Contact a Family has been awarded over £400k from the Big Lottery Fund to help continue their welfare rights service.
The funding will enable the continual provision of expert advice on benefits and other financial support over the next three years to thousands of parents with disabled children. This includes offering one-to-one call backs for families needing more intensive support and producing a range of guides and online information to help de-mystify the complex benefit system for families.
More than a quarter of the 3,500 parents who took part in Contact a Family’s Counting the Costs survey said that every month they face £300 or more extra costs relating to their child’s disability or health condition. This shows how vital it is that families with disabled children claim all the benefits they are entitled to. Welfare rights and benefits adviser on the helpline Derek Sinclair says:
‘At a time of huge change to the benefit system, the Big Lottery Fund money will help us provide a badly needed source of free, confidential, high quality and up-to-date benefits advice for parents’.
Parents contacting the freephone helpline on 0808 808 3555 looking for benefits advice will be offered a one-to-one advice session with one of Contact a Family’s welfare experts to discuss their individual situation, and taken through the latest relevant benefits advice and any other financial help they may be entitled to in order to help maximise their income.
Source: Contact a Family