Welfare

Housing minister Kevin Stewart has written to the UK Government calling for the suspension of the benefit cap and the removal of the spare room subsidy as part of urgent action to support housing tenants affected by the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter to the secretary of state for work and pension

Appointees should be able to collect benefits on behalf of consenting adult claimants but safeguards must be put in place to limit fraud and the exploitation of vulnerable people, according to a Scottish Parliament committee. MSPs on Holyrood’s social security committee have backed a Bill whic

The tenant chair of Glasgow Housing Association has renewed calls for “urgent and radical” change to Universal Credit as the coronavirus crisis continues. Bernadette Hewitt today called on the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to take immediate action on five fronts, including ending

In light of the current coronavirus crisis, Port Glasgow-based firms McLaren Packaging and Interlok Divisions have engaged to help Inverclyde Foodbank provide essential services to the most vulnerable people in the area. Both companies have been matching employee donations and ensuring that Invercly

CIH Scotland has published new proposals as part of an urgent call to action to avoid a potentially disastrous spike in evictions once the current coronavirus protections end. Following measures from the Scottish and UK governments to help tenants keep their homes during the pandemic, the housing ch

An additional £5 million will be made available to local authorities through Discretionary Housing Payments to support tenants under severe financial pressure during the COVID-19 outbreak. The extra funding was announced by housing minister Kevin Stewart during the Stage 3 debate of the emerge

Tenants have praised “brilliant” Wheatley Group staff for “fighting their corner” in helping them with benefit claims.

Projects supporting those most severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic in Edinburgh and the surrounding areas have been awarded funding from the University of Edinburgh. Awards of £5000 – from the University’s Community Grants Scheme – have been made to projects that ai

A 59% increase in applications for crisis grants in Scotland in March shows that low-income families are struggling to cope with the impacts of the coronavirus crisis, social security secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has said. Monthly Scottish Welfare Fund figures show that crisis grant applic

Nearly two million claims have been made for Universal Credit across the UK during the COVID-19 outbreak, new figures have revealed.

Governments must not lose sight of the underlying reasons behind the increasing reliance on welfare, Shelter Scotland has warned after new statistics revealed an increase in awards by the Scottish Welfare Fund.

Angus Council’s online benefits calculator has helped residents to identify and confirm benefits totalling £3.4 million in the first critical week of the coronavirus lockdown. The calculator continues to be used to help families across Angus, identify b

Household claims for Universal Credit in Scotland have increased from an average of 20,000 per month in 2019 to over 110,000 between 1 March and 7 April, highlighting the impact the coronavirus pandemic is having on people’s finances.

Milnbank Housing Association’s income maximisation team has continued to generate increased year on year financial gains after securing £1,871,907 for its tenants during the financial year ending March 31, 2020. The small team of two advisors responded to more than 2,000 claims, the brea

People applying for Universal Credit will now be able to use their existing Government Gateway account to confirm their identity, helping to speed up their claim.