|
We have been concerned for a while now about the lack of positive promotion and publicity for these changes, as we have been taking regular calls from single parents who haven't been told about the changes by Jobcentre Plus staff. Essentially, from 12 April 2010, all child maintenance payments will be disregarded for means-tested benefits (IS, JSA, ESA), which we think is a very significant change that should be highlighted proactively by DWP and CMEC.
When our policy team wrote to DWP about this, we received this reply:
have spoken to policy colleagues, and they tell me there will be no external publicity campaign informing clients who are currently nil assessed due to child maintenance that they may be entitled to benefits after 12 April. This is a straight forward regulations change and it is not usual to run an external publicity campaign in such circumstances. However, we do appreciate that this is an important initiative which is why we have undertaken some external publicity including an article in the December 09 Touchbase e-bulletin and there will be a fuller article in the March 2010 edition of Touchbase. In addition the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission will be writing to key stakeholders to remind them of the upcoming change and the Direct Gov website will be updated with the changes.
There is an ongoing internal publicity campaign though.
As this change was introduced as part of the October 09 regulation package of changes DWP Legal Group issued a bulletin to staff alerting them to the forthcoming changes to legislation.
There was an internal alert issued to all Jobcentre Plus staff on Monday 15th February advising that for those cases where the full disregard would mean that a customer will qualify for benefit on or after 12th April 10, that they should change the date of the benefit claim to 12th April 2010, or alternatively they should advise the customer to reapply for benefit on or after 12th April 2010.
In mid March there will be a staff guidance bulletin issued which will advise decision makers that any claims with excess income due to the amount of child maintenance, and it is clear that the customer will qualify when the full disregard applies, should have the date of the benefit claim changed to 12th April 2010, alternatively the decision maker should advise the customer to reapply for benefit on or after 12th April 2010.
There are also plans to place an article in the JCP internal magazine for staff.
We looked at the CMEC website yesterday and there was no information at all about these forthcoming changes, which is rather worrying in light of the above statement.
If other advisers are unaware of these changes, or finding it difficult to find information, please could you let us know, because we can then go back to DWP to try to lobby them for a better-informed approach. Thanks.
|
