Revenues and Benefit Services Training, Quality and Appeals LOCAL WELFARE PROVISION. Issue June 2014 Local Welfare Provision ISO: TR001

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1 LOCAL WELFARE PROVISION 1

2 Introduction... 4 What is Local Welfare Provision?... 4 Principles... 5 Eligibility Checks Year Residency... 6 Exceptions to the 2 Year Ruling:... 7 In respect of the Qualify Benefit... 7 Exclusions... 8 Excluded Items and Services:... 9 Planned Support Defined Provision of Planned Support Planned support examples Example 1: Claimant moves from a Hostel into their own tenancy 12 Example 2: Leaving prison (under 12 months sentence) Example 3: Leaving Rehabilitation Help for people leaving care to establish themselves in the community Emergency / Responsive Support defined Emergency support Fuel Travel Expenses Responsive Support: Income Emotional Resources Emergency / Responsive Reflective Questions Emergency / Responsive Examples Example 1 Stolen Monies Example 2 Overspent Example 3 - A new bed and washing machine Making your decision

3 The Bigger Picture Making Assumptions Food Requests The Housing Service Centre will: LWP Team Procedure NES Northgate Eligibility System for Local Welfare Provision.Error! Bookmark not defined. Task Manager...Error! Bookmark not defined. Queue System... Error! Bookmark not defined. General Details:...Error! Bookmark not defined. Household Details:... Error! Bookmark not defined. Local Welfare Provision Details:...Error! Bookmark not defined. Local Welfare Provision Additional Details... Error! Bookmark not defined. Items Applied for:...error! Bookmark not defined. Proofs Area... Error! Bookmark not defined. Contact Details / Contact Address...Error! Bookmark not defined. Notes:...Error! Bookmark not defined. Making a Decision and Award Resolving Applications... Error! Bookmark not defined. EDMS Under each claim you must record the following: Notification of a Successful / Unsuccessful Referral Requesting further information: Pending your LWP claim Housing Offices Payment schedules

4 Emergency support Notification

5 Introduction These notes are a toolkit to support you in your decision making role for Local Welfare provision. These notes will cover: The types of assistance covered by Local Welfare Provision What constitutes a Emergency, Responsive and Planned support How to interpret the risk factors that give rise to a Emergency, Responsive and Planned support requests What constitutes sounds evidence in the context of adopting an impartial and objective stance Case study examples of decision making in relation to the Local Welfare Provision Operating Guidelines These notes are for guidance only, and will encourage reflection and questioning enabling you to make decisions based on sound evidence. They can be used as a baseline from which you can explore each case on its own individual merits. What is Local Welfare Provision? From the 1 st April 2013 Sandwell MBC under the Local Welfare Provision will provide assistance to the residence of Sandwell in the following ways: Emergency Support: This would be an urgent need as a consequence of an emergency, a disaster, an unforeseen circumstance or a pressing need that is strikingly different from the pressures generally associated with managing on a low income. Emergency support could for example cover the following risk: No access to essential items such as Food and Heating 5

6 Responsive Support: This would meet a need that cannot be met from another source due to: The consequence of a disaster. The only way of preventing or eliminating serious risk to the health and safety of the applicant or a member of their immediate family. Required to enable an individual to remain living independently in the community. Planned Support: This is designed to help vulnerable people live independently and to remain or become integrated within the community. It can be a person requiring care, a member of their immediate family, or someone else the customer or their family will be providing care for. These are the categories of planned support that may be considered. Help for people leaving care to establish themselves in the community Help for people to stay in the community rather than enter care Help to ease exceptional pressures Help for people to set up a home as part of a planned resettlement programme. Principles When decisions are made you will be required to take into account the principles of local welfare provision. These are: Working with statutory services, local community and voluntary groups and other interested parties to facilitate our scheme Only allow two awards per claimant within a 12 month rolling period Build on existing multi-agency working by signposting the customer to other partners/advocates, ensuring long term solutions can compliment the support given by this fund Take into account the Fund s budget position when making a decision 6

