1) Does your council run a Local Welfare Assistance Scheme, designed to provide emergency and/or community assistance?
2) What is its budget for 2018/19?
3) What has been its budget for each of the previous 5 financial years (2017/18, 2016/17, 2015/16, 2014/15, 2013/14)?
4) How much has been spent in each of those financial years? (2013/14 to 2017/18 inclusive)
5) If there have been any underspends in recent years in your LWAS, where has that money been redirected to (eg has it gone to other budget areas, increasing the LWAS budget for the subsequent year, or elsewhere?)
6) How many applications have been made in each of those financial years? (2013/14 to 2017/18 inclusive)
7) Of those, how many applications have been successful and how many have been rejected in each year? If a breakdown exists by emergency / community element, please provide this. If a breakdown exists for the reasons for rejection, please provide this.
8) Is your LWAS fully funded by the council? If there are external funders, who are they and how much do they contribute?
9) Please send me a copy of your criteria – eg which individuals are or are not eligible, what constitutes an emergency, any limits on how many times someone can apply to apply is for assessing applications. Please also provide any guidelines for council officers when determining applications.
10) How and where has your LWAS scheme been publicised over the past five years?
11) If you already have existing reports or data showing a breakdown of applications by the nature of the need, or by location, please send me a copy.
Please treat points 1 to 11 above separately. In other words, if the information requested in one question is deemed exempt, this should not preclude the release of the information sought in other questions.
Devon County Council is not responsible for administering a Local Welfare Assistance Scheme and therefore does not hold the information requested. Local Welfare Assistance Scheme is provided by District and Unitary councils in Devon. Please contact them directly using the information on the links provided to obtain this information