What Does a Welfare Rights Advisor Do?
Where Can I Find A Welfare Rights Advisor?
Online Benefits Checker
Advocacy for Welfare Benefits
Find Your Council Area
What does a Welfare Rights Advisor do?
Welfare Rights Advisors can provide information on which welfare benefits you might be entitled to, help you apply for benefits, and answer specific questions about your benefits. Some advisors can also help with appealing unsuccessful benefit claims, including representing you at a benefit tribunal. It can be difficult to know where to find a Welfare Rights Advisor, so we’ve put together this short guide to help you find support in your area.
Where can I find a Welfare Rights Advisor?
Common places where you can find a welfare rights advisor are your local council, a Citizen’s Advice Bureau or if you live in a Housing Association property; it may have its own Welfare Rights Officer. There are also some independent charities or community hubs which provide Welfare Rights support. If you are an unpaid carer for a disabled person, then you can sometimes receive welfare benefits advice from your local Carer’s centre.
Online Benefits Checker Tools
Although we would always suggest getting personalised advice from a professional, you can also check what benefits you might be entitled to by using online benefit checker tools, also called benefit calculators. To use these tools, simply answer the questions about your circumstances and income, and the calculator will do the rest. Online benefit checking tools include:
Benefit Calculator | Age Scotland
National Charities and Helplines
Age Scotland: provides welfare rights advice over the phone for people aged over 5o
One Parent Families Scotland: for single parent families. Not disability specific
Change Mental Health: for people with mental health conditions and their carers. Advice and support service over the phone/virtually. Face to face appointments in Edinburgh, Inverness and Perth and Kinross.
Revive MS: welfare rights advice for people with Multiple Sclerosis. In person from the office in Glasgow or over the phone/virtual appointments for people throughout Scotland.
Financial Support Service for members of Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Scotland
Epilepsy Scotland: provides welfare benefits advice for people with epilepsy from their Glasgow office, and also nationally over the phone.
The Butterfly Trust: for people with Cystic Fibrosis and their carers. Provides welfare rights support from an Edinburgh based office, and over the phone nationally.
Enable: for people with learning disabilities, their families and carers.
Kidney Care UK: over the phone, virtually and in some community settings. Benefits Entitlement Checks and help to apply for benefits for people with Kidney Disease.
Spinal Injuries Scotland: Legal and Welfare Advice for members of Spinal Injuries Scotland, via the charity’s partner Digby Brown.
Advocacy for Welfare benefits
Voiceability: can provide advocacy support for any benefit provided by Social Security Scotland, if you identify as disabled
Advocard: for people in Edinburgh with a mental health condition
Networking Key Services (NKS): welfare benefits advocacy mostly for ethnically Asian women but open to all women living in Edinburgh
Kindred Fife: Help to apply for benefits like Child Disability Payment for parents/carers of children with complex needs
Advocacy Orkney: Help to challenge welfare benefits decisions
The Space at the Broomhouse Hub: benefits advocacy for carers in South West Edinburgh
Find your council area
If you’re not sure which Council area you live in, you can find out here: https://www.gov.uk/find-local-council
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