7 In cases where DWP or other Government departments have a primary responsibility to residents. SMBC will first sign post residents to secure their entitlements. i.e. Budgeting Loans. Eligibility Checks Before dealing with a referral there are a number of mandatory checks that are required: The customer must be over the age of 18 and Have lived in the Borough of Sandwell for a least 2 years continuously Immediately prior to the date of the referral and Be in receipt of a Qualifying benefit. 2 Year Residency The customer must provide two forms of documented evidence. This is the approved list of documents that can be used: Housing Benefit records Council Tax Benefit records Council Tax Reduction records Council Tax records Housing Services system records Tenancy agreement Utility bills (gas, electric, water) Television license Telephone bills Full bank statements showing name, address and date of issue Credit card statements Department for Work and Pensions notification letters Educational establishment records Any Council records which can legally be used for 7

8 Exceptions to the 2 Year Ruling: There currently two exceptions to the two year ruling Exception 1: Where Sandwell MBC has a statutory duty to house a person in the borough; these will be treated as being resident in Sandwell for the purposes of the 2 year residency check. This means if a claimant moves into a property in Sandwell MBC under a statutory duty they will not have to satisfy the 2 year residency. These will be in the main claimants housed via Housing Options. We have instructed Sandwell Housing / Floating Support / Adults Assist, if at the point of making a LWP application they are aware that the customer falls under this exception they must state this in the notes field of the LWP system. Exception 2: If a customer has been placed outside the borough by the local authority, that period of time is counted as them residing within Sandwell. Example: Where Housing Options have placed someone in a Bed & Breakfast in Birmingham (Hagley Road) In respect of the Qualify Benefit The customer must be in receipt one of the following: Income Support Income Based Job Seekers Allowance Income related Employment Support Allowance Guaranteed Pension Credit There is no capital limit for requests made under the LWP scheme 8

9 Exclusions The following people are excluded from the scheme: A prisoner or person lawfully detained, Including those released on temporary licence (But not those released on parole or on bail pending a court hearing) A member of a religious order who are fully maintained by that order The following people are excluded except in very limited circumstances: A full time student can only receive support for expenses arising out a disaster Someone who is a person from abroad (i.e. who fails or would fail the habitual residence test for the purpose of Income Support, Pension Credit, Income-based Job Seekers Allowance or Income Related Employment Support Allowance) they can only receive support for expenses arising out of a disaster. People subject to certain disallowances or sanctions to their Job Seekers Allowance, Employment Support Allowance, Income Support or Pension Credit Guarantee, with the exception of the following o Single person who has been sanctioned for more than two weeks; and o Who has made a claim for Hardship payment. (DWP has advised that single customers who are sanctioned who request a Hardship payment have a day waiting period before payment commence) o Please note: When a customer is sanctioned, it is only their personal elements of JSA / ESA that s sanctioned. Any amounts payable for children, continue. Child Tax Credits and Child Benefit also continue to be paid. Also if they make a claim for Hardship payments, this request will be processed within 24 hrs. Under the LWP scheme there will be no cash awards. Awards will be in the form of a pre-paid voucher or through a third party providers to supply good and services. 9

10 Excluded Items and Services: LWP will not be awarded for expenses / items / services in respect of: Cash for general living expenses A need which occurs outside the United Kingdom An educational or training need, this will include clothing and tools Distinctive school uniform, school sports clothes or equipment to be used at school. Funding is available from other sources Travelling to or from school. Funding is available from other sources School meals taken during term time by children who are entitled to free school meals Expenses in connection with legal proceedings such as legal fees, court fees, fines, costs, damages or subsistence Removal or storage charges if re-housed following a compulsory purchase order, a redevelopment or closing order, a compulsory exchange of tenancies, or under a housing authority s statutory duty to the homeless The cost of domestic assistance and respite care Repairs to property owned or part owned by Sandwell MBC, Housing Associations or Private Landlords Medical needs, optical or dental item or service. These are provided free of charge by the NHS for those on IS/ JSA IB / ESA IR / PCGC Work related expenses. Fares when seeking work or work clothes. Help is available from other sources Debts to Government Departments Investments Telephone purchase, installation, rental and calls Holidays Televisions or radios and any associated charges Running cost of any vehicle, including garaging, parking, purchase. Housing costs, such as rent, maintenance, service and communal charges, Council tax, mortgage, water and sewerage rates Maternity expenses covered by a Sure Start Maternity Grant Expenses which Health and Social Care Authorities have a statutory duty to meet Housing repairs and improvement not directly linked to urgent care or crisis. A customer living at home with family 10

