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Welfare Benefits Service Statement of Purpose

What services do we offer?

Age UK BEXLEY provides an advice service about Welfare Benefits for anyone over 50. The service includes

  • advising on benefit entitlements and offering assistance to complete claim forms
  • advising those who are finding it hard to make ends meet or are struggling to pay their bills, including information about grants available.
  • helping people to make complaints or challenge decisions about welfare benefits

How do we provide help?

Please contact us initially by telephone on 020 8300 0883 or by email (gateway@ageukbexley.org.uk). A member of our Gateway (Information Services) team will take your details and arrange for you to be referred to a Welfare Benefits Advisor. If the team are busy when you call, or if you call outside our opening hours (10am to 4pm Monday to Friday), please leave a message and someone will call you back. There is often a waiting list for new enquiries, but the Gateway staff member or volunteer will inform you of this when they speak to you. Please ensure that you let them know if your situation is urgent or there are any deadlines for your claim.

When our Benefits Advisor calls you, s/he will ask some questions to find out more about your situation. S/he may provide support in one of more of the following ways: 

  • By providing information guides and factsheets.
  • By providing advice over the telephone.
  • Via a face to face appointment. This must be arranged in advance and can be provided: at our office; at another venue of your choice, for example, at our Day Centre in Sidcup, or at a library, or one of our Befriending Cafes, or we can visit you at home if is difficult for you to get out. When we visit we will always arrange the time with you in advance and our adviser will carry identification. If you have any concerns about someone turning up at your door who claims to be from Age UK BEXLEY, please ask them to remain outside and ring us on 020 8300 0883. We will confirm if the person works or volunteers for Age UK BEXLEY and has an appointment with you.

 

What will happen if we can’t provide the service you require?

Sometimes people come to us with problems that we do not have the expertise or knowledge to help with. For example, at this time we are unable to provide consumer debt advice, or immigration advice.

In these cases we can provide you with basic information and direct you to another organisation for further help.  Where possible we will give you a selection of organisations to choose from. We will usually give you the organisation’s contact information so you can contact them yourself.  However, if this would be difficult for you, we can call the organization on your behalf (with your permission) and ask them to contact you.

Sometimes when advising you we will reach a point where we don’t have the expertise to pursue your case any further, or where we find that there is a conflict of interest between you and another client we are advising. In this case, we will refer you to another local advice service that can help you and provide them with copies of any documents already completed by our service.  We will always get your permission before referring you to another organisation.

 

How our service treats its clients

We follow five key principles when delivering our service.

  1. The service is provided free of charge.

You won’t be charged for any of our information and advice. If we signpost or refer you onto another organisation we will tell you if there is any charge for their service. While we provide help free of charge, running the Welfare Benefits Team is expensive and only some of the money to do this comes from external funding.  Any donation you can make will be greatly appreciated.  If you wish to donate please ask one of our staff or volunteers about Gift Aid.

  1. The information and advice we provide is independent of any outside influence.

We will never recommend a service or provider to you, including Age UK’s own services.  Where possible we will always provide you with a choice of alternatives and help you make an informed decision.  We’re not bound by local or national government policies and will always advise you on what’s best for you rather than what’s best for the council, the Department for Work and Pensions, Age UK or any other organisation.  We will never advise someone to do anything illegal or fraudulent.  We will immediately stop advising anyone carrying out illegal or fraudulent actions and may notify the appropriate authorities.

  1. All information is confidential.

 Any information we keep about you is stored securely and only viewed by staff and volunteers involved in advising you or other people that you have allowed us to share this information with.  These may be external auditors that check the quality and accuracy of our work, organisations we are referring your case on to and agencies we are dealing with on your behalf (such as the DWP or an energy supplier).We won’t share your information or discuss your case with anyone outside of our service without your consent unless they have been given responsibility to act on your behalf by the Court of Protection or Department for Work and Pensions. You have the right to withdraw consent at any time.

There are a few exceptions to the above that you need to be aware of. We may share information about someone without their consent if:

  • they insist on taking an illegal or fraudulent course of action
  • we are contacted by a statutory body about a client who is being investigated for suspected illegal or fraudulent activity
  • we are concerned that someone involved in a case is at risk of abuse or harm or there is a possibility of abuse or harm to others. In this case we may notify a relevant statutory body, for example social services or the police. These disclosures will be done following Adult Safeguarding’ procedures that our staff and volunteers have been trained in.

Any data we hold about you is processed in accordance with data protection legislation and Age UK Bexley’s Data Protection policy.  A copy of our data protection policy is available on our website (www.ageuk.org.uk/bexley) or by calling 020 8300 0883.  You have a right to view any data we hold on you and can request to view it by calling 020 8300 0883.

  1. Clients are treated with fairness, dignity and respect and we expect clients to treat our staff and volunteers in the same way.

We won’t judge anyone based on age, disability, gender, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, sex or sexual orientation.  We won’t judge anyone based upon the circumstances they find themselves in and we won’t try to influence the decisions you make following our advice.  Sometimes clients will make a decision that we don’t think is in their best interest. We will tell them if this happens and aim to provide enough information and advice to help them make an informed choice. We will respect whatever decision they then make.  Our Welfare Benefits Advice Service operates in compliance with Age UK Bexley’s Equality and Diversity Policy.  A copy of the policy is available by calling 020 8300 0883.

  1. Our service is as accessible as possible for older people.

Our offices are suitable for people with disabilities; we have step free access, ground floor interview facilities and ground floor toilets.

Where clients have difficulties accessing or understanding our information and advice, for example because of a disability or language issue, we will take all reasonable steps to provide our service in a manner that is accessible and appropriate to their needs or circumstances and we will always operate in compliance with our Equality and Diversity Policy. 

We can also offer information and advice in community languages, but we will need to arrange for an interpreter to assist. Interpreting Services have to be booked in advance.  

 

How to make a complaint, compliment or suggestion about our service

If you would like to compliment or make a suggestion about our Gateway Information service or Welfare Benefits Service please contact the Chief Executive, Alison Baker, either in writing at Age UK Bexley, Belvedere Community Centre, Mitchell Close, Belvedere DA17 6AA, by email (alison.baker@ageukbexley.org.uk) or by telephone on 020 8300 0883. 

If you wish to make a complaint, please follow Age UK Bexley’s complaints procedure.  A copy of the full complaints procedure is available at ageuk.org.uk/bexley or by request by telephone on 020 8300 0883

 

What we ask of our clients

In return for providing information & advice/welfare Benefits we expect that you

  • treat our staff and other clients with courtesy and respect
  • provide us with accurate and truthful information about your circumstances
  • attend appointments or let us know in advance if you can’t, if possible
  • inform us of changes in your circumstances which may be relevant to your case
  • provide us with information or paperwork that we need to assist you.
  • notify us of the outcome of welfare benefit applications we have assisted you with

How you can help us 

Our Team gain satisfaction from our work and the positive impact we have on our clients.  We don’t expect any further form of recognition or gifts.  And while  thank you gifts are lovely to receive, there are a number of other ways you can support us so we can continue to provide the service.

  • Make a donation – By sending a cheque made payable to Age UK Bexley, or by donating online. Please include your name and address so that we can thank you. You can also telephone us on 020 8300 0883 and we can take a card payment over the phone. Please make it clear when you make your donation if you wish to donate specifically to the Welfare Benefits service.  And if you are a tax payer please ask us about ‘gift aid’.
  • Volunteer – Please see our volunteering opportunities on our website.