Source · Select Committees · Scottish Affairs Committee
Recommendation 90
90
We have heard about support programmes designed for claimants who don’t have the confidence, or...
Conclusion
We have heard about support programmes designed for claimants who don’t have the confidence, or the skills required to make an application for and maintain their Universal Credit claim provided by local organisations who have stepped in to deliver what they feel is essential support not being provided by the UK Government. Councillor Bell of Glasgow City Council said that the current support to claimants from DWP ‘does not offer some of the key elements that we feel were very important [ … ] particularly around IT skills that we believe are very necessary for people to maintain their online claims.’222 He went on to highlight that Glasgow City Council have seen an increase in demand from citizens for their financial inclusion services. We were told Glasgow City Council ‘invests over £2 million a year on citywide financial inclusion services’223 which is used to fund translation services and offers a range of ‘ongoing support and advice’224 to claimants in Glasgow. Suzanne Lavelle from Southside Housing Association also told us about a £500,000 grant they received from the Big Lottery ‘for a five year project to assist with the increased need from our tenants and the local community for Welfare Benefit and Money Advice during the transition to Universal Credit.’225 In their evidence to us the Scottish Government also outlined a ‘£250,000 multimedia platform and an income-maximisation marketing campaign’226 designed to bolster support for low-income families to access both devolved and reserved benefits. Help to Claim
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
The Department considers the existing resource to be sufficient. There is already assistance available to help claimants to make and maintain their Universal Credit claim using the Freephone Universal Credit helpline. Throughout the pandemic, Jobcentres have remained open for anyone who needed face- to-face support and could not be helped in any other way. Jobcentres in Scotland resumed full face to face services, returning to normal opening hours from 9am to 5pm, on 26 April 2021. All Jobcentre Plus offices have Wi-Fi and computers available for claimants to access the internet. Work Coaches will continue to support those who need it to maintain their Universal Credit claim. To support DWP’s ongoing commitment in helping claimants, it has recruited an additional 1,152 Work Coaches in its Jobcentres in Scotland. DWP agreed to fund Citizens Advice Scotland to deliver Help to Claim for another year (up to 31 March 2022) to provide support to people to make a new claim to Universal Credit. If Citizens Advice Scotland Advisers identify that a Help to Claim client cannot make their Universal Credit claim on-line, then they will support the claimant to make a claim by phone. Through Help to Claim, DWP has also funded Citizens Advice Scotland to provide Public Access Terminals to enable people who don’t have access to a device to go on-line to claim Universal Credit.