11 Lost or spent money Payments for commercial loans or insurance Short term cash needs as a result of benefit disallowance or sanctions. The customer must complete the eligibility checker and interview questions as part of the application for LWP. Evidence must be gained to demonstrate the 2 year residency and their income. They must demonstrate the need cannot be met by another source. 11

12 Planned Support Defined Planned support is intended to help vulnerable people over the age of 18, live an independent life in the community. Planned support is also available to people if they are leaving accommodation in which they receive significant and substantial care and supervision and they are expected to be discharged within 6 weeks. For example: Hospital / other medical establishment Care home Hostel Intensive Sheltered Housing Local authority care. Provision of Planned Support Planned support will be the direct provision of furniture and goods. The following items will be considered for planned support. Furniture Furnishings White goods Resettlement packages When dealing with a request for planned support the whole of the person s circumstances must be taken into account. Look at what is being requested and ask: What affect will having that item have on the individual? Will it assist them to integrate into the community? If there a medical need for the item? Does not having the item affect their health and safety? Planned support examples Below are some examples to try and illustrate how LWP can be applied to different situations, but, also where discretion is required to make decisions in unfamiliar contexts. 12

13 Example 1: Claimant moves from a Hostel into their own tenancy A loan parent who has two children is applying under the planned support for a Resettlement package for her and the children. She explains that she was made homeless and was moved into a Hostel. Sandwell Housing awarded her a property and the tenancy was given as a statutory duty. She left her previous address due to domestic violence and therefore as no furniture. Decision: LWP was awarded. The reasons for the decision were as follows: Customer was in receipt of a qualifying Benefit 2 year residence does not apply due to the tenancy was awarded due to a stat duty. Customer is already applied or paying back a budgeting loan for carpets / wall paper Customer has no furniture confirmed by support worker. Example 2: Leaving prison (under 12 months sentence) A man has just left prison. He was there for six months. He is applying under the planned support because he has moved into a new privately rent property and his applying for new washing machine / cooker. Decision: LWP was refused. The reasons for the decision were as follows: The customer would not meet the 2 year residence criteria as there is no prison within Sandwell. Example 3: Leaving Rehabilitation Help for people leaving care to establish themselves in the community A single parent who has been in receipt of Income Support for many years has been in a rehabilitation centre in Sandwell for the last six months. She makes an application when she is due to be discharged in about five weeks time. Her last home was let furnished, but she has lost the tenancy and now has the tenancy of an unfurnished housing association flat. Her children, who have been in local authority care, will be returning to live with her. 13

14 A letter of support is provided by children social services to confirm the above. Decision: LWP was awarded. The reasons for the decision were as follows: Customer was in receipt of a qualifying Benefit Customer satisfied the 2 year residence criteria Customer has applied or is repaying back a budgeting loan Customer has no other means to purchase the items. As a result of her losing her home her children went into care. Therefore granting the LWP award and the new tenancy she can establish herself in the community and social services will be able to re-unite the mother with her children. 14

15 Emergency / Responsive Support defined Emergency/ Responsive Support is intended to help vulnerable people over the age of 18 when there as been an unforeseen event, an emergency situation or a chance occurrence that has occurred (Crisis). That occurrence can: Exceed or overwhelms the individuals resources for coping It is outside the scope of the normal everyday pressures experienced by people on a low income Harmful, detrimental or threatening to an individual s or household s health and safety Emergency support: When a request for the following is received, these will be classed as a emergency support request. For food requests see later in these notes Fuel Travel expenses Fuel When deciding on the amount of fuel there are two tables to refer to. These give amounts dependant upon the time of year and the number of rooms that are used by the Benefit family. Where the claimant has been sanctioned but will be assisted by LWP there is a one off fuel payment of Travel Expenses Travel expenses will be met by daily travel passes which are issued by the Housing Service Centre who will scratch off the appropriate date on the card. 15

