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 Citizens Advice reports 'steep increase' in benefit enquiries
Citizens Advice today reported a steep increase in the number of people contacting it for help with sickness and disability benefits. The charity said enquiries about the employment and support allowance (ESA) had soared by 77% during the second quarter of the year, compared with the same period of 2009. It said 45,257 people contacted it about the benefit during the three months, and warned that it was bracing itself for a further sharp increase this autumn, when more people will start receiving it. Gillian Guy, chief executive at Citizens Advice, said: "Since ESA was introduced in October 2008 Citizens Advice has been monitoring its impact. "We have previously published reports expressing our concern about poor knowledge of ESA rules among Jobcentre Plus and DWP medical staff, inadequate administration systems and the crude nature of the work capability assessment. "This autumn, claimants on the old incapacity benefit will switch to ESA. With so many flaws in the current system we predict the number of people who come to us for advice on this benefit will only continue to increase." Citizens Advice also saw a 17% increase in people wanting advice on the carers allowance, and an 11% rise in those asking about disability living allowance. Overall, the total number of benefit problems that people contacted the charity for help with rose by 6% to 517,956. But there was a 1% drop in the number of people needing help with debt problems, although at 562,154 it still remained the single biggest issue about which people contacted the group. The charity said the slight fall in debt enquires, the first one to be recorded for two years, was likely to have been caused by the lower level of lending currently taking place. But it warned that there had still been a significant rise in enquiries about so-called priority debts, which have the most serious consequences for consumers if they are unable to pay them. There was an 18% rise in people contacting Citizens Advice because they were behind with their water bills, while 7% more needed help with council tax arrears and there was also a 7% rise in people with telephone debts. The group also reported an 18% jump in the number of people in private rented accommodation who contacted it after getting behind with their rent. Other areas where there was a notable increase in enquires included questions about higher education, which were up 24%, problems with local authority housing, which saw an 18% increase, and issues relating to homelessness and domestic violence, up 13% and 19% respectively. A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said it valued the advice of the CAB and the review. "We're determined that the reassessments for people getting Incapacity Benefit will go as smoothly as possible - our staff will be sending letters, following up with phone calls and working hard to ensure that everyone affected is fully informed throughout," he added. "We know that there are concerns with the Work Capability Assessment, and ministers have already made changes to the way it recognises people suffering from mental health conditions and those with cancer" Source: 24dash.com Due to problems with spam only SalfordOnline members can now leave comments. Becoming a member of SalfordOnline only takes a minute, just hit the red Join Us button at the top right hand side of the page to create your Personal account. |
