Tag: welfare reform
Your Rights: Get help to deal with the benefits system
Head of regulation and enforcement Jacqui Kennedy offers advice on navigating the welfare system. Some Birmingham citizens are facing significant financial hardship simply because they do not know how the benefits system works. With the Government also planning to bring in further changes to some social security benefits between now and 2017, I want to […]
High demand for emergency funds
Birmingham City Council recorded a huge increase in the number of people seeking help to pay their rent in the first two weeks after Government welfare reforms came into effect. There were almost 2,000 applications for Discretionary Housing Payments in the first two weeks of April - 50 per cent more than for the whole […]
Local Welfare Provision: Asda card clarification
As part of the welfare reform programme, the Government has abolished the Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans elements of the Social Fund, which were administered centrally by DWP. From 1 April 2013, responsibility for this emergency welfare provision has been passed to local authorities. Birmingham's Local Welfare Provision policy was agreed following extensive consultation, […]
Council Tax Benefit consultation
As part of Welfare Reform the Government has announced that Council Tax Benefit is to be abolished and replaced from April 2013 by new local financial support schemes, called Council Tax Support. How these schemes are operated will be decided by local authorities themselves. The Government has also announced that the amount it pays local […]