16 Responsive Support: The request will include the direct provision of goods. Furniture White goods Household goods You are encouraged to use the Emergency / Responsive Checklist (Below) to determine if the customer s situation generally falls under one of these categories. Domain An Unforeseen Event Emergency A Chance occurrence Event - Unexpected death of a partner, child or other immediate family member - Care for a child overnight (days) to prevent them going into care - A sudden physical injury or illness - An accident involving serious injury or physical harm - Victim of violence, abuse or assault seeking immediate refuge - The imminent risk of homelessness - Relationship breakdown causing exceptional financial pressures - Flood, fire or gas explosion damage to items not cosmetic - Breakdown of an essential household item (not as a result of wear and tear) - Essential household items stolen reported to the police - Damage to essential clothing or bedding (no replacement) but not a result of wear and tear. Each customer will see their crisis differently; their view of a crisis will be different from another s according to their ability to cope. That is to say, individual differences will determine whether someone feels they can control or overcome the crisis event. 16

17 The normal hardship associated with living day to day on a low income does not constitute a crisis. For example: Daily hassles Debt Unable to pay utility bills Benefit changes Paying for school trips and so on When dealing with a request for an Emergency / Responsive event that has taken place the following should be considered before an award is made: Income Their Financial situation (Income Less Expenditure) Do they have access to the Credit Union or other affordable financial facilities The Support from Community & Voluntary Groups The access to charities and benevolence funds Income Maximisation support, Are they getting the correct benefits Consider DWP budget Loan and short term advances Emotional Resources Social Support from immediate family members and friends The customers history of coping with similar events in the past The customers Mental or Physical Health, how they cope with everyday functioning Supportive Counselling / Therapeutic services e.g. NHS, Mind, Relate Support from Community & Voluntary Groups Emergency / Responsive Reflective Questions When dealing with requests for emergency or responsive support, you should ask if the Crisis is sudden and unexpected or has it been going on for more than 6 months. 17

18 Could the customer have taken reasonable steps to avoid the crisis? Did the crisis occur as a consequence of an action or omission taken by the customer for whom they are responsible? Emergency / Responsive Examples Below are some examples to try and illustrate how LWP can be applied to different situations, but, also where discretion is required to make decisions in unfamiliar contexts. Example 1 Stolen Monies A single parent is seeking an emergency support (Food parcel and help with Fuel) because she has had her purses stolen. She has two children and she has withdrawn her entitlement to JSA from the bank and has no more monies. She has reported the incident to the police and has a crime number. Decision: LWP decision was to award and the reasons are as follows: Customer is in receipt of a qualifying benefit Meets the 2 year criteria Has not applied for a Budgeting loon because it does not cover food/ fuel She has reported the incident to the police. Health and well being of the children Example 2 Overspent A gentleman is entitlement to JSA at the single rate and he has received his fortnightly monies. However due to bad weather he s had to pay out extra monies on Fuel to keep him warm therefore does not have enough money for the extra food and Fuel Decision: LWP decision was to award and the reasons are as follows This is a unforeseen event - we can t predicate the weather Customer meets all the other criteria. 18

19 Example 3 - A new bed and washing machine Revenues and Benefit Services A couple who have a two year old daughter that suffers from eczema on all parts of her body request a new bed for her and as the old bed is very old and tatty and is aggravating her eczema. The washing machine keeps breaking down due to the amount of washing they have to do. They have no money to buy a new bed / washing machine as both parents are on out of work benefits and they are already paying back a budgeting loan. They say: we have tried looking at second hand shops and charities and all the beds are not suitable because of our daughter s condition. Decision: LWP decision is to award based on the following reasons: They meet the criteria in relation to Income / residence They are already paying back a budgeting loan Consider the health and well been of the child Reduce the stress within the family Making your decision When making decisions you will need to take into account different types of evidence that may be concrete, subjective or unverified. Evidence will be supplied by a variety of sources, so it is important that you can be confident you are making a decision based on sound evidence. Some evidence may need to be taken at face value as it may be impossible to determine the absolute truth. There are, however, some general rules of thumb that you can use to question the reliability and validity of the information they have given. Reliability: Would the same information or facts be produced again and again for a particular situation? If a different officer asked the same questions to the customer on a different day and time, and came back with the same information, it could classed as fairly reliable. Do two different services or agencies agree on the facts? Can the facts be verified by records or systems? 19

