Welcome to this week’s E News on the Citizens Advice Dorset website. Just a reminder that the Advice Dorset Partnership is a network of organisations providing advice and support to residents of Dorset and Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole. It is managed by Citizens Advice and is open to any organisation which provides information, advice and support/guidance to local residents.
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.
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If you would like to send anything out via the bulletin, and for all other enquiries about the Advice Dorset Partnership, contact Caroline Buxton at Citizens Advice Central Dorset: [email protected]
Jobs
The Dorset Gypsy Roma and Traveller Advocacy Project is a partnership between Citizens Advice and Kushti Bok, funded by The National Lottery. We are still looking for an 18.5 hours/week Advocacy Worker to be based at Citizens Advice BCP. Hourly rate £14.96. Application process via Citizens Advice Central Doreet – more information here. Closing date extended to 28 March.
Information updates
BENEFITS
Benefits and the Budget: These points are taken from the DWP’s Touchbase newsletter:
- Household Support Fund extended for a further six months in England, targeting support for those facing the most challenging financial circumstance, including ensuring families with children on free school meals get support outside of term time. [Obviously locally we do not yet know how Dorset and BCP Councils will decide to use this money].
- Universal Credit budgeting advance: extend the repayment period from 12 to 24 months, giving claimants more of their standard allowance to spend on their priorities.
- Extend Additional Jobcentre Support (AJS) pilots in England and Scotland adding an additional Claimant Review point. AJS allows work coaches to spend more time with claimants, helping them become more job-ready and move into work.
- Enable individuals to move towards having one workplace pension pot for life (Lifetime Provider) even when they move between employers.
- Raise the threshold for High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) to £60,000 taking 170,000 families out of paying this tax. The rate of the charge will also be halved so that Child Benefit is not repaid in full until you earn £80,000.
- The Chancellor made an announcement on disclosure elements of Value for Money (VfM), ensuring savers have confidence that their pension delivers the best possible value and long-term retirement outcomes and help schemes shift their focus from cost to a more considered and holistic assessment of value for money.
Uprating of social security benefits: Benefits, apart from those administered by HMRC, are increased by the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2024. Housing benefit will increase from 1 April; most other benefits from 8 April, or from the first benefit week that starts on or after 8 April and UC from the first day of an assessment period that starts on or after 8 April. More detail, including the impact for those people in the managed migration to UC process, is in this Adviser Online article.
EMPLOYMENT
National Minimum Wage (NMW):: NMW rates are increasing on 1 April 2024. The higher rate of the NMW, referred to as the National Living Wage (NLW), will from 1 April include workers aged 21 or more – currently the NLW applies those aged 23 and over. new rates:
- Apprentice: £6.40
- Under 18: £6.40
- 18 – 20: £8.60
- 21 and over: £11.44
Check eligibility rules and rates on Gov.uk, and ACAS has info on timings as to when increases are paid, and what to do if an employer pays less.
Changes to statutory leave payments: From 7 April the following pay rates for statutory maternity, adoption, shared parental, paternity leave and shared parental bereavement pay will increase to £184.03 per week (currently £172.48). Please note that all payments are payable at the statutory rate or 90% of weekly earnings if this is lower, other than first 6 weeks of maternity and adoption pay which are paid at 90% of average weekly earnings.
Statutory sick pay will increase on 6 April to £116.75 per week from £109.40. The earnings threshold for eligibility for these payments remains £123 per week.
Migrant care workers: From 11 March 2024, employers sponsoring migrant health and social care workers in England must now also be registered with the Care Quality Commission. Migrant care workers seeking to change an existing sponsor employer will also be bound by this rule, but it doesn’t apply to employment in Wales or Scotland. You can read more about new laws to tackle labour abuse on the Govt website here, and see also under Research for an article on the experiences of some migrant care workers, published by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. There is also another useful Adviser online article here: Health and Care visa workers: what problems do they face at work and how can advisers help them?
DEBT
Debt Relief Order (DRO) changes: In the spring budget, the government announced major changes to DROs. From 28 June the debt value limit will rise to £50,000, and the maximum value for a motor vehicle will rise to £4,000. From 6 April, the £90 application fee will be removed. Citizens Advice has been pushing for this policy change for a long time, and DROs will now be an option for many more clients.
If a client has already paid or part-paid the DRO fee: If the DRO hasn’t been submitted, and the client wants to submit after 6 April, they can request a refund. The DRO team has confirmed that clients will need to claim this on the standard form – payments won’t be returned automatically.
FAMILY
Spring Budget: The Budget included several measures that impact family advice including:
- improving the experiences of the courts for victims and survivors of domestic abuse through the continuing support for the Private Law Pathfinder Pilot
- Early Legal Advice Pilot investment to ‘expand the scope of Legal Aid to encompass early legal advice in private family law proceedings for parties considering an application to the family court for child arrangements’.
