Renfrewshire councillors heard a series of case studies showing how local advice services have helped families facing illness, poverty, debt and housing insecurity.
At the Fairer Renfrewshire Sub-committee on Wednesday 25th March, Advice Works and Renfrewshire Citizens Advice Bureau used real examples to show the impact their staff are having for residents behind the statistics.
One case involved a couple referred to the council’s Macmillan project after the husband was diagnosed with bladder cancer.
He had been working as a chef, but after going off sick he was left relying on statutory sick pay of £118 a week. The family already had £33,000 of debt and were only managing minimum repayments.
An adviser helped the couple with benefit checks, council tax reduction, disability benefit claims, a blue badge and a discretionary housing payment. When it became clear their income would not recover, they were supported through the bankruptcy process, which was awarded within weeks.
The family later received a backdated disability payment of £2,000 for the wife and an ongoing award, while an appeal continues over the husband’s refused claim.
Another case involved a 19-year-old new mother who had to leave college and stop part-time work after giving birth.
She was referred through a health visitor and helped to claim Universal Credit, Best Start Foods, Best Start Grant, Child Benefit, Scottish Child Payment and Carer Support Payment because she was also helping to care for her disabled mother.
Advisers said the combined support increased her income by around £200 a week.
A further example shared by Renfrewshire Citizens Advice Bureau involved a single mother working full-time in a school whose daughter suffers from severe migraines and cluster headaches.
After her child disability payment application was rejected, CAB helped with a redetermination, gathering detailed medical evidence and explaining the severity and unpredictability of the child’s condition.
The claim was then overturned, with the family awarded middle-rate care and low-rate mobility, backdated to March.
CAB said the award, along with changes to Universal Credit, left the family £807 a month better off.
Alana Forsyth, chief executive of Renfrewshire Citizens Advice Bureau, said: “That is life-changing for that family.”
She added: “It has significantly reduced the family’s financial stress and helped with the additional cost of transport for frequent hospital appointments and for the experimental treatments that the child is undergoing.”
Ms Forsyth also said around 75 per cent of benefit decisions challenged with support from advice agencies were overturned at redetermination or tribunal stage.
She said that highlighted “significant flaws in the system when so many decisions are wrong at the outset and how critical it is that people have access to advice early on in their process when they need help”.
Another case involved a woman and her son who had been living in severe financial hardship after leaving an abusive relationship.
Because her ex-partner’s name remained on the tenancy, she had been unable to claim Universal Credit and was relying on help from family to eat and heat the home while facing court action over rent arrears.
After advisers got the tenancy corrected, they helped her apply for Universal Credit and Scottish Child Payment, securing more than £11,500 in benefits over the following year, negotiating with the landlord and arranging representation at court.
Councillor Jacqueline Cameron said the case studies were “really interesting” and said it was important to end with “the good news stories and the happy stories” after hearing such difficult data.
She said one point that stood out was how much difference specialist help could make when filling in forms and challenging incorrect decisions.
“It is not that they are not deserving of the benefit, it is just that they do not know how to answer the questions,” she said.
She added: “I was blown away by the £807 extra. That is some outcome, is it not?”