20 Validity - Does the evidence describe what it is supposed to describe? Sometimes evidence may be inadequate to verify what has happened, you will need to judge the balance of probabilities. The Bigger Picture You must always look at the bigger picture. It is fair to say that some customers and organisations will look to magnify or accentuate certain details to put them in the best light possible. They may well be describing a crisis, however, the description of events may not actually reflect how they are coping on a day to day basis. It may be simply describing an event and not a response. Making Assumptions We should never form assumptions about the applicant s circumstances. This should be supported by evidence wherever possible. We should be checking the residency and the income details. Be careful about generalising from other referrals. It may be tempting to base a decision on past referrals that bear a resemblance. Every situation has to be treated on its own merits. And, the onus of proof generally falls on the customer. Food Requests From the 1 st of April 2014; 75, was taken from the LWP budget and was awarded to 5 food banks within Sandwell as grants based on the previous footfall over the last 6 months These are: West Bromwich Community Church, Victoria Street, B70 8EX Holy Trinity Church, High Street, Smethwick, B67 7BP Breaking Bread, 93/94 Walsall Street, Wednesbury, WS10 9BY The Well, 15 Union Street, Tipton, DY4 8QJ St James Church, Highgate Street, Old Hill, B64 5SA 20

21 The following procedure must be followed, When a customers presents themselves at a Local Neighbourhood Service Centre / Welfare Rights requesting a food parcel only. The Housing Service Centre will: Complete A single sheet Food Voucher form Ensure the form is completed and signed by the customer and a telephone number is given. The officer will contact the LWP Team on the following number to make them aware The officer will a copy of the form to the following address: lwp_operations@sandwell.gov.uk Once a decision is made the Neighbourhood Service centre / officer will print off the food voucher, date stamp it and pass this to customer No letters will be issued if a request is refused and there is no right of an appeal LWP Team Procedure Must check on the Food Bank Data Base to see if the customer has requested assistance before. S:\LWP\Food Vouchers Database.mdb You will need to check the following: When the last food voucher was issued? What was the reason given? If food voucher exceeds 3 please seek advice from your tech officer / supervisor Check to see if the customer is registered at the address given. By checking HB/CTAX records or CIS. If no records can be found you must advise the customer that proof must be provided in order for voucher to be given. Check to see if the customer s entitlement to Benefit is reading on CIS? o Has it been sanctioned? o What was the last date they were paid? 21

22 Establish what is the Crisis or Emergency? You will have to contact them o Benefit delays / Sanctions o Debt o Domestic violence o Homeless o Sickness o Child school holidays o Crime / Theft Depending on the Crisis / Emergency issue you must try and sign post the customer to appropriate Agencies or Services that could help the customer. Please use the list below. Crisis Organisation Method Contact details of Contact Sanctions Welfare Rights Welfare rights team Delay in monies DWP Job Centre Debt/ Citizens Advice Budgeting Bureaux CAB advice Debt/budgeting advice Sandwell Financial Services Hub For all Social Housing Tenants (Elig Criteria) First time tenant year old tenant Tenant moving into or out of Telephone Advice line Telephone EDMS Short term Benefit advance / hardship payments Complete referral within the LWP tray : SFSH referral form 22

23 work Homeless Drug & Alcohol abuse Housing Options Swans well Telephone Out of office : Telephone support@swanswell.org Domestic Violence for women Safeguarding Children Adult social services Sandwell women s aid Telephone 24Hr Telephone Telephone Mentally ill Kaleidoscope Telephone Samaritans Telephone Counselling Relate Telephone Carers Carers Telephone Cares.sandwell@btinternet.com Please note all sanctioned customers a referral to welfare rights must be done straight. If you are happy that there is a genuine reason for the request please issue the food voucher via EDMS. This can be done via the ADHOC letters icon and then save the letter into you own drive. 23

24 The food voucher amount will be dependant upon the size of the Benefit family, making sure the number is in word format e.g. six not 6 Contact the customer regarding the outcome of your decision. Record the referral on the FOODBANK Database :S:\LWP\Food Vouchers Database.mdb the Housing officer or officer attaching the food voucher, making sure you copy in the lwp_operations@sandwell.gov.uk. These will then be moved into a Food Voucher request folder within the above account. You can then move the actual request to the same folder. 24

