PEOPLE in Clackmannanshire are losing out on Scottish Government funded income and debt advice services after the council decided they were “not delivering value for public money”.

Two projects, funded by the Scottish Government and the Money Advice Service through the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB), were helping people with benefits and debt between October 2013 and March this year, but the council decided to pull the plug at the last moment when it came to reapplying.

Staff at the Money Advice and Welfare Benefits Team, funded under Stream One of the Making Advice Work SLAB project, helped with benefits and debt work including representation and providing assistance either at council offices or even home visits.

The Income Advice Project (Stream Two funded) focused specifically on providing welfare benefits advice to council and social housing tenants and the two projects were generally tailored to help people deal with the changes to the benefits system, the introduction of Universal Credit.

The Wee County authority received £170,517 of funding over the 18 months of the projects. The roles involved in the projects when they started were two part-time benefits advisers, a full-time money adviser and two full-time income advisers funded by SLAB. It is also understood that there were two other employees funded by Clackmannanshire Council, a full-time and a part-time debt adviser.

Some of the staff who used to work on the services spoke to the Advertiser highlighting that local people are now losing out because the council decided applying for further funding could not be justified.

One, who did not wish to be named, said: “The head of Housing [and Community Safety, Ashan Khan] has got a new plan of how he wants to do things. He’s came from a housing association and he likes to have people being able to do everything.

“If you were to become homeless and you were to go down to Clackmannanshire Council for housing support and advice, you would go down and what he wants is a housing officer to be able to assess your housing needs, provide welfare and benefits advice, maybe some debt advice up to a certain point and maybe refer you to the part-time debt advisor that is there just now. That’s what his plan is.

“He is trying to integrate everything together, on the long run it sounds great, that he is able to have people being able to provide welfare and benefit advice with their housing needs, but the people that are there just now can’t provide the welfare and benefits advice that [residents] are needing.

“And there is also the fact that it is free money that he’s turned down to continue a service that was really starting to pick up.” They continued: “I had a client, one of his benefits were stopped, he didn’t know why. The person who was dealing with him at Social Work Services couldn’t assist him with that.

“She [the employee at Social Work Services] referred him to us, I went out, I’ve done some investigating, looked into it, sorted it and got his income support back up again and he had a backdate [of payments].

“The housing officers, no disrespect to them, don’t know this. The person himself has disabilities, he’s in an electric chair; yes he probably would have been able to get up to Citizen’s Advice [Bureau], but he would have had to wait further down the line to get an appointment, three weeks at least. I picked up his referral and saw him straight away.” Another former member of staff, who also wished to remain anonymous, told the Advertiser that the team were all meeting requirements. They also said that it would be unlikely housing officers could represent clients at tribunals as it is “so time consuming”.

They added: “The whole point of the funding was that it would help people when the reformed welfare benefits hit, but they didn’t actually hit last year, Universal Credit was delayed and they are bringing it out in stages.” Responding, council leader Les Sharp explained: “In October 2013, the council received funding from the Scottish Legal Aid Board to employ additional money advice staff on fixed term temporary contracts.

“In February 2014, having very carefully considered the project outputs and the strategic direction of the service, the head of Housing and Community Safety concluded that the project was not delivering value for public money, and so a further funding application could not be justified. The project closed on 31 March 2015.

“The council continues to provide a dedicated money advice service and also directly funds the Citizen Advice Bureau to assist Clackmannanshire residents with debt problems. An ongoing service restructuring will result in increased numbers of staff able to assist tenants and residents engage in household budgeting and improve money management awareness.” The council added that anyone with debt problems needing advice should contact CAB on 01259 219 404 or email the council’s money advice team on moneyadvice@clacks.gov.uk.

According to the council leader, the local authority had to reapply for funding just a few months after the projects started. And according to the former employees, they did not take their posts until December 2013 and January 2014, meaning the council judged the 18 month projects just a couple of months after they had actually started.

And according to information obtained by the Advertiser from SLAB, it was only in autumn 2014 that talks regarding continued funding started to take place, around a year after the projects started.

Data released by SLAB shows that in a one year period between March 2014 and February 2015, the Stream One project took in 384 new clients and 408 matters (a single client may have multiple issues and needs).

Over the same period, the Stream Two project took in 255 new clients and 291 matters. In addition to new people to help, the projects were already undertaking work with existing clients.

While the council leader claims the project was “not delivering value for public money”, SLAB’s monitoring process did not raise any concerns.

A spokesperson said: “Before being approved for funding in 2013, we assessed each project on the detailed information they provided about the unmet need they would be addressing and how they would deliver an effective and economic service.

“The information we had received through our regular monitoring processes showed no cause for concern over the projects’ effectiveness prior to the expiration of the funding period.

“To receive continued funding in 2015, projects were asked to reflect on their current performance and consider their objectives and future plans for delivery. This process was to ensure they remained fit for purpose and continued to provide a successful service.

“During this process the two projects decided to withdraw.”