased loft insulation or cavity wall insulation. Access to other programmes (some have specific criteria). See the Healthy Homes website here, and their delivery partner Ridgewater Energy is here.
Dorset Reclaim: a not-for-profit furniture re-use project offering electrical and household goods donated from local people & businesses to the general public with additional discounts available for households on low incomes. People can contact them directly or be referred; more info here.

UKRAINE

New package of support for hosts of Ukrainian refugees: announced on 14 December:

Homes for Ukraine hosts will receive £500 a month after a Ukrainian’s first year of sponsorship, up to the end of the second year – this may include where their hosting is extended by re-matching with new guests
£150 million additional funding for local authorities to reduce the risk of homelessness – this will not be ring fenced for Ukrainian cases
councils in England to get new £500 million fund to acquire housing stock for those fleeing conflicts (includes Ukraine and Afghanistan)
new potential hosts urged to come forward and apply to re-match existing guests through the scheme
financial help to local authorities per head is reduced next year, except in relation to Ukrainians in education

Read the press release here. However, please note that there has been no change in law or guidance with regards to someone staying with a benefit claimant. The longer someone stays with a host, the more likely it is that the arrangement could be seen to no longer be ‘temporary’ and there may be a range of benefit implications that come with that. If you have a client who is a host, and is worried about this, they should check with their benefit provider before making a decision.

Dorset Council information updated 20 December 2022 – advice for hosts and guests post 6 months – here and welcome guide last updated 1 December – here.
BCP Council’s Welcome pack is here.

BENEFITS

Missing £10 Christmas Bonus: At the start of December the DWP said that the £10 Christmas bonus should normally be paid in the first full week in December and would usually show up as a single £10 payment with the reference ‘DWP XB’. However we understand that many of those who have received the bonus got it as part of their PIP or ESA award, rather than a separate payment. Claimants who have not received their payment are told by the DWP contact the Jobcentre Plus office that deals with their benefits or the Pension Service, but this appears not to be correct in many cases. The Govt information is here.

Benefit Changes in 2023: Turn2Us has done a month-by-month summary here. There is a specific issues for Carers Allowance: From April 2023 CA goes up in line with inflation but the earnings limit is only going up by 5.5% to £139/week. Someone whose earnings increase (eg. due to the NMW increase) may find they then exceed this, and have to make decisions such as reducing hours. A recent Benefit Training Company podcast covered this and also the question of whether it is worth someone on UC claiming Carers Allowance, as it is deducted from UC. One advantage can be that if there is an interruption to someone’s UC they would still have some income via CA; there may also be advantages in terms of the NI credits applied.

Compensation for wrong advice to claim Universal Credit (UC): In a recent case which went to the Northern Ireland (NI) Public Services Ombudsman, the NI Department for Communities has been ordered to pay over £11k to a claimant as compensation for wrongly advising them to claim UC, against its own guidance. The claimant’s Working Tax Credit ended as a result of the UC claim, and they were found not to be entitled to UC. The case is a reminder that it can be worth pursuing complaints if a client has lost out as a result of advice to claim UC by the DWP, HMRC or local authorities. Once that agency’s complaint procedure has been exhausted, claimants can escalate to the Independent Case Examiner (ICE), though there are currently delays – it takes on average a year to allocate a case to an examiner.

HOUSING

A survival guide to starting a tenancy and right to rent checks: This advicenow guide is for people who are thinking about renting from a private landlord, want to know more about right to rent checks , and might experience unfair treatment from landlords or lettings agents. This guide is therefore particularly useful for refugees and other migrants, EU citizens living in the UK, people on benefits, disabled people and students.

Events

Resolution Foundation: New year, renewed squeeze? The outlook for living standards in 2023 and beyond. Online (you tube) and in person event, Monday 9 January, 9.30 – 10.45. Following a presentation of the key highlights from the Foundation’s Living Standards Outlook 2023 – which includes a new survey of 10,000 people’s recent experiences of the crisis, funded by the Health Foundation – we will hear from leading experts on Britain’s living standards challenges. Register here.

Citizens Advice – Cost of Living briefing: Thursday 19 January, 11.30 – 12.30. Register via eventbrite.

Reports, blogs, research and surveys

Joseph Rowntree Foundation – Going Under and Without: JRF’s Cost of Living Tracker, Winter 2022/23: This report makes clear that the Government support provided so far in the cost of living crisis hasn’t been sufficient to stem the rising tide of hardship for millions of families on the lowest incomes up and down the country. It highlights that low-income households’ finances continue to buckle under the pressure of the cost of living crisis, and finds that it is households on the very lowest incomes who are struggling the most, with three-quarters of those in the bottom 20% of incomes going without food or other basic essentials like clothing or toiletries. People on Universal Credit (UC), private renters, and young adults are all seeing rising and worrying levels of hardship. Read more here.

Citizens Advice:

The cost of living support won’t prevent a bleak Christmas for many: Analysis of data shows that current Govt support not really helping – read more here.
12 useful things to know as we head into the festive break – tips for support through the break and into the New Year, here.
December’s Cost of Living dashboards – here.

DWP and RightsNet survey on use of UC Journal: The External Stakeholder Engagement team are working alongside RightsNet DWP Research Partners to gather insight regarding the UC Journal, with an aim to “improve our service to our customers and their families, friends, appointees and those that support them like yourselves”. There is a survey to investigate how people claiming UC use the Journal on their account; the takes less than 10 minutes to complete. The researchers will use the responses to inform potential design improvements to the Universal Credit Journal. We are looking for anyone who supports customers with claiming Universal Credit to complete the Survey. Closing date: 11th January. More info on RightsNet here, and follow this link to the survey.

CPAG Blog – In Work Poverty: Rates of in-work poverty have been rising steadily. Sixty-eight percent of working-age adults live in a household where at least one person works, the highest figure on record. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on poverty held two evidence sessions looking at the experiences of in-work poverty and the role employers can play in addressing it. Read more on what they heard here.

Funding News

Neighbourhood Fund: Administered by Dorset Community Foundation this fund provides grants of up to £5k, to Dorset groups with an income of less than £250k. Closing date 13 January.

The Neighbourhood Fund supports grassroots community groups delivering local services/activities that address a broad range of social issues. Grants help local groups to improve the lives of those most in need of support. We want our grants to support and reflect the diversity of our county and we welcome applications from groups supporting diverse communities including communities who may be facing discrimination. Two areas of interest:

Services that support older people to lead more active, healthy and independent lives (addressing social isolation and loneliness, declining health, poor access to services and support for carers)
Services that support people experiencing mental health issues, including those with diagnosed conditions and early intervention work (addressing low self-esteem and personal aspirations, relationship difficulties, unhealthy coping behaviours and other issues)