Families need to lay claim to help

FAMILIES throughout Oldham are fighting to keep their heads above water as the recession continues to take its toll on the borough. However, millions of pounds are going unclaimed, money which could go some way to easing the financial stress.

Writing exclusively for the Oldham Chronicle, Michael Meacher, MP for Oldham West and Royton, appeals to people to take up the various benefits and outlines the help that is out there.

One of the tragedies of this deep recession is that thousands of families in Oldham are not claiming the benefits they’re entitled to, even though they’re most in need and would gain most in the improvement of their livelihood.

The numbers are big. Oldham families which are entitled are failing to claim more than £7million in council tax benefits and more than £6million in housing benefit. Altogether some £35million to which the people of Oldham are entitled is not being claimed.

There are five main benefits where large shortfalls in the numbers claiming in Oldham are known.

That indicates that the average amount of benefit (which we should perhaps better describe as rebate so as to avoid any suggestion of stigma) to which all these people are entitled is on average £604.

Claiming that could make a big difference to a lot of people, particularly the main groups missing out who are some owner occupiers and those who have moved in the last 6 months.

Given that £6.14million is not being claimed, that works out on average at £1,980 per person who is entitled but not actually getting the benefit. Records show that this applies particularly to private renters, renters who are in full-time low-paid employment, and people who have moved within the last six months.

More than £10million is not claimed by about 6,900 pensioners, which indicates that on average each of them is going without nearly £1,550 a year.

Since pensioners are often among the poorest of all, it is extremely important that they should be encouraged to claim and to know their rights. It’s often thought that pensioners living with adult children are not eligible for pension credit, but that’s not so. Many pensioners also think that they cannot claim the pension credit if they’re already receiving another pension, but again that’s not the case (unless of course the other pension is quite large).

This is a remarkable finding. Since people out of work and looking for jobs are often pretty skint, it is striking that each of those 2,500 people in Oldham who are failing to claim JSA would on average get £2,400 if only they were to claim.

The records suggest that this applies particularly to people who have been unemployed only for a short time and people who are not heads of household.

There are reckoned to be some 1,750 individuals in this situation, which means that each of them on average might be entitled to about £2,700.

People most likely to be in this category are older working-age people, some owner occupiers, and households including members with a disability. In addition there are large numbers of people in Oldham living in fuel poverty which is defined as persons having to spend more than 10 per cent of their income on fuel.

The proportion of households in fuel poverty in Oldham as a whole is 6.4 per cent, but in two areas in Coldhurst and one in Alexandra it is three times higher — over 17.6 per cent. Werneth has five areas where the number of households in fuel poverty is greater than 10 per cent and St Mary’s has four.

These high figures of fuel need reflect in particular the high dependence on pre-payment meters where fuel per unit costs more.

In Alexandra no less than 49 per cent of households use pre-payment meters and 44 per cent in Coldhurst, while in St. James, Medlock Vale, Hollinwood, Werneth and St Mary’s it is more than a third of families.

Poverty is rife in Oldham, and all of us need to do more to ensure that those entitled to extra funds, often quite large, do in fact get them.