Outcomes and Evidence Forms for Citizens Advice South West Surrey

 

Report date: January 2024

Thank you to Andrew Fagg for producing this report.

Note:  The report now covers Outcomes and Evidence Forms for the whole of CASWS, including data from all Offices and all Funded caseworker activity

December 2023 Outcomes:

In Nov 2023, CASWS generated 269 separate Outcomes for 190 Clients across all funding sources. A total of £464,857 of financial outcomes for Clients was generated.

  • £ 401,716 Income gain – 114 Clients
  • £ 4,600        Reimbursement, services, loans – 48 Clients
  • £ 45,776        Debts written off – 3 Clients
  • £ 12,766        Other (Blue badge, Food bank etc) – 57 Clients

NOTE:  Financial Value (£500) again has NOT been recorded for all Blue Badge Outcomes – please try to remember to include this.

  • The CORE/CSDF programmes generated 150 Outcomes for 124 Clients to a financial value of £124,707.
  • Funded Projects generated 119 Outcomes for 69 Clients to a financial value of £340,151.

December 2023 Evidence Forms:

  • In December 2023, CASWS raised 24 separate Evidence Forms – 4 of these were ‘Local issues’ and 20 were ‘National’ issues; 9 were identified as ‘emerging’ issues. A total of 44 separate issues/AICs were identified in these Evidence Forms.
  • The following ‘issues’ were each identified in more than one EF:
    • Changes to the qualifying criteria for Warm Home Discount – Clients no longer eligible.
    • The slow response of DWP in responding to telephone calls and the speed with which DWP closes cases (often incorrectly) is another theme in these Evidence Forms.
    • The overly aggressive nature of OVO (or their designated debt collectors) when chasing energy debts.
    • Difficulty that Ukrainian Clients have in claiming Pension Credit – DWP telephone application processes not flexible enough to cope with ‘non-standard’ Clients.
    • DWP staff struggling with new State Pension records system – results in further delays for Clients applying for SRP or seeking information about their SRP
  • If you come across any of these issues or similar ones, please raise a fresh Evidence Form to increase the body of evidence that Citizens Advice can use nationally or locally to campaign for improvement.
    • The ‘frequent’ issue of lack of white goods when Client’s move into Council/HA property has been raised again. Citizens Advice is still campaigning on this at a national level – please raise Evidence Forms every time you come across this issue.

In December 23:

  • 13 x EFs related to Benefits & Tax Credits and UC issues covering these AICs:
    • 3 x Pension Credit
    • 2 x PIP
    • 2 x State Retirement Pension
    • 2 x Child DLA
    • 2 x UC Conditionality & Commitment
    • 1 x Housing Benefit
    • 1 x UC Initial Claim
  • 1 x EF relating to Charitable Support & Food Banks issues covering this AIC:
    • 1 x Food Banks
  • 2 x EFs relating to Debt issues covering these AICs:
    • 2 x Fuel Debts
    • 1 x Water supply & sewerage debts
  • 1 x EF relating to Employment covering this AIC:
    • 1 x Discrimination
  • 1 x EF relating to GVA & Hate Crime issues covering this AIC:
    • Hate: Disability
  • 2 x EFs relating to Health & Community Care
    • 2 x Adult Social Care
    • 2 x Hospital Services (non-MH)
  • 7 x EFs relating to Housing issues covering these AICs:
    • 2 x Actual Homelessness
    • 2 x Access to & provision of accommodation
    • 1 x LA homelessness service
    • 1 x Local Authority Housing
    • 1 x Housing Association property
    • 1 x Owner occupier property
    • 1 x Other housing issues
  • 2 x EFs relating to Immigration & Asylum issues covering these AICs:
    • 1 x Refugees
    • 1 x Other issues
  • 1 x EF relating to Travel & Transport issues covering this AICs:
    • 1 x Driving (Congestion charging etc)
  • 2 x EFs relating to Utilities & Communication issues covering these AICs:
    • 8 x Fuel (gas, electricity, coal etc)
    • 1 x Other communications & utility issues (Postal & mail service)