Minutes of the Salford GMWRAG meeting.

The minutes of the recent GMWRAG meeting in Salford are now available for download. They will also be permanently available at our minutes of previous meetings page.

Please note that these minutes are very detailed as they contain comprehensive additional notes for each speaker as requested by a number of attendees and members who sent apologies. They’re not a quick read but they offer a detailed insight into the work of both speakers!

The minutes also contain a significant number of links to useful resources mentioned by both speakers on the day, which we agreed to include in the minutes. If you want to view those resources you will need to read the minutes on a screen and click the links first rather than just download and print, albeit that we’d ask you to print a copy off to take to our next meeting in April 2018!

The presentation from our first speaker will remain permanently available in our Presentations and Notes section. Salford’s “Tackling Poverty Strategy” remains available by clicking on the title in this sentence.

Our second speaker also brought a number of leaflets with him re: PLP work on sanctions and we agreed to distribute these with the minutes. You can download the PLP sanctions project leaflet from here.

GMWRAG members will be aware we streamed the second speaker via Persicope. That stream was eventually viewed by 128 people. These were largely GMWRAG or NAWRA members. The foregoing number does not count those very strange scantily clad people who urged “Boys, look at my profile pic! The more eagle-eyed members at the meeting may have noticed some frantic profile blocking going on during the broadcast! We’re fairly confident most GMWRAG members don’t usually dress like that!

The broadcast itself was available until midnight on the day of the meeting. Now it has been summarised within the minutes the broadcast has been deleted. We have been given permission to allow a short, non-controversial clip to be used for the site and you can see this below.

Again, the more eagle-eyed will note that in order to facilitate this GMWRAG now has a YouTube channel. You can find this by clicking the link in the previous sentence. If GMWRAG members have any good ideas for things we could live stream or record in future then we’ll be more than happy to listen. Feel free to contact GMWRAG via @GMWRAGTweets.

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New Salford job vacancies on GMWRAG.

GMWRAG is pleased to announce the first of a number job vacancies we will be posting this week. First up a couple of vacancies from Salford City Councils Welfare Rights and Debt Advice Service. Unusually the emphasis is on debt advice.

Details of the posts are on our job vacancies pages and are already up on Rightsnet and Greater Jobs and details of how to apply are on both sites and below. In the meantime, anyone wanting to know more about the posts can email Steve Quinn or ring him on 0161 793 3295.

 

 

HEALTH and SOCIAL CARE

Welfare Rights & Debt Advice Service

DEBT ADVISER (Early Help)

Scale: 3B £25,694 – £28,203

Ref: 50163553

This post is primarily to provide debt advice, benefits advice, budgeting advice to vulnerable families identified by Children’s Services.

The job involves providing accessible and high quality debt advice to people in the City focusing on vulnerable families as part of an integrated ‘early help’ offer to families in Salford. This would include undertaking individual case-work, income maximisation and outlining potential strategies for dealing with clients’ debts, and preparing cases for court where necessary. Keeping abreast of developments in credit and debt recovery case law will be important and the post will also involve providing training and acting as a consultant to front-line staff.

You should have proven experience and expertise in debt advice for at least two years. Being able to act as an advocate on behalf of claimants is essential. You should be able to work on your own as well as part of a team, and be committed to the promotion of anti-poverty & social inclusion work.

The post carries an entitlement to a casual car user’s allowance.

Closing date: Friday 23^rd June 2017  

You can apply via Greater Jobs.

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HEALTH and SOCIAL CARE

Welfare Rights & Debt Advice Service

DEBT ADVISER (Tenancy Sustainment)

Temporary – 12 months

Scale: 3B £25,694 – £28,203

Ref: 50161459

This post is primarily to provide debt advice, benefits advice, budgeting advice to those affected by the ‘Benefit Cap’.

The job involves providing accessible and high quality debt advice to people in the City focusing on those affected by the ‘Benefit Cap’ who are tenants of social landlords. This would include undertaking individual case-work, income maximisation and offering practical assistance in retaining accommodation eg. applying for Discretionary Housing Payments and preparing cases for court where necessary. Keeping abreast of developments in credit and debt recovery case law will be important and the post will also involve providing training and acting as a consultant to front-line staff.

You should have proven experience and expertise in debt advice for at least two years. Being able to act as an advocate on behalf of claimants is essential. You should be able to work on your own as well as part of a team, and be committed to the promotion of anti-poverty & social inclusion work.

The post carries an entitlement to a casual car user’s allowance.

Closing date: Friday 23^rd June 2017  

You can apply via Greater Jobs.

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The Stockport GMWRAG meeting is here – Friday the 16th of June 2017. Speakers, public transport, presenting officers and biscuit details all below.

On the 10th of May 2017 GMWRAG quietly announced that the next meeting (indeed the first of 2017) would take place in Stockport. You can find that post here but we’re now in a position to provide you with full details and there are a lot of them. Please note that a number of key details have changed from that original post, not least the venue. Soooo…

The next GMWRAG meeting is a full day meeting and takes place in room 5 of Stockport Town Hall (NOT Fred Perry House as we originally suggested) on Friday the 16th of June 2017. Doors will open for refreshments, networking and those without any sense of direction at 9:30am for a 10:00am start.

The minutes of the last meeting can be downloaded from here and the full agenda can now be downloaded from here. Please print them off and bring them with you. GMWRAG hosts are no longer funded to provide copies on the day.

