Success for our Welfare Rights Team, congratulations to Katie & Leanne
This is the fourth consecutive time the Advice Quality Service (AQS) has been awarded to the Welfare Rights Service and is testament to the continued high standard of service delivered by the team to City Hospice patients, their families, carers and bereaved relatives.
The Welfare Rights Service help patients to access financial support through social security benefits due to the changes in their health, care needs and employment status. They recognise eligibility to new claims and help the patient through this claim journey until the claim is live, this can at times include appeal work to a Tribunal if the patient is not awarded the benefit.
The support is extended to bereavement as benefit claims would change and/or stop and again financial distress is experienced.
The team have created strong links with the Department of Work and Pensions and hold alternative office which has helped speed up claims. They also work closely with the local authority departments; the benefits section, council tax, blue badges and Housing to resolve any matters that may arise such as rent arrears and benefit claims swiftly.
Over the last AQS assessment period April 2021/22 and April 22/23 the Welfare Rights Service received 1,359 referrals and helped patients to claim £4,050,598 in benefits and grants
The AQS is held by 650 independent organisations nationwide providing advice to the public across a range of social welfare legal advice. While organisations struggle with funding services and increasing patient need, quality of service remains at the heart of advice giving. The team are committed to provide patients with the best advice. The AQS award demonstrates the standard of advice provided to patients, the multi-disciplinary clinical team who recognise the need for advice and refer into the service and the charity organisation which demonstrates the fantastic level of service provided to patients who may have no other means of exercising their legal rights.
