Agenda item

For the major review, the Committee heard from the following witnesses:

Heather Brown – Director and Barbara Maccauley – Policy Manager from the Citizens Advice Hillingdon

Ms Brown took Members through a presentation and provided a number of additional information documents.

Members noted the key points as detailed below.

During 2017 – 18, 35 % of the advice and information given to clients at the Citizens Advice (CA) was in relation to benefits and tax credits, 23% in relation to debt and 9 % was in relation to housing matters. From a CA perspective, the main aim of their service is to provide advice to people and improve policies and practice that affect people’s lives. A lot of work had been undertaken by the CA to ‘fix universal credit’ which included the removal of the seven waiting days at the start of a claim, making the UC helpline free of charge and trying to make UC claims less complicated.

According to the CA, some of the unintended consequences highlighted from UC include UC pushing people into debt, only 30 % of people getting through the identification verification process first time, budgeting difficulties and digital issues especially for middle aged with learning difficulties.

When people are referred, staff at the CA make gateway assessments of client needs and provide telephone advice, arrange appointments with financial advisors and appointments with form fillers. 109 initial claims were recorded in the last six months from July to December 2018. The gateway assessments could also be undertaken over the telephone via a telephone call back.

Following Member questions, it was confirmed that the CA used Somali speaking volunteers to communicate with people who were unable to properly speak English. When the volunteers were unavailable, translators were then arranged and used. People with mental health concerns were targeted and staff had had specific training on how to make adjustments and be flexible, such as arranging appointments in the evening if people were on meds in the morning. It was also felt that staff had had relevant training as this was not a new topic, this had been a targeted project for some time and a number of adjustments have been made with updated training. The telephone call back highlighted by the CA were also free to mobiles.

It was explained that claimants were frightened about UC as they did not know what to expect. A recent letter sent out by the Council caused panic. The Chairman informed Members that those Members who had undertaken the site visit had already been made enquiries about this letter and it would be referenced in the review.

There was an issue with clients applying too early and as a result, losing transitional rights.

Other CA services would not be compromised as a result of numbers projected as advice sessions were linked and benefit advice sometimes interlinked with debt advice. Capacity may be an issue if there are a lot of people with complex problems after they are in payment for UC. Government funding covers the period up to the claim and then stops. The main aim was to help people claim and assist them through the process as sometimes people were told to claim UC but did not have the established support to help them do this. Although staff were on fixed term contracts, managed migration was not expected in Hillingdon and plans were made in advance for recruitment.

Ms Brown advised clients to not panic and to not claim UC until proper advice was sought.

Nigel Gee – Senior Mental Health Worker from MIND

Mr Gee informed the Committee that his role was to help people spiralling into mental health (MH) issues. He covered benefit and debt advice, appeal, attended tribunals and also assisted with form filling.

In summary, Mr Gee explained that some of the key issues affecting clients included not having access to home computers, not having the confidence to use library computers due to a lack of social skills and concerns regarding a lack of security and privacy.

A large number of people did not have bank accounts which often made budgeting more difficult. When completing online applications, claimants were unable to save information and come back to it at a later date. This caused additional stress for claimants making claims as they would not need repeat the process a number of times to make claims.

It was difficult to upload passport pictures during the verification process. Remembering a password and username was hard, and clients usually forgot their username or password. Maintaining a UC work journal was difficult as there was a need to continuously remind clients to complete their journals.  On average, Mr Gee confirmed that he issued four to five food bank vouchers weekly. There was also no capacity for an appointee to act on a claimant’s behalf and Mr Gee was concerned that the job centre was not able to help clients with form filling and referred them to MIND. 

Members were concerned with the points raised and asked Mr Gee if it would be possible to prepare a report which could be referred to as part of the major review. Some of the information provided contradicting information provided at the site visit to the Job Centre Plus on 5 December 2018.

Giles Stratchan – Uxbridge College Partnership Manager from Uxbridge College

In summary, Mr Stratchan clarified that Uxbridge college staff (not students) assisted claimants with form filling. Free IT courses were offered to clients to help improve IT skills and this was an open ended commitment. Language barrier was a key observation in making claims.

Agreed actions

The Committee wished to invite Inderpal Mudhar – Partnership Manager from the Department of Work and Pensions and Nigel Gee to another witness session to discuss the concerns raised and how real and practical recommendations could be considered. The Committee decided that it would be unable to move on to considering recommendations until hearing from both witnesses again. Democratic Services agreed to facilitate this.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the Committee thanked all the witnesses for their evidence and time.

2)    That Democratic Services arrange another witness session to take place with the DWP and MIND.