Our guest speaker at the meeting held on 29^th April was Damian from Halton Disability Advice & Appeal Centre  who came along to talk to us about PIP and Universal Credit. He informed us that already there are changes in the PIP, those who are already on DLA will now stay on DLA, PIP will only apply to new applicants.

The Halton Disability Advice & Appeal Centre  who are based in the Old Police Station in Runcorn are expanding they are training up more advisers and in the future will be having offices out in the community at the community centres, where you will be able to go along to get advice on any of the benefits.

Halton Disability Advice & Appeal Centre are there to help carers, please do not hesitate to telephone them if you have any concerns or need help in filling in an ESA50 form, this is the form when they are trying to take your cared off Income Support and put them on Job seekers allowance, all the HALDS members up to now who have had assistance in filling in these form have been successful in staying on their benefits.

You can call Halton Disability Advice & Appeal Centre on (01928) 567 733.

Pam

Prior to the meeting we held our annual AGM where Bill was re-elected as Chairman, I was re-elected as Secretary and Glenis Holmes was elected as Treasurer. We have a new committee which will meet on a quarterly basis to discuss speakers for meetings, social events etc.

We have been awarded £1,380 from Halton Borough Council, for funding for our monthly meetings, this is the same as we had last year.  I have also applied for funding from Tesco for social events, I will keep you updated on this proposal, which will be another couple of months, before I hear anything.

Pam