Why Do This Course?
When you first encounter the benefits system it can seem like an impenetrable maze.
So many different payments and allowances, with no overall logic and different agencies who tell you different, often contradictory things
But once you have a grip on some basic ideas the benefits system becomes much easier to understand.
This course gives you those basic ideas and provides you with strong foundation to build a wide knowledge and effective working practices.
By doing the course you will:
- Understand the range of the benefits system
- Understand the different types of benefit: non-means-tested, means-tested and one-off
- See that different benefits have different purposes: meeting the costs of care and mobility needs, or living expenses, or housing costs
- See how different people get different combinations of benefits in different circumstances
- See how some people get benefits and do not have to do anything in return, while other people have to meet conditionality rules
- Understand migration: how Universal Credit is being introduced to replace a wide range of payments for people under pension age
- Understand some of the gains and losses that the move to Universal Credit involves
- See the similarities and differences between the Universal Credit system for working age people and the Pension Credit system for older people
Content
Although all introduction courses cover the same ground, the emphasis changes according to the needs of the group members. We look at:
- Three types of benefit – non-means-tested, means-tested and one-off
- Pension age – and the increase to 68
- Benefits for care and mobility needs – DLA, PIP and Attendance Allowance
- Limited Capability for Work and Limited Capability for Work Related Activity
- Conditionality: jobseeking, work-focused interviews, work-related-activity and work-preparation
- The non-means-tested tombola – maybe you get them, maybe you don’t
- The means-tested safety net – and some of the big problems with this
- Theory into practice – different people and different combinations