Serious benefits - Citizens Advice

United we stand
The experience of Citizens
Advice Bureaux over many
years has shown that working
with others – social services,
housing departments, primary
care trusts, social landlords and
charities – is the key to finding
effective and lasting solutions.
People’s needs sometimes
remain unmet even when a
number of different agencies
have had contact with them.
Joining together to provide a
holistic service delivers better
results than individual groups
working in isolation from one
another.
Benefit take-up work by
Luton CAB is central to the
success of Luton Borough
Council’s Affordable Warmth
Scheme, which has been
awarded the prestigious ‘beacon
status’ for its excellence and
innovation by the Government.
The CAB works with energy
suppliers, housing teams and
social services in the area to
deliver a joined-up service for
older local people who are
identified as possibly suffering
from fuel poverty. This means
that they spend 10 per cent or
more of their income on fuel to
maintain an adequate standard
of warmth. Project managers
devised a simple referral form
that takes only a few minutes to
fill in and enables people
working with households at risk
of or experiencing fuel poverty
to make fast track referrals for
assistance. These include
benefits advice from the Citizens
Advice Bureau, access to the
Government's Warm Front grant
(which can be up to £2,500 to
help cover the costs of home
insulation and of improving
energy efficiency) and to
social services for a
needs assessment.
Regular energy
awareness training is
provided free of charge
to those who make
referrals.
Interagency
working
improves the
service to clients
Join together
“Joined-up working may be a
cliché but it works. Many
different agencies have reason
to visit the homes of Luton
residents - to collect rent, deliver
meals on wheels or provide
health care. Trained staff are
able to look beyond their
specific remit and discuss wider
fuel poverty issues with
customers, and identify
potential problems that are
logged with the central coordinator
who then makes a
referral to the appropriate
agency,” says Sarah Allen of the
social inclusion team at Luton
Borough Council.
“With all the
agencies working
together, we’ve
become each other’s
eyes and ears.”
Ruth White, Luton CAB
project leader, describes a typical
referral. Mr and Mrs Knight
were referred to the CAB from
Luton social services’ older
people’s mental health team for
a benefit check. “They were just
getting Mr Knight’s lower rate
attendance allowance (AA). We
appealed for the higher rate
which he got and Mrs Knight
put in a claim for AA herself,
which she won, too. Their
minimum income guarantee was
increased so they ended up over
£90 a week better off.” The CAB
also arranged for a grant from
the Royal British Legion that
meant the couple were able to
have new windows fitted at a
cost of £390 instead of the full
price of £1690. Mr and Mrs
Knight were then referred onto
the Affordable Warmth team at
the council who got loft and
10 Serious benefits