Recommendation 61

We heard how a wide range of organisations supported people to understand their eligibilities and access benefits and poverty relief. Local Authorities have invested funds and developed services to help people experiencing poverty navigate the various benefits 128 Q102 129 Q102 130 Q102 131 Q8 132 Q44 133 Citizens Advice Scotland (WPS0014) 134 Q102 135 Q102 136 Q44 28 Welfare policy in Scotland and apply to Universal Credit; for example, Councillor Bell from Glasgow City Council told us of a £2million investment in support for Universal Credit applications.137 Polly Jones from The Trussell Trust food bank network stated that through their provision of emergency food parcels, they have developed collaborations that enable specialist advice providers to visit the foodbank to provide support, and volunteers sign-post to funds or services, stating ‘we have relationships with nearly 30,000 referral agencies across the UK. It is a very complex picture.’138 They also told us that a research project in East Scotland with advice providers found that ‘many of those very experienced advice providers themselves could not keep up with the changes in advice provision and support across their own localities.’139