THE poorest people in Inverclyde could have over £3 million a year taken out of their pockets if 'devastating' cuts to frontline advice services go ahead according to a damning report.

The Tele reported yesterday how Councillor Colin Jackson had challenged health and social care partnership bosses about a decision to cut a 'highly skilled' welfare advice team and replace them with a new voluntary-led set up.

We have obtained a report setting out the full impact of the cuts. It includes a document written by a senior manager, obtained under freedom of information laws, which was never shown to the Inverclyde Integration Joint Board before they made the decision to go ahead with the savings package.

The report shows how the highly-skilled team clawed back £6m in extra benefits, grants and key support for vulnerable people last year, including the disabled and the elderly.

But under the new set-up bosses expect that figure could plunge to as low as £2.5m, based on performances in other local authority areas.

Speaking after a meeting of the social work and social care scrutiny panel, Councillor Colin Jackson told of his serious misgivings about the situation.

He said: "I can't fully describe how concerned I am about how this will affect the most vulnerable.

"These cuts would severely harm the poorest in our communities, the young, the old, the sick, the poor and the disabled, removing over four million from their pockets.

"I really think these cuts need to be fully scrutinised and the potential impact exposed.

"No one is having a go at the joint board, or how anyone voted, it is about the evidence they were presented with."

In a bid to close a £5.2m funding gap the Integrated Joint Board agreed to a review of advice services, including a proposal to have Consumer Advice Scotland brought in to deliver it instead of in-house experts, saving around £380,000 a year.

But trade unions have responded by warning that experience elsewhere suggests this would cost claimants badly.

Under the agreed cuts there will also be a reduction in face-to-face help for those with the most complex needs, falling from 56 per cent with the HSCP advice team to only 14 per cent with the CAS.

The substantial predicted loss of claimant income would mean that the local economy would lose millions of pounds a year.

Councillor Jackson and trade unions are now questioning why the 20-page equality impact assessment which was completed by a manager, and subsequently obtained by them using FOI laws, was not put in front of the joint board before they made the decision.

Instead they were presented with a significantly amended version. The paper put to the joint board said under equalities outcomes that there would be no negative implications at all.

During the social work and social scrutiny panel meeting Councillor Jackson questioned why the document had been modified to such an extent that the author had asked for their name to be removed from the report.

Speaking about the loss of advice services, he added: "What is provided by the HSCP just now and what could come in as a replacement with CAS is just frightening.

"Last year the HSCP advice services brought back in six million to those who came for advice, which was worth eight million to the local economy."

At the scrutiny meeting Councillor Jackson said trade unions had warned that the decision-making process could be unlawful and that a new meeting of the IIJB should be arranged to consider all the relevant evidence.

Greenock Telegraph:

After being quizzed by Councillor Jackson at the scrutiny panel, HSCP chief officer Kate Rocks defended their position. 

She argued that they could deliver a better service with less staff, and claimed that other local authorities were doing a better job.

The senior official said that there would be a programme board set up to develop and scrutinise the shake-up, adding: "It is mainly preliminary proposals around the reshaping of advice services and how we deliver our front doors."