Benefits & Work Forum

Shecar · 16 March 2017 at 5:30PM

I am new to this site, forgive me if this information has already been posted:
As a new user I am unable to post the link - this is easily found if you google: Benefits and works

For people out there struggling to complete PIP forms, as I was a few weeks ago, or indeed, other paperwork generated by the DWP
These people have created easy to follow guides to help fill in the endless reams of paperwork the DWP is producing.
Forum users have the facility to ask questions regarding benefits. Questions that are in the main, answered by qualified professionals - with legally correct and up to date advice.
There is a fee for joining @ £19:95 a year, but from what I have already seen this is money well spent, the PIP Guide in particular is extremely informative.

Hopefully this will help,

Sheila

nannytone_2 · 16 March 2017 at 5:35PM

there are many free agencies that offer the same and better help and advice

Shecar · 16 March 2017 at 5:44PM

nannytone wrote: »

there are many free agencies that offer the same and better help and advice

Many thanks for your comment, I appreciate that there are other services out there, CAB etc - but from trawling through a lot of posts, it seems that appointments are not always forthcoming in good time. As to 'better' - there are an awful lot of Professional Members who have subscriptions - so I hope the quality of their advice can be relied upon

I merely thought, as that site had been particularly helpful for me that it would be worth posting the details - I in no way advocate people paying for information BUT In my case it was the only way to ensure that I got the information I required in the timescale I needed it. So for me, money well spent.

It might be helpful if you were to publish a list of those free agencies - I for one would have been grateful for a comprehensive list - something I had not been able to find in the time I had available to me. Apologies if this list has already been published, I have not come across it

Many thanks

Sheila

nannytone_2 · 16 March 2017 at 6:23PM

its not only CAB.
there is DIAL and many councils have welfare rights departments.
also charity's for specific conditions also offer help and advice.

when my time comes to transfer to PIP i will contact the RNIB as well as my local welfare rights.

many people use ALL of their DLA/PIP awards towards the costs of care and aids so the costs of joining such a site is a large outlay that they cannot afford.

so jusrt pointing out that free help is available if you know where to find it.

Alice_Holt · 16 March 2017 at 6:25PM

nannytone wrote: »

there are many free agencies that offer the same and better help and advice

I think it is more nuanced than this.
The CAB / Law Centres are most helpful for vulnerable clients. For clients with poor mental health, depression, and learning difficulties face to face advice is particularly helpful. Even better if the CAB has a benefit caseworker who can help the client with form filling / appeals (but not all CAB have specialists who can pick up benefit appeals). Funding for advice agencies is increasingly problematic.
As Shecar says assessing local advice can be difficult, there is always more demand for advice services than resources available (hence CAB's often have long waiting times), and benefit specialists are fewer following the abolition of legal aid for benefit representatives.
BTW I'm afraid to say that not many councils have accessible Welfare Rights Advisers now. This is from Brighton & Hove's website - "The council's welfare rights team is a small team who primarily train other advisers on welfare benefits."

The B & W guides are excellent (and written by experienced former Welfare Rights workers), it can be particular useful to have a guide to refer back to. Verbal information may not be so easily retained.
I think it's not a case of either / or. We are lucky to have free face to face advice and authoritative guides available at a very reasonable cost. (I don't think £20 per year is a large outlay, particularly if it helps towards a successful benefit outcome).

Shecar · 16 March 2017 at 6:26PM

nannytone, thank you for that - I am still waiting for my daughters reply from the F2F last week - if she is successful I will be keeping myself up to date with as many of these institutions as possible, because it's only going to get harder.

Shecar · 16 March 2017 at 6:30PM

Alice_Holt wrote: »

The B & W guides are excellent (and written by experienced former Welfare Rights workers), it can be particular useful to have a guide to refer back to. Verbal information may not be so easily retained.

Completely agree with that - it is helpful to have the guides in front of you when completing the form. They also include advice for the F2F and any Reconsideration or Tribunal procedures

nannytone_2 · 16 March 2017 at 6:34PM

Alice_Holt wrote: »

I think it is more nuanced than this.
The CAB / Law Centres are most helpful for vulnerable clients. For clients with poor mental health, depression, and learning difficulties face to face advice is particularly helpful. Even better if the CAB has a benefit caseworker who can help with the client with form filling / appeals.
However assessing advice is difficult, there is always more demand for advice services than resources available (hence CAB's often have long waiting times), and benefit specialists are fewer following the abolition of legal aid for benefit representatives.

The B & W guides are excellent (and written by experienced former Welfare Rights workers), it can be particular useful to have a guide to refer back to. Verbal information may not be so easily retained.

i agree with what you say, but find it distasteful that any organisation that professes to 'help' the sick and disabled will only do so at a cost.

once the guide is written it no longer incurs a cost, yet they want to make money from as many vulnerable people as possible.

if it was a 'donation' that was asked for, it would be different, but to say you can look at the site and see what others have asked but unless you give us money then we don't really care about you and your circumstances.

especially when all they have to say is available free elsewhere

Ames · 16 March 2017 at 6:51PM

The forum and guides may be useful, but the way they scaremonger is disgusting.

Often they're not even right in their doom laden predictions.

Of course, the scaremongering just makes people believe they need the guides even more...

NeilCr · 16 March 2017 at 6:54PM

As ever I agree with Alice B and W have really great information.

Unfortunately, the "pushing" of a site that has very little traffic (great that it is) by folks on here doesn't help it's cause

Shecar · 16 March 2017 at 7:35PM

NeilCr wrote: »

As ever I agree with Alice B and W have really great information.

Unfortunately, the "pushing" of a site that has very little traffic (great that it is) by folks on here doesn't help it's cause

Apologies if you thought or I appeared to be pushing the site, I was merely bringing it to the attention of others that may not have come across it - I hadn't heard of it until I received my daughters migration paperwork and decided to see whether there were any guidance (other than the DWP) online, I immediately found both the B&W site and CAB guidance notes.
As I said before, I do not wholly agree with payments for information - but in my case it was useful

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