No images? Click here Inform & Advise IntroductionHi all Apologies for sending another edition of Inform & Advise so soon after the previous one. A funding opportunity has become available, which will only be relevant to a small number of I&A services, but we thought it was important to highlight it to you. It also provides an opportunity to detail the updates that we’ve made to the template responses following the flood of government announcements that we’ve had in the past few days, and to provide some further clarification on our guidance around whether local Age UKs can use the new Pension Credit online application process when advising clients. As stated previously we will be sending out newsletters on a frequent but irregular basis as we have guidance and information to share with you. Mark Tomlinson, Senior I&A Development Adviser Please note: some items in the Briefings are not relevant for partners in Wales; these are marked up in the Briefings. In this issue
Updated resources for advisersWe have continued to update the template responses to common Coronavirus queries and since the last issue of Inform and Advise on the 11th of May we have updated the following templates:
To view the templates visit our wiki. On the first screen of the wiki, under “SPACES” select “Age UK Advice” and then under “PAGE TREE” select “Coronavirus – template responses”. NB: if you get a bit lost in the menus (which is easy to do) click on the Age UK logo in the top left and this will take you back to the first screen. Community Justice FundThe Community Justice Fund is now open for applications. Whilst not every local Age UK will be able to apply, some of the more specialist services maybe interested in considering applying. To be eligible for funding, an organisation must be:
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Further information can be found here and below is the press release about the fund which was published yesterday: Community Justice Fund launches to sustain UK social justice advisers through the Covid-19 pandemic. New fund aims to inject immediate money into specialist legal advice agencies, plus provide longer term support as catalyst for wider renewal. All grants will be as flexible as possible to ensure the money is spent where it is most needed. A group of six grant-giving foundations have joined forces to launch the Community Justice Fund, giving financial and other support to specialist social welfare law advice agencies dealing with the impact of Coronavirus. The fund was created in partnership with leading social justice organisations, who stressed the need for urgent, decisive action and maximum flexibility in how funding can be used. Funders include the Access to Justice Foundation, Therium Access, Legal Education Foundation, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, AB Charitable Trust and Indigo Trust plus contributions from Law Society, Linklaters, Allen and Overy and London Legal Support Trust. The Community Justice Fund will be hosted by the Access to Justice Foundation and opens with over £5m, including contributions from Ministry of Justice. Funds are expected to be distributed quickly, and additional grant funders are expected to join the initiative in coming weeks and months, as the full impact of the pandemic becomes clearer. Law Centres and legal advice agencies are invited to apply to the fund via a streamlined application process, with the first grants expected to be paid within two weeks. Grant applications can be backdated to 1 April 2020, to cover the urgent, unplanned spending organisations had to make in their initial response to the virus outbreak. Grants from the new fund are expected to range from £25,000 to £100,000 and will be made to organisations specialising in key areas of social welfare law: immigration and asylum, community care, debt, disability, discrimination, education, employment, housing, immigration, mental health, public and administrative law, welfare benefits. Clarification around advisers using the Pension Credit online claim functionalityIn the previous issue of Inform & Advise we informed you of the Pension Credit on-line application that has been added to the Gov.UK website. We also advised you not to complete on-line applications for your clients until we have received guidance from our Professional Indemnity insurer on how this can be done safely. This has led to a number of local Age UKs contacting us for further clarification. The Professional Indemnity issue that we have is that the application process includes no formal verification of the client’s identity and has no way for an adviser/third party to confirm that the client has checked the information being submitted. While these things are great for clients, as they make the application process a lot simpler, they create significant issue for advice agencies completing the application remotely from their client. We are currently discussing with our Professional Indemnity insurer additional measures that could be put in place to protect local Age UKs from future claims from clients, for example in cases where over-payments are raised because of either the client omitting some element of their savings or income or the adviser mistyping something on the application. For the time being this new functionality should be seen as a welcome alternative for clients that are able to make their own claims for Pension Credit, and we would recommend that you encourage your clients to use this option given the reduced hours/capacity on the DWP’s claim lines currently. Advisers supporting clients with Pension Credit claims should be using the downloadable pdf claim form available from the Gov.UK website which they can print out and send to their clients to read through and sign once they have checked that the information on the form is correct. The client would then arrange for the claim to be sent to the DWP. I&A training updateWe’ve had a few emails enquiring about making bookings for face-to-face I&A training later in the year. Currently we are not taking bookings for any face-to-face I&A training. Even when the lock-down measures are ended we may not be able to deliver face-to-face training due to the risk of spreading the virus amongst Age UK staff and volunteers given the clinically vulnerable nature of many of our client group. We are planning to review our I&A training offer in the coming weeks but due the uncertainty of the current situation and staff furloughing it is unlikely that we will have a confirmed revised training offer anytime soon. In the meantime we would encourage you to have your advisers complete our I&A e-learning. Has care changed in your area?Please share how social care has changed in your area with us. Social care and the serious issues it faces have never been more important. Age UK continues to fight for the support it desperately needs including personal protective equipment and funding. When we speak to the Government about care we want to make sure that everything we say is informed by the experiences of those directly affected. We are particularly interested to hear from those in areas where Care Act Easements have started: Sunderland City Council, Derbyshire County Council, Birmingham City Council, Warwickshire County Council, Staffordshire County Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council and Coventry City Council. However, we know changes are happening everywhere and all information will be welcomed. How you can help: Fill out/share our survey on how care has changed: https://campaigns.ageuk.org.uk/page/59822/data/1?ea.tracking.id=LAUK Email Eorann.lean@ageuk.org.uk about the changes your local Age UK is seeing. Control what you get from Age UK communicationsSign up: You can subscribe to newsletters for local Age UKs using our online sign-up. Control what you receive: You can update your existing subscription and details online. Unsubscribe: To unsubscribe, please email signpost@ageuk.org.uk. If you click the unsubscribe link in the footer you'll unsubscribe from all Age UK newsletters. |