KINCARDINE AND MEARNS CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU 

Salary costs of the Casework Officer

From the Aberdeen go live date we hope to support 170 clients in 12 months as it is a much larger population area than the area connected to Montrose Jobcentre in Aberdeenshire. We will hope to ....more

From the Aberdeen go live date we hope to support 170 clients in 12 months as it is a much larger population area than the area connected to Montrose Jobcentre in Aberdeenshire. We will hope to recruit and train a further 15 volunteers including those from the local employability services. This project is going to support those who are entitled to benefits to ensure they do not find themselves in poverty. This will stop them from reaching crisis point and will also help develop their skills and give them confidence to carry out tasks for themselves in the future. Moving social security procedures online by default presents a risk of causing significant detriment to potentially vulnerable people who require income. There are many people who may not be able to claim their entitlement, or manage their award, if they do not have the ability to access or use online services. This project will ensure that these individuals get the support they require to access benefits and will not be in the situation of extreme hardship and poverty. The project will also empower clients by supporting them through the process and not just 'doing for them'. This will help build skills and give them the confidence to carry out similar actions, or make the first steps to, in the future. Increased confidence in one area will help to build confidence in other areas such as finding work, making friends and developing skills or taking up a new hobby. This will ensure that participants will be less financially and socially excluded. If participants are engaged with the process of claiming benefits, in particular jobseekers who are required to engage with online job searchers and activities, it will ensure that they are fully complying and will avoid sanctions. It will also increase their chances of finding work or education and training opportunities. Volunteers who take part in the project will also be given the opportunity to develop their skills and build their confidence. They will also be able to share knowledge which will benefit the community as a whole. We hope that by targeting those who are currently in a position to not be able to work that it will increase their employability, increase their confidence and knowledge and help them to feel as though they are making a positive impact in their communities. We are keen to build on the partnership with employability so that those who have gone through the process themselves can support others to use the online systems getting working experience and the benefits of volunteering for themselves.

We hope to move to a larger premises which will allow us to open for longer hours and provide help to more people in our community.

Through previous awards of the Community Capacity and Resilience Fund we have been able to extend our provision of Outreach and Home Visiting services. Using the volunteer resources that we have been ....more

Through previous awards of the Community Capacity and Resilience Fund we have been able to extend our provision of Outreach and Home Visiting services. Using the volunteer resources that we have been able to secure over the past year we would like to pilot a new service which we are not currently providing; to provide digital support to those claiming welfare benefits. The Department for Work and Pensions have created ambitious targets for online claims. Universal Credit is 'digital first', which expects initial claims, work activity and updating any change of circumstances to be carried out online. Due to the Social Policy evidence that was being collected through the Citizens Advice Bureau network, which was illustrating the issues that claimants were having in carrying out the digital requirements of claiming Universal Credit, Citizens Advice Scotland carried out research to determine the extent of Digital Access issues throughout the service. The research showed that from clients accessing services within the Citizens Advice Bureau network that: • 36% of respondents never used the internet and a further 11% hardly ever did so • Only 24% would feel confident in making an online benefits claim • And 72% stated that they would struggle to apply for a job online This, and other research, shows that those who are claiming benefits are also the group who have the most potential to be digitally excluded. The costs of broadband at home, smartphone contracts, availability of 3G in rural areas and cost of computer or tablet equipment should also be taken into consideration as one of the barriers to digital access to those who are claiming benefits. The DWP and local authority have stated that they will have public computers available at their access points. However there will not always be someone there to show them how to use the computer and carry out the online application. Similarly in libraries there is public internet access but library staff do not have the training or knowledge to assist clients in completing benefit applications. In a rural community we also have to consider the travel costs involved in using public transport to get to their nearest access point. The Citizens Advice Scotland 'Round the Bend' research highlighted the issues with the costs and availability of bus transport. The percentage of income used on travel costs for those on benefit in rural areas was high. We want to ensure that nobody is missing out on claiming a benefit they are entitled to due to either their lack of digital skills or due to the barriers in the cost to either having digital access at home or through the cost of travelling to their local library or local authority/DWP access point from a rural area. With this project we hope to be able to: • Provide digital access support to those clients who are claiming benefits, in particular, Universal Credit. This will involve having allocated appointments for completing benefit applications with clients or to help them update their online journals. • As we cover a rural area this will be through a mixture of meeting clients in community hubs (such as libraries opening hours dependent), Outreach locations and home visits. The location of these appointments will depend on the availability of 3/4G coverage and the clients own ability to travel. • We will equip our outreach staff with 4G enabled tablet technology so that they can complete the forms at a venue which most suits the client. • We will create a further volunteer role 'Digital Adviser' who will become experts in the digital requirements of Universal Credit and cascade that learning down to both colleague advisers and the clients themselves. This will particularly be in relation to updating their online journals. • We will work with partners in the Employability Service and in the Local Authority as well as other 3rd sector organisations to ensure that clients are referred into the service and get the assistance they need. • We will also work with Employability Partners to promote the volunteer role of 'Digital Advisers' to those who do have the skills to carry out their role and as a result expanding their experience. The project will run throughout the Kincardine and Mearns area to all those who have self-assessed difficulty with digital skills. The area of Kincardine and Mearns is rolling out on Universal Credit full service in two stages due to the JobCentre catchments. The first area is a smaller area of DD9 7, DD10 0 and AB30 1 postcode areas. The local authority has estimated that there will be approximately 40 new claimants a month in that restricted areas. In June 2018 the rest of the area will be rolled out to Universal Credit full service. This will give as opportunity to recruit and train Digital Advisers while numbers are manageable. We will then be fully prepared for the increased numbers midway through our project in June 2018. The people who will benefit from this project will be those who are claiming benefits which have digital requirements and their families in particular children; that being those who are unemployed, in ill health or have low wages and are effected by in work poverty. In the 12 month pilot, which will run from the 1st December 2017 to the 30th November 2018, we will aim to assist a minimum of 200 individuals to access benefits digitally.

Thanks to the pilot rural outreach project previously funded by the Community Capacity and Resilience Fund we were able to secure extended funding from another source to make this service permanent. ....more

Thanks to the pilot rural outreach project previously funded by the Community Capacity and Resilience Fund we were able to secure extended funding from another source to make this service permanent. We have overcome the difficulties faced in that project by working in partnership with local GP practices and have been able to identify the scope of need in our community which extends beyond the service we are currently providing. We have been able to replicate the pilot project in other areas within Kincardine and Mearns. With this project we hope to pilot a new home visiting service. We will do this by recruiting and training volunteer advisers, who would carry out home visits and telephone advice. These volunteers would provide advice and assistance on a range of issues including benefits, debt, housing and food and fuel poverty. This would further develop the capacity of the organisation to support those affected by welfare reform and who are at risk of financial exclusion due to unemployment, ill health, caring responsibilities and the additional challenges that are faced by those living in rural communities. We would work with local partners in the voluntary and public sectors to ensure that the most vulnerable members of the community get the advice and assistance required through referrals, home visiting and telephone support. Service provision in Kincardine and Mearns is limited and this service would be the only one of its kind to be provided in the area. We will target and recruit volunteers who they themselves have been affected by welfare reform and will be able to bring a range of personal experience and empathy to the role. We will work with local partners such as the employability service to help promote these roles.

towards the salary of the full-time Welfare Rights Officer.

Detailed information not yet available.