25 Making a Decision and Award To make a decision on an application you must read all the information available and Check that the customer meets the criteria Check the residency details Check the income details on CIS and record on expenditure sheet Based on the information held can a decision be made on the application? If not is there is further information required? Ring the customer to obtain information Make a decision You are now ready to resolve the application. Resolving means you decide which items to grant and which items to refuse. 25

26 EDMS Each LWP claim will have to be created with EDMS under the unique number given by the NES and must start with LWP. E.g. LWP00001 Under each claim you must record the following: CIS print confirm claimant entitlement CIS print confirm address Any CIS notes that are relevant to the claim. Expenditure sheet Your award / refusal letter Notebook detailing your decision, confirming income, 2yr residence and other notes. Notification of a Successful / Unsuccessful Referral Each customer needs to be notified that their claim for Local Welfare provision is successful or not. You must contact the customer via a telephone call to inform them if their claim for LWP has been successful or not. You will then need to create the appropriate letter within EDMS. All letters will appear in the LWP letter list. You must choose the appropriate letter from the drop list. These are: LWP Decision letter CT: To be used when a claim is successful and its Community Transport (CT) week to provide the provision of goods LWP Decision letter L & F: To be used when a claim is successful and its Loaves and Fish s week to provide the provision of goods LWP Decision letter Marbles: To be used when a claim is successful and its Marbles week to provide the provision of goods. LWP Decision Letter Food: To be used when a claim is successful and the customer requires assistance with a food parcel 26

27 LWP Decision Letter Fuel: To be used when a claim is successful and the customer requires assistance with their fuel LWP Decision Letter Travel: To be used when a claim is successful and the customer requires assistance with Travel Costs Requesting further information: Please note: The first point of contact must be a telephone call to the customer. Please state what DPA checks you have carried out on the notes field on each referral. Example:DPA check carried out and customer confirmed: Date of Birth, NINO and Post code. However if you are unable to contact the customer and further information is required the following letter must be issued. LWP Further Info Letter: 27

28 Pending your LWP claim When further information is required in order to process a referral, you can then pend the Task in accordance with the support they require. Pend the claim for 2 Calendar days for all Emergency support Pend the claim for 5 Calendar Days for all Responsive support Pend the claim for 10 calendar days for all Planned support Once the above time limit has elapsed the referral can be refused. The reason being is that after 2 days following a request for Emergency Support and we have not received a response. You can state that the emergency is no longer applicable. The above is for guidance, if when speaking to a customer or when a customer contacts you. You can agree to extend the time limit with them as long it is reasonable. LWP Refusal Letter: To be used when a claim is not successful. You must indicate the reason(s) why the customers have failed to make a successful application. Housing Offices When a decision has been made to award or not award a LWP claim. We must the Housing officer and the generic account of were that officer works to inform them of the decision. Each will state in the Subject field the following info: IL1: LWP notification of successful award or unsuccessful award followed by the Name of the person and claim ref: The reason for is this that when we contact the customer to make them aware that their claim for LWP has been successful, They will have to go to the office to pick up their award letters / vouchers. Housing office will print of the award letter / vouchers when the customer calls in to collect them. Please see below the generic Housing accounts. 28

29 Oldbury Housing Service Centre Blackheath Housing Office Smethwick Housing Office West Bromwich Housing Office Wednesbury Housing Office Tipton Housing Office Please store these address as contact within outlook. 29

30 Payment schedules On a daily basis two times a day payment schedule will have to be created and issued to the appropriate provider for that week to make them aware of who been granted an award of LWP. Please see below the time table for each payment schedule. Provider Frequency Time MARB VOU1 Daily am & 3.00 pm CT VOU2 Daily am & 3.10pm LF VOU3 Daily am & 3.20 pm Once the payment extract has taken place each provider needs to be notified of any claims where an award has been given. The process is as follows: Part 1 Go into the Admin area of NES In the Search field: o Search on Module from the drop down list o In the next box along type : LWP% Then click search o This will bring a list of payment runs that have taken place and each one will be called -LWP Authority payment extract but with different times and dates. 30

