Issue - meetings

The Welfare Reform Update report is attached. An update has been made to page 11, paragraph 6.5.

Ian Savigar – Divisional Director Customer Services introduced the report to the Panel. He pointed out that there had been an amendment to page 11 of the report.

The Panel raised the following points and asked the following questions:

Councillor Macrae stated that he was heartened to hear the work being done. He asked about the relationship with Curo and housing providers. The officer explained that it was difficult to answer for them but reported that they did have a welfare support team.

Councillor Gerrish asked about the availability of 1/2 bedroom houses. He stated that if people are willing to move (due to the ‘bedroom tax’) and ‘down house’ then appropriate houses should be available so they are not penalised. The officer reported that it did not take long to re house people so this was not an issue at the moment.

Councillor Gerrish asked if the government are listening to our feedback. The officer reported that the main area of learning is around digital access, there will be a rising demand for PC’s and some people will need support to complete their claim online. He stated that this had been fed back to the government. Councillor Gerrish stated that there should be a strong message to the government that isolated communities in rural areas cannot always access PC’s.

Councillor Symonds asked if there had been an increase in people going to CAB (Citizen’s Advice Bureau) on the issues of benefits.  The officer reported that 60% of the workload for CAB and SWAN (South West Advisory Network) was working with people on benefit claims. Pat Ryan (CAB) added that both benefits and debt advice is on the increase. She also reported that there are delays involved in the disability living allowance and people are approaching the CAB about this.

Councillor Macrae asked if there could be some feedback to the development control department about the need for more 1/2 bedroomed houses. The officer stated that he would feed this back.

It was agreed that an update on Welfare Reform be added to the future workplan for March 2014.