£6.1m of benefits identified and claimed

Conal Harvey, call handler from HCL Ltd taking calls on the Citizens Advice Benefit Uptake Helpline

Citizens Advice said today that a benefit take up contract run in partnership with the Social Security Agency (SSA) and delivered over the last 12 months had helped vulnerable people to identify and claim £6.1million in benefits.

Citizens Advice Chief Executive, Derek Alcorn said:

“The impact of £6.1m on the local economy in a recession cannot be understated. This is money which will be spent in local businesses and the exercise has made a significant impact on poverty in Northern Ireland. The SSA initiative is a useful combination of the valuable information held within the SSA’s database – which allows the Agency to identify vulnerable groups in the population - and the skills and knowledge of staff in Citizens Advice.  We hope that other Agencies and Departments will take note of this effective business model which has been successfully developed and implemented over several years.”

From a mail out to 25,000 people, Citizens Advice dealt with 10,000 clients with the aim of increasing the number claiming social security benefits and the amount of benefit being paid.  This was achieved through trained staff in CAB offices across Northern Ireland offering a full benefit assessment which examined a client’s eligibility for all social security benefits and other payments, for example, the Social Fund.  In addition, the assessment addressed eligibility to Housing Benefit and Rate Relief.

The Benefit Uptake programme itself focused on Attendance Allowance, Pension Credit, Families with Children and Carers
 
During the programme an additional 1,887 claims for benefit were identified which amounted to £6.1 million annually.  People who benefited from the project were on average better off by £55 per week with average arrears of benefit of £535.