You can learn a lot from Quids In money magazine (Winter 2009) financial advice magazine which we mail in our Coast to Coast Spring 2010 residents' newsletter.
It is widely accepted that millions of pounds in benefits goes unclaimed in Britain each year. Please call 0300 100 1012 to talk to us for advice, we can refer you to agencies we work with including South West Pound - or you can call them direct on 0800 316 9296.
Westcountry can help you with Housing Benefit verification, just call and ask how. Last year we helped 243 people on behalf of Plymouth City Council and Torbay Council, to help speed up the processing for our customers. We also helped supported housing workers and their clients to make customer savings of £2,717,608; of which £1,123,685 was Housing Benefit.
And our Income Services team secured around £10,000 in Housing Benefit for our residents.
This past year, Westcountry has helped 210 households, and the income generated was £155,549.
The welfare rights advisor also provides benefit information in Coast to Coast, our residents newsletter; so make sure you remember to read the column! You can find the latest one at the foot of this web page.
Supported Housing residents, or residents receiving help from Housing Support staff, should ask their support worker for help with welfare benefits.
If you have access to the internet, there are a number of useful websites providing benefits information and I have included their phone numbers and addresses in case you need to call or visit them.
Citizens Advice Bureau http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/benefits.htm
Benefits http://www.entitledto.co.uk/
If you have a specific welfare benefits query, please call 0300 100 1012 or use the Contact Us form to send us your question.
Welfare benefits update from Spring 2010 Coast to Coast residents' newsletter:
I hope the winter weather hasn’t been too severe for you, and that some of you will have received the automatic DWP "Cold Weather Payments", of £25 per week.
These are paid for every period of seven consecutive days where the temperature drops to 0 degrees celcius or below in your local area.
You will need to have been claiming specific benefits to qualify. A little good news for those of you who currently claim Carers Allowance as full-time carers.
You may know that it is possible to do limited paid work while still claiming Carers Allowance.
Current rules allow you to earn up to £95 per week, "take home" pay. As of April ’10, this will be increased to £100 per week.
The DWP has recently introduced a 'work focused support for carers' scheme, aimed at those who are carers. This is an entirely voluntary scheme. You can choose to take part, and also choose to stop taking part at any time.
Your benefits will be unaffected while you take part, and you will have a personal adviser who will be able to explain how your benefits/Tax Credits would be affected should you take up full-time work.
They can also provide information on training and childcare. Those of you who are claiming Employment & Support Allowance (ESA) might be pleased to hear that the DWP are currently reviewing the various ESA letters sent out to Claimants, to hopefully make them easier to understand.