Welfare Rights Advisor - AMA

[Sootyandsweep2019]

Not sure this will be terribly interesting, but happy to share 🙂

Am a welfare rights advisor; advise on all benefits entitlement, mandatory reconsiderations and appeals

Do you judge people on benefits?

What benefits are non UK citizens entitled to? Do tourists receive medical care on the NHS?

User917 - Not at all: although I do judge the government/ system for in many cases allocating such a little amount to people in very desperate circumstances. Many of the people I work with are currently unable to work, ( e.g. caring for serverely disabled children, living with complex mental health needs, terminally ill, undergoing chemotherapy/ radiotherapy etc.) These life events can hit people unexpectedly; and I could never judge anybody for claiming as I'm all too aware that I'm only one redundancy, car accident, cancer diagnosis for needing to claim myself. I do feel the media paint a completely innacurate picture of "life on benefits," which causes the general public too judge. I've also found the general public perceive benefits to be far easier to obtain, and far more generous than they actually are.

What's your experience/opinion of how UC is working out in practice?

Should it be scrapped? Anything from it worth keeping?

Does your role ever mean that you speak to staff at the dwp?
If so, how do you find them helpful?

Miss conduct - That would completely depend on their immigration status/ the visa they have come on.

Basically, if they have made an asylum claim, ( e.g. travelled to the U.K and requested to seek assylum on arrival), then they are not allowed to work or claim mainstream benefits whilst their assylum claim is processed. Whilst the government is assessing their claim, they will be given very basic assylum accomodation, ( I've seen it and it's grim tbh), and approx. £30.00 per week per person in the household. They can access the NHS and state schools for children, (if needed), whilst the claim is being decided. They are also entitled to free school meals for there school age children whilst the claim is being decided. The family will never be allocated a "council property," during this time; if they need accommodation they are given specialist assylum accomodation which is normally very run down.

If they are granted refugee status; they will then be able to access the same benefits as you or I, ( e.g., if they are looking for work they could claim Universal Credit, if they are caring for a disabled person they could claim Carer's Allowance etc). So in theory; if they were granted refugee status eight months after arrival; they would be able to access mainstream benefits eight months after arrival.

Most immigrants obviously don't come via the assylum/ refugee route however.

Most non-european immigrants will need a visa to travel here initially, ( e.g. a student visa/ work visa/ spousal visa) . The conditions on nearly all of these visas state the immigrant is not allowed to claim public funds; therefore anybody here on e.g. a student visa would be blocked from claiming Universal Credit/ Housing benefit etc. The DWP are stringent about checking visas before a benefit is paid out; so they simply wouldn't be able to complete the claim. Additionally, even attempting to make a benefits claim when on a no recourse to public funds visa could, ( and often does), lead to the visa being revoked.

In certain circumstances; after five years some non-european immigrants who wish to stay in the U.K permanently may be able to apply for indefinite leave to remain from the Home Office, ( lots of other conditions are attached). If after five years on a work visa; an immigrant was granted indefinite leave to remain and sent the appropriate biometric cards to verify this they would then normally be able to claim the same benefits that you or I could.

Then you have European/ E.U nationals; who are obviously allowed to come and live in the UK without a visa/ claiming assylum.
Under nearly all circumstances; they cannot claim any benefits without working in the U.K first, ( there are a few minimal exceptions, such as if they are closely related to another EU national who is working in the U.K).
If they are engaged in "genuine and effective," work, ( normally measured by the fact they are paying NI), they can claim in-work benefits, ( e.g. Universal nCredit).

They can also claim if income related benefits if they are self-employed, ( providing it is genuine/real/effective self-employment)

If they lose their job through no fault of their own; they can claim out of work benefits for six months before the DWP looks at whether to close the claim.

They can claim disability benefits; but need to prove they have worked first and have had to stop working due to ill health..they are not able/not allowed to just get off the plane and claim either disability or unemployment benefits.

And as of very recently; after five years residence e.u nationals can claim settled status in the UK . After that; they can claim pretty much the same as you or I.

The exception is PIP or Attendance Allowance; even if you are working, you cannot claim these until you have lived in the U.K for 2/3 years. The only exception is if a doctor can certify you are terminally ill and are expected to live less than six months.

Unfortunately, these rules can cause a lot of people to experience destitution. I have dealt with many EU nationals in particular who have no entitlement to benefits or support in their home country; and have found they have no entitlement to support in the U.K either.

We regularly recurve calls from people who have come here on a work visa, got very ill and needed to stop working, ( stroke, cancer, hear attack etc). and found themselves destitute as they do not have money to survive.

Rubbertreeplant - UC is working terribly because it's designed to ensure a six week wait from the date the claim was made to the date you are paid . So many don't even make the UC claim until they are really desperate, ( they try and look for work for a few weeks first), and another six weeks with no income puts them in terrible debt. I would scrap the six week wait immidietly; and try and get claims paid-out as soon as possible.

I really think the six week wait causes so much debt and distress; which causes months to pay off.

Tbh I wouldn't scrap UC; I would just totally reform it. In theory having benefits laid together makes stuff a lot easier for claimants. Previously if you were claiming JSA and had a stroke so needed to claim disability you would have had to close the JSA claim and open an ESA claim; whereas now you would simply need to let Universal Credit know.

Another "positive," for Universal Credit is they do not take any deductions from your housing costs in consideration of under 22's living with you. We all know how low the NMW is for under 21's, and that many are on zero/low hours; and I do think they are not counted for housing costs purposes on Universal Credit is a positive thing.

I would also stop paying a lower rate to under 25's, ( I understand this was also the same as JSA). The amount paid to under 25's is pitiful and prevents them from finding work as they struggle to travel to interviews etc.

Oldandwornout - Relatively polite but often useless in my experience, ( although there are some exceptions). Also they do not receive training on any other benefit; so if you are speaking to somebody about ESA, they will not even be able to attempt to answer a Child Benefit query.

UC doesn't have a severe disability element, either.

How did you get into this line of work? I would love to do something like this!

In your experience does the DWP actively hinder applications or is it the system?

TEDx -I started working in a "trainee," position for an advice charity and kind've worked my way up. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss potential organisations to apply for "trainee," posts/positions with, ( as this will presumably be dependant on your area).

TheQueef - I think the system is often set up to make it very difficult for applications to progress, ( especially for people who struggle with IT). The DWP also does have a somewhat unfortunate track record of "losing," more paperwork than any other professional organisation I have had contact with. I have worked with a client where they lost her UC50 application, ( a form which helps them to determine whether to add an additional premium, called the LCWRA, to the Universal Credit of people living with severe disabilities), three separate times in a three month period, ( she had to keep completing new UC50's as they kept losing it).

Is there any help available for formerly homeless people moving into their own tenancies without any flooring, white goods, furniture etc? I worked in a similar field about 10 years ago and remember we really had to fight for payments then (think they came from the social fund?) so I dread to think what it's like now.

What was the pathway into your role?

Is it well-paid?