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.
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Information updates
BENEFITS
Changes to the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC): It was announced at the Spring Budget 2024 that the HICBC threshold will increase to £60,000 from its current threshold of £50,000. The rate at which the HICBC is withdrawn will be halved so that it’s not fully payable until the household earns £80,000. The Government has now introduced a Bill to provide for these changes and the new rules should be implemented from April 2024.
New regulations for 2024/25 benefits uprating: The regulations can be viewed here, and include:
- prevent the incorrect payment of benefit in circumstances where someone is entitled to overlapping benefits
- disallow state pension up-rating for overseas residents unless there is a legal requirement to do so
- increase the earnings limit for carer’s allowance from £139 to £151
- increase from £29.75 to £31.75 the amount of benefit that a person must be left with if they live in a care home where the care home costs are paid direct from their benefit to the person or body charging for care
EMPLOYMENT
Holiday pay: On 1 January 2024, various changes were made to statutory holiday pay rights which amended the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR) to incorporate EU and UK case law that formed the basis of our understanding of holiday pay rules. This is because of Brexit-driven changes to retained EU law. There is information on ACAS: holiday pay and Working Time Regulations.
Extension of redundancy protection: On 6 April 2024, the Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave and Shared Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024 (MASPA) will become law. Currently, employees on maternity leave, adoption leave or shared parental leave have the statutory right to be offered a suitable alternative role (assuming a vacant job is available). From 6 April this protection extends to pregnant women and parents returning from maternity, adoption or shared parental leave. The Regulations are here.
Support with Employee Health and Disability: This new Govt service supports employers through common health and disability scenarios at work. Focused on ‘must-do’s’, the service explains legal obligations, and provides step by step guidance, prompting the right actions at the right times. This includes support with health and disability-related conversations, making reasonable adjustments, signposting to other government services such as Disability Confident, Access to Work and sources of expert advice like occupational health. Read more and access the tool here.
IMMIGRATION
Changes to the immigration rules: Various changes are coming in; for example, a change to the minimum income requirement (MIR) for partner visas making their first application on this route on or after 11 April increases the minimum gross income requirement to £29,000 a year. You can read the full Statement here.
HOUSING
Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) revised consumer standards: New consumer standards come into force on 1 April 2024 and apply to all social landlords in England, including housing associations and councils. The standards form part of the new, more proactive, social housing regulatory regime introduced by the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023. The revised consumer standards each have their own required expectations and outcomes and are:
- Safety and Quality (includes health and safety, repairs and adaptations)
- Transparency, Influence and Accountability (includes complaint handling)
- Neighbourhood and Community (includes anti-social behaviour and domestic abuse)
- Tenancy (includes allocations, evictions and tenure)
Read more here.
UTILITIES
Energy – end of Government support via the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG): For customers on prepayment meters (PPMs), the EPG is being applied as a discount to electricity and gas standing charges until 31 March. Households on a tariff with no standing charge get the equivalent discount applied to the initial units they use. From 1 April households will instead benefit from ‘levelisation’ under the energy price cap. This means the standing charge is the same for direct debit and PPM customers. As the unit rate is less for PPM households, PPM customers on the energy price cap will pay less. Read more from Ofgem.
Faulty smart meters: Various reports this week have revealed that there are an estimated 4m faulty smart meters – see eg. the BBC. Citizens Advice has information here on how to check the display, and Which tips are here.
OTHER
Civil Legal Aid changes announced: Innocent people who have suffered miscarriages of justice, personal harm or injury are among those who will benefit from upcoming changes to legal aid means testing coming into effect this year. Read the Govt press release.
Dodgy Investment Scams: Fraudsters are known to use online platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook, to create scam ads and target consumers at scale. read more in this Which? article.
Events / training
Citizens Advice – April’s Data Insight Briefing: Join this event which will be streamed live from the Citizens Advice Annual Conference, 16th April 1:30-2:30pm. The guest speaker is Matt Whittaker, Chief Executive Officer, Pro Bono Economics, who will be exploring strategies to unleash the power of civil society, so it can continue to fulfil the vital role it plays in our communities, from improving people’s health to boosting economic growth. Register via eventbrite.
