To help parents and carers and autistic adults understand their entitlement to benefits and how to make an application while the coronavirus outbreak disrupts our normal services, we are launching some free online advice workshops in June.
We strongly recommend that you get in touch with us and take part in a workshop before starting any application for benefits, to help increase the likelihood of a favourable decision from the Department for Work & Pensions.
The Understanding Your Benefits Rights workshops will cover the same topics as the face-to-face sessions that we normally hold at our office in Reading.
The first two workshops are as follows:
Monday, June 15: For parents and carers of children aged up to 15, looking at applying for Disability Living Allowance (DLA) – click here to register for places.
Monday, June 29: For autistic young people and adults aged 16+, and their parents and carers, looking at applying for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Employment & Support Allowance (ESA) and Universal Credit – click here to register for places.
Both sessions will run from 10am to 1pm – we are allowing some extra time to make sure that our advisers have time to cover all the key points and answer questions in the online format.
Our advisers are also still available to help with your enquiries about the benefits listed above and to offer individual advice about mandatory reconsiderations and appeals if initial applications are turned down.
And they can help with applications for Carer’s Allowance – the Government has relaxed some of the rules about this benefit during the coronavirus lockdown, so please contact us for advice about whether you may now be eligible to apply.
About 90% of the people who we help are awarded benefits. Our advisers Kevin and Carrie handled almost 200 cases in the 12 months from April 2019 until the end of March this year.
To contact our Benefits Service, email benefits@autismberkshire.org.uk or call 01189 594 594 (option 2) and leave a message, including your contact details. One of our advisers will get in touch to discuss how they can help.
- The Benefits Service is being supported during the coronavirus outbreak by grants from the Charities Aid Foundation’s CAF Tourle Foundation Fund; the Louis Baylis Maidenhead Advertiser Trust; Tesco Bags of Help; and Berkshire Community Foundation.
