Welfare advisors from Ocean Housing are working from local job centres in a bid to help those struggling with the introduction of Universal Credit.

Universal Credit replaces six weekly and fortnightly benefits – including job seekers allowance, tax credits and housing benefit – with one monthly payment.

A phased introduction started in 2013 and more than 300 Ocean Housing customers currently receive the new benefit.

To help our customers make the transition to a monthly budget as smoothly as possible, two of our Welfare Advisors, Gemma and Rebecca, now work from job centres once a fortnight.

Gemma is based at St Austell job centre every other Thursday and Rebecca is in Newquay on alternate Mondays.

Gemma and Rebecca are holding fortnightly drop-in sessions for Ocean customers in local job centres

This allows them to offer more one-to-one support for our customers and – thanks to our strong working relationship with our local Department for Work and Pensions colleagues – grants the pair immediate access to the information they need to help our residents.

Rebecca and Gemma can also help with other welfare queries, such as bedroom tax, the benefits cap, Council Tax debt and water tariffs.

Sessions will initially be for drop-in advice but further home visits can be arranged where necessary.

The pair are a part of a specialist welfare team created by Ocean Housing in readiness for the roll out of Universal Credit, aimed at supporting our customers through the application process.

For more information about Universal Credit click here.