‘Welfare rights advice more important than ever before’ says children’s charity

As the Government’s consultation on its welfare reform plans draws to a close today, a new report shows the growing importance of welfare rights advice.

‘The Benefits of Welfare Rights Advice’, a study commissioned by the National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers (NAWRA), draws the following main conclusions:

• There is a strong demand for an effective non-governmental welfare rights service;
  
• Welfare rights services improve benefit take-up and make people better off;
• Welfare rights services placed in health settings can be particularly effective at reaching vulnerable groups;
• Clients tend to spend the extra money raised on fuel, food, education, recreation and transport, with improvements in living standards and a reduction in social exclusion;
• Local economies benefit from welfare rights advice services with the income being raised benefiting from a ‘multiplier effect’;
• Welfare rights advice can result in improvements in mental health.

Paula Twigg, Welfare Rights Manager at the Child Poverty Action Group, said:

“Today’s increasingly complex system of benefits and tax credits, together with the Government’s proposed reforms of incapacity benefit, make welfare rights advice more important than ever before.

“This report demonstrates the value of and growing need for good quality independent advice, not least because it helps many of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in society.”

NAWRA spokesperson Andy Platt added:

“This report shows that welfare rights advice makes real improvements to people’s lives and contributes to social inclusion on a number of levels. However it goes further than just benefits for individuals, local economies also benefit from the extra money being spent locally.”

The report, a literature review of existing research written by Dr Jay Wiggan and Professor Colin Talbot of the Centre for Public Policy and Management, Manchester Business School, is available on the NAWRA website at: http://www.nawra.org/nawra/docs_pdf/Benefitsofwelfarerightsadvicelitreview.pdf

Notes to Editors:

For more information about NAWRA please go to: www.nawra.org

For further information about the report please contact Andy Platt: during office hours on 0115 9151350 or andy.platt@nottinghamcity.gov.uk; outside office hours on 07793 677112 or andyplatts@ntlworld.com.

For further information from CPAG please contact:
Alex Belardinelli
CPAG Press Officer
Tel. 020 7812 5216 or 07816 909302
abelardinelli@cpag.org.uk