Pub staff to give benefit advice

yesterday i discovered that one of my clients who will be affected by the “bedroom tax” has been in touch with many of her neighbours to tell them that they will too, even though some of them don’t even claim housing benefit. consequently i’ve had a few calls from anxious residents and i’ve had to explain that because they dont claim HB, or because they don’t actually have any unoccupied rooms that they wont be affected

i couldn’t resist also adding the maxim - if you want benefit advice dont listen to your neighbours, ask someone who actually knows!

I’ve got social workers telling clients the bedroom tax won’t affect them because they haven’t got an unoccupied room, even though they’ve only got 2 children, both under 5 (opposite sex, but even so, it’s a long time before they need a third bedroom).  And sadly the clients listen to social workers more than they listen to me.  Until the bill comes, that is!

Lorraine, have you thought of feeding that back to Social Servcies/Local Authority? I am aware of some local authorities doing work with both employees and service users in preparation for the changes. Not sure about Merthyr but I could ask around if that would be helpful?