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Benefit Advocacy
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| FOR MORE INFORMATION SEE THE FOLLOWING: |
THANK YOU: DCM would like to thank the TG Macarthy Trust, the McKenzie Trust and the Community Grants Scheme (COGS) and Child Youth and Family Services (CYFS) for their support of our benefit advocacy service. |
THE SURVIVAL GUIDE
Living in Wellington on a low income |
Compassion House, Lukes Lane |
The Downtown Community Ministry (DCM) advocacy services can be divided into two broad categories. The first is Benefit Advocacy specifically directed at ensuring people receive their full benefit entitlements. The second is advocacy to assist clients with a wide variety of other problems which range from finding emergency accommodation to assisting them with their bill arrears.
Benefit Advocacy:
Our Benefit Advocacy Service focuses on supporting individuals and households to gain assistance through;
- the provision of information about available supplementary allowances;
supporting people to seek reviews of decisions which we assess as incorrect, including preparation of documentation that is required and, if
- necessary,supporting or representing people at Benefit Review Committee hearings;
- taking appeals to the Social Security Appeal Authority;
taking appeals of Social Security Appeal Authority decisions to the High Court;
- providing advice and training to community groups on advocacy issues.
While many people approach us directly for advocacy assistance we also pick up a lot of our advocacy cases through people who approach our food bank. In the interview process we often find that they are entitled to assistance from Work and Income which they are either unaware of, or have been declined. In some cases they are reluctant to apply to Work and Income for assistance because of past experience and instead seek assistance from our advocacy service or our food bank.
For the past few years the Downtown Community Ministry has also been involved in extensive research, lobbying and campaigning on Special Benefit and Disability Allowance issues. In the long term this work, and other efforts to improve benefit administration by the Department of Work and Income, should reduce the need for advocacy nationwide by ensuring that people receive their correct entitlements.
for an background article on benefit advocacy see Special and Unusual Circumstances: DCM's benefit advocacy service
