The success of CAB benefit take-up campaigns
Introduction
Since the inception of the welfare state, Citizens Advice Bureaux have been helping people to get the benefits and assistance to which they are entitled and in 2001-02, CAB advisers helped with over 1.6 million benefit and tax credit problems. Benefit take-up campaigns are run by many Citizens Advice Bureaux, targeting sections of the community who are failing to claim what is rightly theirs, including elderly people, people with disabilities and low-income families. People over 75 are the largest group not to claim their entitlements, despite antipoverty measures, such as the minimum income guarantee (MIG), designed to benefit the two million pensioners who live in poverty.
A National Audit Office report estimated that a third of those entitled to MIG did not claim it. This jumped to a possible two-thirds for some other benefits. The stigma of claiming by a generation brought up to ‘make do and mend’ is great. Long, complicated forms and a confusing claims process are also big barriers.
The effect of not claiming entitlements can be profound. It can mean scraping by on an unnecessarily low income, struggling to afford to pay for basics. The reorganisation of the benefits system and emphasis on means-testing, makes the takeup work of Citizens Advice Bureaux all the more vital. Serious benefits looks at that work, the keys to success, the partnerships that succeed and the people who gain. There is much to be proud of. Estimates are that some CAB benefit take-up campaigns net as much as £85 for claimants for each £1 spent on running them – money which helps lift that person out of poverty and benefits the community in which it is spent. It’s not just claimants who gain from CAB benefit take-up work.
For each local person claiming a particular benefit (capped at a certain level), the local authority receives a set amount of extra cash from the Government. This can bring in many thousands of pounds for the local authority. We discuss the importance of securing on-going funding and look at some of the innovative one-off projects and strong partnerships that have achieved exciting results.
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1.2mb) - the success of CAB benefit take-up campaigns.