A campaign has been launched to help Moray residents cope with the biggest changes to the welfare system since the 1940s.
Claimants will be offered help with budgeting, housing, finding work and developing online skills in order to lessen the impact of benefit changes and the roll-out of universal credit later this year.
Moray Council has created an online resource, welfaremap.moray.gov.uk, to help people through the processes.
Moray Council’s project officer for the Welfare Map, Rosemary Pannell, said the guide would be useful to a wide range of people.
She said: “There’s sometimes an assumption that welfare benefits claimants are people who are unemployed. In reality, they encompass a much wider group, including housing benefit claimants and families on working tax credits.
“The changes are not just about who qualifies for benefits and how much they might receive. There are also changes to the way in which people claim. This means people will need to be able to access the internet to do things they can do in person at the moment. So it’s really important that everyone knows how to go about doing that – either by accessing the internet at home or going to places where they can get help, such as the local library.
“These changes are going to have a huge impact on the way people have to claim, as well as to the benefits themselves.”
Local support groups such as Keith Cancer Care, Step by Step in Elgin, FACT in Forres, Reach Out in Buckie, Action for children and Clan, have been supplied with laptops or tablets to help people who might not have the online access or knowledge at present.
Councillor Stewart Cree said: “The council is pleased to be working with our partners, including the voluntary sector to help people deal with changes brought on by welfare reforms. The Welfare map will be a great tool to improve access to services.”
The information drive is backed by the Scottish Government and the Department of Work and Pensions.
Welfare Minister Margaret Burgess said the map would make a real difference to the many people in Moray facing challenges as a result of the UK Government’s welfare reforms.
Ms Burgess added: “We are supporting councils to develop innovative ways of helping people become more aware of, and more resilient to, the impacts of welfare reform.”