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Welfare Rights Service Revenues & Benefits

Walsall Council welfare rights service is responsible for the delivery of its service to all residents of the borough; we offer a home visiting service to all which has resulted in Walsall people gaining collectively £8.7m in additional income last year 2008/09

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The welfare rights service in Walsall is unique offering a whole range of services to residents and our partners, these include an intensive house to house survey that has been nationally recognised as best practice by the Audit Commission as well as LGA and Pension Service DWP.

We help residents to gain full entitlement to Welfare benefits but also concentrate on quality of life improvements.

Where the need arises we prepare a case and represent clients at independent appeals tribunal’s

We Ensure

Full welfare benefit checks are completedIncome Maximisation through the benefit systemPromote Quality of life Improvements to mention a few

oBlue badge parking

oCouncil Tax discounts

oOccupational therapy referrals

oWarm front (Home energy efficiency scheme) referrals- we are accredited Warm Front agents.

oHealth through warmth (grants/charitable funding) referrals

oEON 250 winter warm blanket packs distributed

o3500 Energy saving light bulbs distributed

oReduced social heating tariffs signposted

oLocal charity and community groups sign posted

oAge concern/Help the Aged referrals.

oShop mobility promoted

oFire safety checks promoted

oData link medicine list promoted

oCredit union literature and sign posting

The service is made up of various teams who are:

The Core team delivering a holistic welfare benefit take up campaign around the borough generating additional benefits in traditionally hard to reach areas. During the last 12 months we identified 4 areas to prove genteel poverty in the Borough to survey and offer a full benefit maximisation service, this proved a great success gaining £850k for residents in these areas The FAB team deals with all benefits and DWP forms for the over 80’s in one visit, it has been a great success. The team is made up of staff from the department of Works and pension and ourselves who have received intensive training to enable staff to fill both roles, they are on target to gain £2.5m in new benefits this year Our unique health survey have been commissioned by WATMOS & BCHA registered social landlords (RSL’s) over the last 2 years to identify residents on their estates who were not claiming Welfare benefits, this generated an additional income as well as gathering information on aids and adaptations in current property stock and information on the financial inclusion agenda. The Income Maximisation Team funded by working neighbourhoods fund (WNF) continued to deliver intensive take-up campaigns using referrals from our health surveys as a good source to identify hard to reach clients and Will gain an additional £2.5m this financial year The carer’s project is for families of children with special needs and other family members; it holds weekly advice sessions at the Centre for independent living (CIL), fortnightly sessions at carer’s association, other surgeries in special schools and key community locations. Last year it dealt with 314 referrals. The Children’s Centre project at Chuckery incorporating Palfrey has large BME communities; we deliver information & advice sessions to identify benefit take-up which are advertised locally before each event.

Fairer Charging

We deliver a home visiting service on behalf of social care and inclusion to complete financial assessments and disability related expenditure forms in order to assess if a contribution can be made for the care or service the customer receives. As part of the process we ensure that the household’s income is fully maximised through checking entitlement to welfare benefit take up and complimentary services. By completing any necessary claim forms ourselves we alleviate any stress or worry.

If you would like to know more about fairer charging and the service we provide or if you find that your circumstances have changed you can ask to be reassessed. You can do this by contacting the fairer charging team on 01922 627247 to ask for advice or a review and we would always be happy to assist

Other Services we provide

Weekly Advice sessions at the Centre for Independent Living (CIL) in Bridge Street Walsall Wednesday afternoon between 2pm & 4pmFortnightly advice sessions at the Carer’s Association between 10am and 12.00 noon days alternative between Friday’s and Tuesday’s, if you are intending to attend one of these sessions phone to check the date of the next event.

The Future

Our staff are currently working towards accreditation with the institute of money adviser’s to be skilled in dealing with the growing problem of debt and how best to manage this.