Benefit take-up campaign welcomed

One issue I have tried to push locally is ensuring people are claiming what they are entitled to...

Photo: Whiteshill today

.... our benefit system is a hugely complex and disempowering mess - in the past I have missed out on benefits when I was ill due to not understanding the system - anyhow locally the District Councils Benefits team is targeting pensioners in a focused take-up campaign.

At the moment, they are concentrating efforts on pensioners who already get pension credits and people who live in the Council’s sheltered housing schemes. The first hurdle is to help folk understand that Housing and Council Tax benefits are not ‘handouts’, they are genuine rebates to which many pensioners are entitled.

One example is a pensioner from King’s Stanley, who was reluctant to allow a visiting officer to see him. When they did they were able to give him almost £4,000 in backdated benefits and be £80 a week better off! This is money coming into the District and hopefully being spent locally to benefit our local economy - plus will tackle some of the 4.5 million people who are now in fuel poverty.

If you have elderly friends or relatives in the area with less than £16,000 in savings who don’t claim Housing or Council Tax benefits, ask them to give the team a call on 01453 754054.

£3 Million Unclaimed!

Let us not forget a whopping £3 million in Council Tax Benefit could go unclaimed every year in the Stroud District, according to the Government's own estimates. More than 40% of pensioners who are entitled to help with their Council Tax are unaware of it. More importantly it’s thought that half of those “missing out” are in the poorest fifth of the population.

One issue I raised a while back is regarding the complexity of the forms - simplification has been looked at - certainly the 40 page forms should be scrapped. In my view the rebate automatic should be automatic - I was hoping to see more improvements resulting from the Lyons Report - but I don't think I should hold my breathe - it notes 53% of eligible pensioners are not claiming - calling it a rebate rather than Benefit would help...

Many other Benefits also go unclaimed - clearly getting those entitlements would bring significant benefits to lower income people and more money circulating in the District. Greens advocate a Citizens Income (CI): an automatic, unconditional payment sufficient to cover basic needs to every individual, working or not with specialist benefits, such as disability and incapacity benefits paid on top. A CI is the most efficient way of circulating wealth, allowing maximum possible economic activity (within ecological limits), whilst eliminating unemployment and poverty traps (see more re policy here).