David Simmonds Welfare Benefits Specialist

Giving advice on welfare benefits, including tax credits, continues to form a very important part of the Bureau workload. Over the past year there have
been 2,224 initial welfare benefit enquiries dealt with. There are few other providers of such information in Chelmsford, partly because of the complexity of the welfare benefits system. An indication of this complexity comes from the size of the Standard Guide to Benefits published by the Child Poverty Action Group which now runs to 1,598 pages, up from 1,300 five years ago!
As has been well publicised nationally enquiries arising from
problems with the tax credits system have increased substantially. In some cases, clients have been wrongly asked to repay amounts of over £10,000. These enquiries have taken up much time because it has proved difficult to calculate entitlement.
Thanks partly to Citizens Advice national social policy initiatives, to which the Bureau has contributed, there have recently been improvements to the award notices sent to claimants. Despite this welcome development, the use of a computer program is still necessary to calculate whether or not the correct amounts have been paid.

David Simmonds welfare benefits specialist, is one of the two advisers in the newly-opened Specialist Advice Unit, which is funded for 12 months with £150,000 from the Legal Services Commission. The unit is able to advise anyone living on Income Support, Income-Based Jobseekers’ Allowance or Guaranteed Pension Credit about welfare benefit-related legal issues. Some other clients on a low income may also qualify for help. Those who do not qualify can receive advice from generalist advisers, who can call on the specialists for extra help when required. Given the often complex legislation and case law that underlies benefits, having two (or more!) heads thinking about an issue brings advantages for the client.

The Specialist Advice Unit is able to undertake detailed welfare benefits casework for qualifying clients. This enables them to be given the detailed advice needed for the more difficult problems. In addition the specialist may advocate on behalf of clients. Such work can frequently be very time consuming, but can bring significant financial benefits for the client when claims are successful. Although representation is not funded by the LSC it has nevertheless been possible to attend Appeal Tribunals with clients. This has enabled the Bureau to give clients a complete service in welfare benefits advice ranging from initial assessments of benefit entitlement to representation at the higher levels of the decision making process.

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