North Lanarkshire Council has revealed that its housing and social work service has helped local residents to claim £15,506,998 in benefits in the last year.
Councillor Sam Love, Convener of the Housing and Social Work Committee at North Lanarkshire Council, said because of the high levels of poverty in the area it was important that people who are entitled to benefits are actually claiming them. Mr Love said that having staff explain complex benefits processes to people ‘made a real difference’.
The councillor continued: “The welfare rights service is becoming even more important as the UK-wide welfare reform programme takes effect, which will see major changes to the types of benefits available and the way they are assessed. Already we have seen a 66% rise in the number of cases where our officers represented people at appeals. This has mainly been as a result of the move from Incapacity Benefit to Employment and Support Allowance, and our success rate for this type of appeals was 60%, significantly above the national average of 37%.”
Income maximisation work has generated £92.8m over the last eight years for North Lanarkshire residents.