31 You are looking for the COMPLETE payment runs that s taken place on that day for the specific time for each provider which is as follows o Marbles am & 3 pm o CT am & 3.10 pm o L&F am & 3.20 pm Once you have identified the file you need it will show the number of claims that have been processed. If the processed is showing nil you don t need to do anything with this file. However if it does show a number, this is the number claims that have been resolved and processed for that provider. This is the one you must view. On left hand side of the payment file under Actions. Choose from the please select drop down View Output and click on this This will open up a Sub folder call Process Output o You will see three fields Description, File Name and Actions. o Under Description: You must choose the file with the following Payment file for XXXXX date 2014XXXXXXXX o Under Actions: Click on the drop down button from the Please select and click on Down Load file. A file download box will appear. You must click on save. You must save this file in the following area for that provider. o Share Drive, LWP folder, Payment files and then click on the provider for which the payment file is for o Click on save o Then close the download document box Please note you may have to go through this process for each Provider. Part 2 Open excel You need to navigate to the place where you saved the files. o Share Drive, LWP, Payment files and then the folder where you saved the file to. You must pick the file you have saved. The file will be a XLM file saved as the following example : o LWPPAYMENTS_XXXX_2014XXXXXXXX 31

32 Please note the date is backwards (American format) i.e or This means am or 3.00 pm Double click on the file you need A Open XML box will appear Click on Open as read-only workbook and press ok The you must delete the first line on the excel page Once done you must Ctrl F and a Find and Replace will appear Click on to the replace tab In the Find What filed, you must copy and paste the following text into this box o /AdminAgencies/AdminAgency/Applications/Application Then click on replace all button An Excel message will appear to confirm how many replacements will be amended. Click ok You will need to close the Find and Replace Box by clicking the close button You now need to save this amended file. Therefore go to File and select Save As This will open the actual provider s folder of where the original file was save. You will need to click on the Folder back one Icon Then click onto the folder called Schema Click on the Excel file that is already saved called: LWPPAYMENTS The click save A Message box will appear saying the following: o The File LWPPAYMENTS.xlsx already exists. Do you want to replace? Click yes. Then close excel. Part 3 Open Access Click on File and Open You need to navigate to the following area 32

33 o Share Drive, LWP, Payment Files, Schema Double click on to the Access file called: Report LWP payments A warning message will appear saying: o Do you want to replace the existing file? Click Yes You might have a pop up box appear called Enter Parameter Value Just click OK until they disappear A PDF payment summary report will now appear You will need to save this payment summary. Click File and Save as a copy You need to save this PDF document in the following area: o Share Drive, LWP, Payment Files, Choose the Provider for whom the payment summary is for o In the file name you need to amend this to the date of the report you have run in and indicate if it s the am or pm payment run. Then click save Part 4 You now have to create the to the provider with the following wording in the Subject box o IL1 : Urgent Provision of Goods The date and if its Am or PM You will now need to attach the PDF payment summary to the actual that you have just saved, which will be in the following location o Share Drive, LWP, Payment Files, The choose your provider and pick the date / time of the PDF payment summary that is required Then send your Please not this process will need to be followed for each provider separately for both payment runs 33

34 Emergency support Notification Revenues and Benefit Services If a customer has called into one of the six neighbourhood offices and has requested assistance under the LWP with help towards the following: Fuel (Gas / Electric) and Travel The following procedure has been agreed: The Housing Advisor must obtain a contact number or a number the customer can be contacted on, and this must be detailed in the referral. The Housing Advisor completing the referral must state their full name and which Housing Office the referral has come from. This must be done in the notes field on all referrals. The referral will then be processed by the central unit within 2hrs upon receipt or there after. The central unit will process the referral. The Housing Advisor can inform the customer to come back within 2hrs if they have not already received a phone call from the Central Unit. However please note: It s been agreed that if a referral is received after 4pm they will not receive a decision until the next working day. If a referral is successful or not an LWP officer from the central unit will the award / refusal letter and if applicable the voucher payment for the fuel, to the generic accounts that have been given by Housing Services. They will also copy into the the Housing Officer who has completed the referral if the address is known. Upon receipt of the Housing Services will print off the attached award / refusal letter and the Voucher payment (If applicable) and pass these to the customer. 34

35 Voucher payment -can be presented at any pay point outlet and the customer must take there appropriate means of topping up their account and proof of Identification. 35