The meeting will have an update on the newly launched GM Strategic Casework Group. If you haven’t had a look at our pages then please do so. There will also be an opportunity to share experiences of the new tranche of Presenting Officers at First Tier Tribunals and both the morning and afternoon sessions will have speakers as detailed below.

GMWRAG was surprised to learn that in our near 4 decade existence we appear to have never had speakers talking about sensory impairment and benefits. Our friends at NAWRA have had workshop presentations from charities like RNIB (and even then maybe only the one) but our agendas and minutes suggest we have not. Hopefully the speakers at this meeting will whet the appetite for further work in this area.

• In the morning meeting we have Kester Dean, Appeals and Disputes Manager of the National Deaf Children’s Society talking about deafness and PIP.
• In the afternoon we have Mike Hughes. Senior WRO (Take-Up) from Salford Welfare Rights Service talking about sight impairment, DLA and PIP.

Neither session will involve death by PowerPoint and there will be much in the way of handouts; quizzes; throwing things, er, discussion, interaction and some case law!

Stockport Town Hall, or the “spiritual home of GMWRAG” as it was recently described, is very easily accessed by rail and is a massive 4 minutes walk from Stockport railway station. GMWRAG recommends the train as absolutely the fastest way to get to (and from) Stockport from/to Manchester city centre. Journeys are between 7 and 14 minutes from Manchester Piccadilly station. Please note though that tickets on this route may only be valid for some trains e.g. Northern Trains tickets may not be valid on Virgin Trains and so on.

There are frequent buses and you can get full multi-modal travel information on this via the My TfGM journey planner but all will take considerably longer than the train. If you weren’t already aware, there is also an app available for your smartphone. Welfare rights advisers all have smart phones, don’t you!

If you’re driving in, there are several car parks nearby but you will pay a lot for a full day and the road system can be very confusing for anyone not familiar with the area. Don’t say we didn’t warn you 🙂

Oh, yeah, and the biscuits are on order.

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New job vacancy on the GMWRAG web site.

Salford City Council

Community, Health and Social Care

Welfare Rights and Debt Advice Service

 

WELFARE RIGHTS OFFICER (MENTAL HEALTH)

Job reference: 50004029

Location: Civic Centre. Swinton.

Salary: £25,440 – £27,924 pa.

Salary Grade: Grade 3B.

Working Pattern: Full-time.

Working Hours: 36 hours pw.

Contract Type: Fixed-term, maternity cover.

Closing date:  11:59pm on the 31st of May 2016.

This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check.

Temporary cover is required for this post whilst the post-holder is on maternity leave. The period will run from mid July 2016 until the post-holder returns. It is anticipated that this will be approximately 9 months.

We are looking for someone with commitment and enthusiasm to join our expert welfare rights and debt advice team to provide a comprehensive Welfare Rights service for people with mental health conditions. You will provide direct advice and casework, as well as consultative support and training to key professional staff. You will offer a flexible service and be willing to carry out home visits and work in mental health settings.

You should have

• at least two years recent experience and
• expertise in benefits work.

You must have

• experience of appeal tribunal representation.
• a good understanding of recent and future changes to the social security system and how they impact on people with mental health issues.
• a good appreciation of mental health issues and be committed to the promotion of anti-poverty work.

Application forms from:  www.yourcounciljobs.co.uk.

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New job vacancy on the GMWRAG site

Salford Credit Union Credit Union Outreach and Money Mentor

Salford Credit Union is looking for an enthusiastic, experienced and organised individual to join the Credit Union team. You will be able to deliver money management training to local groups and promote the benefits of credit union membership. You will also work with local partners to develop a toolkit for other volunteers and staff to use.

This exciting, challenging role would suit someone who is proactive, with excellent communication skills and experience in delivering workshops in money management or similar. You will need knowledge of community issues relating to financial exclusion and ability to act with tact and discretion. You will also need to be computer literate and able to keep accurate records and write reports for a range of audiences.

This post has been grant funded for a year. The salary is £15,360 for 24 hours/week usually over four 6 hour days (equivalent to £24,000 per annum full time).

Because of the nature of the role (including working with schools), the successful candidate will be required to undertake a credit check and Disclosure and Barring Service check.

Closing Date:  12pm Sunday 15 May 2016

Interviews are scheduled for: Monday 23 May 2016

To download a recruitment pack please visit our website (no CVs):

http://www.salfordcreditunion.com/salford-credit-union-employment-opportunity-outreach-and-money-mentor-role/

Send your completed application forms to Sheila.murtagh@salfordcreditunion.com or by post to:
Salford Credit Union, The Langworthy Cornerstone, 451 Liverpool Street, Salford M6 5QQ.

For further info contact:  Sheila Murtagh on 0161 686 5880.

See our vacancies section for the permanent home of this information.

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The minutes of the Bolton GMWRAG meeting are now available.

The minutes of the recent GMWRAG meeting in Bolton are now available for download. These include a brief summary of the key points of the presentation from Maximus.

Contrary to the statement in these minutes that the Salford minutes were not available and will be circulated with the Bolton minutes… yes they were and no they won’t be! Punishments will be administered in due course 🙂

Can we remind members that our next meeting is now scheduled for June 2016 and is a return to Manchester. More details have already been posted and we’d like to thank those members who have already emailed to confirm their attendance. We will try and acknowledge these in due course and will forward them to Manchester as well. We are waiting to hear from Manchester as to whether this level of advance notification is really necessary and will report back accordingly.

In the meantime… CHOCOLATE FOR A WHOLE WEEKEND!!!

 

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