Credit Crunch Campaign 2
Claim 34057
West Somerset Council benefits service is keen to ensure that as many people as possible are able to claim the correct amount of benefit entitlement. This will help to prevent deprivation and hardship in our community.
We undertake many activities to try to increase take up of benefit. One such measure was our “credit crunch campaign” in which we publicised Council Tax Benefit to every single council taxpayer who was not already receiving council tax benefit.
One of the people who received this information returned the tear off strip from the promotional take-up notice to the authority on the 26th May 2009 and returned the completed claim form on the 15th June 2009.
It turned out that she was receiving Guaranteed Pension Credit and was entitled to full Council Tax Benefit (which was automatically backdated for 3 months). This gave her £1,067 a year in extra income, reducing some of her financial burdens
Without this encouragement to claim for benefit she would have missed out. Although she would have been advised, when she claimed pension credit to claim council tax benefit, this is one of those cases where no claim was forthcoming.
She now enjoys her retirement without having to make any payments of council tax, therefore giving her more of her income to enjoy in other areas, which brings more money/revenue into the local community.