There is still a chance for people to get a winter fuel payment through being in receipt of pension credit. If someone qualifies for Pension Credit and their claim is submitted by 21st December 2024, any award made afterwards will be backdated for a period of 3 months and therefore the additional fuel payment will also be paid to you in retrospect.
Increase your income | Cost of Living Support (fife.scot)
The Fife Benefit Checker can be used to see if someone is eligible to receive extra benefits.
It is designed to be easy to use and members of the public can use it without referral. It is free and hosted within the Cost-of-Living support pages – link above.
If anyone is having trouble using the online checker an appointment can be made see below :
make an appointment or ask for a call back.
Citizen’s Advice and Rights Fife Money Advice Team will be hosting weekly drop-in sessions at the Greig Institute in Leven commencing Thursday 3rd October through to the end of December.
Please share this information below with your teams.
Our Money Advice Team will be hosting drop-in clinics to provide advice on issues relating to problem debt. At these clinics, our advisers will listen to your query, take any urgent action and put in place next steps for advice. Our drop-in sessions are short triage appointments.
The drop-in sessions will take place every Thursday from 9:30am-1pm at our Leven office The Greig Institute, Forth Street, Leven, KY8 4PF. The first session will take place on Thursday 3rd October
Home | CARF Money Advice (cabfife.org.uk)
The cost of poverty goes beyond the hardship experienced by people living in low-income households. This report linked to below, by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) Beyond Pills describes the current mental health crisis, which affects around a quarter of adults and children in the UK and has enormous individual, societal and economic costs.
It points out that this is happening despite increased investment in traditional approaches to mental health. It goes on to set out six principles for mental health reform. The emphasis throughout is to move away from focusing purely on health services aimed at treating individuals to concentrate much more on prevention through tackling the wider causes of mental ill-health and, as importantly, on creating health by providing the conditions for people to be healthy and, where appropriate, helping them to be so.
Beyond-Pills-APPG-Shifting-the-Balance-Report-2024-1.pdf (beyondpillsappg.org)
Keynote speech given by Paul Johnston, Chief Executive of Public Health Scotland at Scotland’s Health: The State of the Nation event earlier this month in Edinburgh.
People in Scotland die younger than in any other Western European country. People spend more of their lives in ill health. The gap in life expectancy between the poorest and the wealthiest is growing.
https://publichealthscotland.scot/our-blog/2024/september/a-scotland-where-everyone-thrives/
The Robertson Trust awards funding to prevent and reduce poverty and trauma in Scotland.
The Wee Grant Scheme Transport Grants are reopening and will receive applications from w/c 30th September . Shortly after this the rest of the Funds will re open.
Please get in touch if you would like to know more about any of the updates this week,
Contact: Sheena Watson
Email: sheena.watson@fife.gov.uk
