The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Calls for Fife welfare reform staff to receive permanent contracts
Concern that staff loss could affect claimants
Councillors have called for welfare reform staff to be given permanent contracts to ensure those affected by the introduction of universal credit receive help.
Members of Kirkcaldy area committee said current workers’ temporary hours were risking their ability to prevent people from plunging into poverty.
They have called for the matter to be addressed in Fife Council’s budget discussions for 2018-19 to ensure the staff can keep making a positive impact.
Most welfare reform officers are currently on two to three year contracts and with universal credit due to be introduced in Fife on December 6, they are more in demand than ever.
Area committee convener Councillor Neil Crooks said it would be “tragic” if the staff were lost.
“They have families to support themselves and they can’t get a mortgage if they are on a contract like that,” he said.
“Welfare reform is not a two to three year job. It’s going to be continuous and will be more demanding if this Tory government goes ahead with universal credit.”
Claimants typically have to wait six weeks for their initial payment, with many in severe financial hardship as a result. Mr Crooks said this could prove “disastrous” for those moving to the new benefit just before Christmas.
“How can people who have nothing to start with survive that?” he said.
The Kirkcaldy Area Welfare Reform and Anti-Poverty Partnership (WRAAP) was established in 2013 to help mitigate the challenges faced by local communities.
Working with a number of other organisations, the partnership tries to ensure unemployed people have access to education and training and are given all the information they need on welfare reform and universal credit.
Rather than focusing solely on welfare reform, the group now has a wider antipoverty agenda, saying it was becoming increasingly difficult to separate the two.
Julie Dickson, community development team manager for Kirkcaldy, said: “The Christmas period is going to be, for some people, not just a difficult period but devastating.”