Funding will be provided over 3 years to advice services to help people with their social welfare problems, alongside new training for front-line workers to ensure more people get the help they need to deal with the cost of living.
The Single Advice Fund is a free service which provides access to all the advice a person needs to resolve their social welfare problems. It also makes benefit entitlement checks available to everyone accessing the services. Last year, the service put over £47.5m back into people's pockets. 81% said the service found them a way forward and 75% said their problem was now resolved as a result.
This funding of £12m per year for three years from April 2025 will fund services that help people manage the cost of living and resolve problems with their housing, welfare benefits and financial commitments.
Mary* accessed the Single Advice Fund through a video call drop-in service. Mary and her siblings lived in social housing but were struggling with the cost of living. Their only income was from State Pensions, with a total income of £1860.94 per month. The service completed a benefit check, revealing Mary and her siblings had been missing out on £1087.54 per month of unclaimed benefits.
An extra £300,000 has also been announced to provide more free training targeted at frontline workers to help their service users facing financial difficulties. The training will help frontline workers to build their knowledge of the welfare benefit/wider financial support systems and to help them recognise the signs of financial difficulties and know how to help their service users access the support they need to claim additional income.
Results from previous training sessions show 70% had used what they learnt and almost 60% had directly signposted someone to support within 8 weeks of completing the course.
A participant in the course said:
As a result of my training I was able to signpost a couple, who didn't think they could apply for benefits, to apply for PIP, UC and Carer's Allowance even though the husband has a small income and pension.
Jane Hutt, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Social Justice, Trefnydd and Chief Whip said:
Cost of living challenges have put many people in difficult situations, so we're doing everything we can to put money back into people's pockets.
This new funding will ensure advice services can make longer term plans to ensure more people throughout Wales have access to the information and advice that they need. It will also help those who are in regular contact with vulnerable people spot the signs of financial difficulty and be able to point them in the right direction for assistance.
The application process for providers of the Single Advice Fund will be launched today, 25 July for 12 weeks. The new funded services will start on 1 April 2025 and providers can find further information on how to apply here.
*name changed