Personal Independence Payment awareness session: There are a number of online sessions for external stakeholders delivered by the DWP’s Disability Services Advocacy Team and Capita. The DWP look at the whole customer journey, including how to make a claim and the actual claim process including the completion of relevant forms, and then they pass to the Assessment Provider, who will cover their process. These events are booked via Ticket Source and whilst there may be more dates, this link is for one on 21 May 2024, 10 – 1.
Filling in the PIP form: This video guide from advicenow explains what PIP is and how to fill in the form.
Research, reports etc
Civil Legal Aid review – timetable changed: In January 2023, a civil legal aid review was announced which was to conclude at the end of March 2024 and would be followed by a consultation on final policy proposals. However the civil legal aid review team have now said that the review findings will be published in stages and a green paper will be published this summer. This has been justified due to the ‘high number of responses’ which were submitted to the review’s call for evidence, which we confirmed in January 2024. The Law gazette has published an article on this.
‘DWP failed to adequately communicate changes to Women’s State Pension Age’: The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman published its final investigation report into how the DWP communicated changes to women’s State Pension age since 1995. Stage one of this investigation was published in July 2021 and found ‘failings in the way the DWP communicated changes to women’s Stage Pension age’. The final report completed the investigation and ‘considered the injustice’ resulting from the maladministration and set out some proposals for a remedy. More on the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman website here.
UK agriculture and care worker visas: This FLEX research report looks into the conditions attached to visa routes for both the care and agricultural sectors, known as ‘tied’ and short-term visas respectively, and the increased vulnerability to exploitation associated with these visas. The findings show significant issues of debt and deductions of wages across both sectors and barriers to reporting concerns. Read the report on the Focus on Labour Exploitation – FLEX – website.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation: JRF have published their annual poverty figures and commentary here.
Rural Proofing report: The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) released its third Rural Proofing Report last week. The document titled “Delivering Rural Opportunity – The Third Report on Rural Proofing” provides an overview of the Government’s efforts to address the specific needs and challenges of rural areas. A summary , commentary, and link to the full report, are on the RSN Online website.
Ofgem report on customer satisfaction: Results of the Energy Consumer Satisfaction survey which measures consumers’ satisfaction with their energy supplier, have been published by Ofgem, and include a supplier breakdown for the first time. Read more here.
Funding News
Dorset Welcome Fund: This fund opened on 25 March (closes 3 May) and awards grants to local community groups, to support community action to help refugees/asylum seekers of any nationality arriving, residing or settling in Dorset. Activities should focus on supporting wellbeing, community cohesion and participation in community activities.
Grants of up to £5,000 are available. Applications for small amounts are very welcome. (New groups who have been operating less than 6 months may apply for up to £2,000 only.) Read more on the Dorset Community Foundation website here.
Fore Funding Programme: The Fore offers unrestricted funding to small charities across the UK that are making a big impact and who want to significantly grow, strengthen, become more efficient or resilient. The national funding programme is open to any sector and region within the UK with particular interest in grassroots organisations working with underserved communities. NB: the fund is only open to organisations with annual income under £500k.
Unrestricted grants of up to £30,000 spread over one to three years are available. The unrestricted funding can be used for whatever you need for your organisation to grow, strengthen, become more efficient or resilient. In addition, non-financial support such as access to a network of skilled, pro-bono volunteers, online training workshops and seminars are available to successful charities for life. The summer funding round will open for registration at 12pm (midday) on 28 March 2024 and close at 12pm (midday) on 4 April 2024. Read more here.
Lloyds Bank Foundation – Racial Equity Programme: This year the Racial Equity Programme – which opens on 27 March – will be providing 42 unrestricted grants of £75,000 over three years (£25,000 per year) with tailored development support to registered charities and community interest companies which are led by and working with people who are experiencing economic inequity because of the race or ethnicity. The 2024 programme is open to small, local and specialist registered charities, charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs) and community interest companies (CICs) registered in England and Wales, with an annual income between £25k and £500k. Projects in Wales and Yorkshire will be prioritised this year – however you can find out more at an upcoming briefing:
A free information webinar and live Q&A panel will be held on 24 April 2024 (10:30 am to 12:00 pm). Registration via eventbrite.