- a new online information and guidance tool to support earlier resolution of family disputes – read more on gov.uk
- additional funding for children’s residential care, and further provision for special free schools for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
- support for families via the extension of the Household Support Fund until September 2024
Childcare Support: Starting from April 2024, existing childcare support will be expanded in phases. By September 2025, most working families with children under the age of 5 will be entitled to 30 hours of childcare support. The changes are being introduced gradually to make sure that providers can meet the needs of more families. This means that:
- From April 2024, eligible working parents of 2-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours childcare support.
- From September 2024, 15 hours childcare support will be extended to eligible working parents of children from the age of 9 months to 3-year-olds.
- From September 2025, eligible working parents with a child from 9 months old up to school age will be entitled to 30 hours of childcare a week.
Read more from the Govt here. Information is also on the Citizens Advice website.…….and on Money Saving Expert.
IMMIGRATION
eVisas and the move to online-only immigration status: This year, the Home Office will end the use of biometric residence permits (BRPs), and replace them with online immigration status – similar to the EU Settlement Scheme. Applicants for visas and further leave will soon be asked to create an account after they apply, and by year-end this will be part of the application process. This spring, the Home Office will start inviting those with BRPs or other proof of status to create accounts. Citizens Advice information is here.
ENERGY / COMMS
Energy Price Cap explained: This Adviser Online article from June 2023 has been updated to reflect recent changes.
Prepayment Meter (PPM) update: Ofgem has given another supplier, Utilita, permission to restart involuntary PPM installations. Information on how to stop your supplier moving you to a PPM is on Citizens Advice.
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) switch off update: The PSTN (the network that landline calls have traditionally been delivered over) is being retired by December 2025, and calls will be delivered over digital technology. New measures have been agreed by 7 network operators to protect vulnerable customers, who rely on personal alarms connected to their landlines to call for help, during this process. The measures agreed include a commitment from network operators to take steps to ensure their customers’ lifesaving buttons continue to work and functioning alternatives are in place before any migration takes place. Read the Govt press release.
LOCAL NEWS
Groups empowering women: As part of International Women’s Day, DCF highlighted local groups who support and empower women, including The Water Lily Project and Safe and Sound Dorset. Read more here.
Dorset Public Health survey: The Thriving Communities project aims to deliver a plan in the Dorset Council area to build resilience in voluntary support systems, networks and groups and enable them to reach and support more people. The focus of this survey is on voluntary support for older people in your community, to understand what works well and how we can support others to do similar things, through the Thriving Communities project. Read more and access the survey here.
Events
Citizens Advice March Data Insights Briefing: This briefing, on Monday 18th of March, 2-3pm, will examine the impact of the Spring Budget on the lives of the people we help. Citizens Advice presenters will be joined by Mike Brewer, Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Economist at the Resolution Foundation, who will give the wider context around the announcements made in the Budget; examining the changes in economic outlook, its implications on public finances, and analysing the short and medium-term impact of the Chancellors policy decisions on living standards. Book via eventbrite.
Reports, research etc
Commentary on the budget: Various, including Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Rural Services Network, CPAG Briefing online
Bureau of Investigative Journalism – report on migrant care workers: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), working with Citizens Advice, has gathered the testimonies of almost 175 people working for approximately 80 care providers via the health and care worker visa. ‘These people are skilled professionals who keep our healthcare services running yet … the best we can sometimes do is help them access a food bank’. Their stories reveal that the people who make up a vital section of our social care workforce fear raising concerns about labour abuses – in large part because the existing visa system makes them dependent on their employer for their right to stay and work in the UK. And any complaint, even if upheld, can start a ticking clock leaving them with barely two months to avoid the risk of deportation. Read more here.
Failing to Deliver: There is an ongoing failure to tackle post exclusion as highlighted in this Citizens Advice report, which looks at people whose living situation leaves them excluded from receiving their post. This disproportionately impacts people who are homeless, people experiencing domestic abuse and people from a Gypsy, Roma or Traveller community. Post contains vital information about our finances, medical appointments, and even legal documents. At Citizens Advice, our local offices are regularly seeing people with problems because they can’t access their post. We call this post exclusion. Read more here.
Funding News
Green Hall Foundation offers funding to registered charities in the UK to support their charitable work. The foundation’s objective is to sustainably improve lives among the sick, the elderly, people with disabilities and the disadvantaged, particularly in the UK. Grants typically range in value from £1,000 to £10,000. Charities registered in the UK may apply as follows:
- Each March application round will be open to charities in all income brackets.
- Each September application round will only be open to charities with an annual income of £250,000 or less.
Funding is available to support special projects or the purchase of specific equipment that will make a tangible difference to the relevant charity (for example, where the Foundation can meet a significant proportion of the funding required), and which will make a lasting difference, for example where permanent equipment is needed or building required as opposed to funding salaries or the charity running costs. Preference will be given to projects that will benefit a number of beneficiaries rather than just a few.
The next application round opens on 1 March 2024 and only the first 150 applications will go forward to the trustees. Read more here.