£750K windfall for East Devon residents

Citizens Advice help the vulnerable

Citizens Advice has helped some of East Devon’s most vulnerable residents secure nearly £750,000 in benefits they weren’t claiming and reduced debt levels in just over four months.

Changes to the winter fuel allowance by the government have led to an increased workload for the organisation, with Citizens Advice East Devon boss Dean Stewart stating the first three months of the Labour administration being in power in Westminster had been “fairly busy”.

Mr Stewart told East Devon District Council’s poverty working panel that since July, his organisation had secured nearly three-quarters-of-a-million pounds for residents, either by identifying benefits they were eligible to receive but hadn’t applied for, or through reduced debt burdens.

The winter fuel allowance changes mean that these payments are no longer universal, and are only made to those on pension credit, or other means-tested benefits, such as working tax credit or universal credit.

Mr Stewart said that with just 17 people successfully securing pension credit, those individuals were now receiving a combined £45,000 extra income for the next year.

He added that the charity’s workload had increased as it sought to identify people who qualified for pension credit but were not receiving it, stating that of the 798 clients it saw between July and September, 49 were pension credit-related, with another 38 such cases since then.

The update came as East Devon’s own benefits team said it had phoned 221 households that it thought could be eligible for further benefits than they were claiming.

Sharon Church, a benefits manager at East Devon, said the authority had been making sure that anyone eligible for pension credit, housing benefit, or a council tax reduction, was applying for the benefits relevant to them.

“With rising energy prices, we know a number of pension-age residents will be worrying about heating this winter,” she said.

“If pension credit is awarded to them, then they will get the winter fuel allowance.”

Ms Church added the council had been working with the likes of town and district councils, as well as community groups, to help ensure the take-up of eligible benefits was as high as possible.

She noted that many residents had found the online form to apply for pension credit confusing, given it asks for weekly income rather than monthly.

And she highlighted many were giving up on the calls to the Department for Work and Pensions given waiting times were as long as 45 minutes, adding that some were also being given conflicting information, such as being told they are eligible for pension credit via the online calculator, but then told by phone they were ineligible.

Mr Stewart said that Citizens Advice could help people fill forms in if required.