Agenda item

(Presentation from the Assistant Director, Partnerships supported by External partners)

The Chair welcomed the Assistant Director, Partnerships who introduced Lee Bates from the Community Together CIC who would be provided a presentation on behalf of partners on what the Council are doing with their Partners around the impact of the winter fuel allowance changes and getting residents to apply for Pension credit before handing over to Lee Bates who talked through the presentation confirming that today was Fuel Poverty awareness day. That Tamworth were very good at partnership working  and that hose partners  have been encouraging people to claim Pension Credit to be eligible for the Winter Fuel Allowance.

It was confirmed that the deadline for claiming Pension credit was the 21^st December in order to get this year’s Winter Fuel Allowance payment highlighting the following information.

The Committee made the following comments/observations and asked the following questions:

1.     Whether you still had to apply for the Winter Fuel Allowance if you were receiving Pension credit?

It was confirmed that a form had to be completed but that the CIC could assist with as well as applying for other benefits that you may be entitled to if you are entitled to Pension Credit such as Council Tax Reduction.

2.     Whether there were any plans to drop in to Places of Welcome to talk to people rather than them coming to the CIC?

It was confirmed that the check and claim session were mobile and that this suggestion would be taken on board.

3.     Whether all Council properties contained efficient central heating.

The Officer was unable to answer this question but agreed to provide a written response.

4.     The Committee acknowledged that there could be a number of causes for food insecurities including poverty/cost-of-living crisis, food supplies chains, but that this can lead to residents buying cheaper rather than healthy food leading to obesity and other health related conditions and whether the Council has a food champion and if not whether this was something that the Council should consider. A recommendation was made around this.

The Officer confirmed that there was work being done on Health Inqualities in this area by the Integrated Care Board and some funding was expected in this area. It was also confirmed that the Local authority was keen to look at food nutrition and cooking sessions had been run with tenants to educate them that you can cook in a healthy way for a reasonable cost.

5.     Whether there were figures on how many people who were entitled to but were not claiming Pension Credit?

It was confirmed that the data suggested that there were approximately 3444 pensioners that could apply for Pension Credit in Tamworth and 1600 claim pension credit (This was taken from ONS data).

The Committee acknowledged that for some there was a stigma around claiming benefits.

6.     The Committee highlighted that it would be useful to look at the voluntary sector to ensure that work is not being duplicated, perhaps through an audit of the provisional of the services that is in place.

7.     Whether there could be a place on the website where people could find details of the community groups and whether this could be easy to get too as it was highlighted that the website could be difficult to navigate?

It was confirmed that the Council were steering away from maintaining as database as the CIC have the community directory and Staffordshire Connects hold lots of information, however they would like to look into a landing page with the Strategic partnership.

It was confirmed that the CIC had also created some bespoke directories with UKSPF funding for areas such as Mental Health support and services, Dementia, Long term Health Conditions and Social Activities.

It was clarified that lots of those were funded groups but the impact of smaller groups was really important.

The Committee resolve to Recommend to Cabinet: