Memorandum submitted by Janine Lishman-Peat
As I explained on the phone the other week the
only evidence I have is anecdotal, as follows.
FIRST SOME
BACKGROUND
Wakefield has a small Asian minority of about
4-5,000. They live in two separate areas near the city for the
most part. The two communities interact very little and each tends
to be made up of people from the same area of Pakistan. There
are also a number of refugees in the area notably from Iraq and
the Congo but this Unit has no experience of working with these
people.
The Benefits Unit is part of the Department
of Social Services and Health. Most of our work is with older
people, with some younger disabled people being served. Nearly
all of our work could be described as take-up. Our referrals come
from Home Care, Mental Health social work teams and Learning Disability
social work teams. We also target people over 60 who are claiming
Housing Benefit, not known to Social Services and Health and not
claiming disability benefits.
The staff team includes one benefit advisor
who comes from and lives in one of the local Asian communities
and has, in the past, included another person from the other Asian
community who was employed short term as an interpreter. The team
is made up of 16 benefit advisors, three admin officers and a
manager.
The Unit receives very few referrals from the
Asian community. Home Care receives very few referrals from Asian
people, which means that we receive very few referrals in our
turn. The mental health and learning disability teams also have
very few ethnic minority claimants. Realising this the Unit attempted
to do some benefit take-up work with this group. We printed leaflets
in both English and Urdu and delivered them to households with
Asian names in the district where Housing Benefit was being claimed
by someone over 60. We appointed a young man to work as an interpreter.
We delivered bundles of leaflets to the local mosques and the
local, mostly Asian, taxi firms. We tried to liaise with the leaders
at the mosques and the Asian community centres. We were singularly
unsuccessful in attracting claims for benefit.
It was felt by the two Asian workers that the
reasons for this were as follows:
1. There are few elderly Asian people in
the district. It is believed that most return to Pakistan once
they start to receive retirement pension as it is enough money
for them to be able to live in some luxury in the village they
were born in.
2. Most Asian elders read neither English
nor Urdu and did not understand what the leaflets were about,
therefore they did not respond to them.
3. Asian women were not willing to give information
about their care needs (as is required by Attendance Allowance
forms) to men, and men were not willing to give that information
to a woman.
4. Culturally it is expected that family
members will help each other and it is not acceptable to involve
outsiders even with help to claim benefits.
5. Culturally it is not acceptable to tell
none family members financial information.
6. There was some rivalry between the mosques
which meant that the religious leaders were not willing to help.
7. Many older Asians live in houses owned
by younger family members and, consequently, their names do not
appear as recipients of Housing Benefit.
Janine Lishman-Peat
5 May 2004
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