Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will promote the sharing of best practice in the administration of local welfare schemes.
We spoke at length to a number of local authorities last autumn when conducting a review of local welfare schemes.
The findings were published, including examples of best practice, on 5th November 2014. A copy of the report was sent to all the local authorities that received funding and a copy placed in the House library. It can also be found on the Gov.uk website here:
None of those local authorities we spoke to raised concerns about people being incorrectly referred to local welfare provision support rather than being considered for a Short Term Benefit Advance (STBA). There were some suggestions that this may have happened on occasion when STBAs were first introduced in April 2013, so the department issued revised guidance and instructions to staff at the time. The relevant DWP guidance was also shared with local authorities.