Promoting choice and opportunites for Black and Minority Ethnic Communities.
12/05/05
Housing associations appoint Pension Benefit Outreach Worker to help BME older people take up pension entitlements
Trust, Hanover and Bield housing associations launch outreach programme with financing from the government’s Pension Service Partnership Fund
Three Scottish housing associations, Trust, Hanover (Scotland) and Bield, have appointed Aisha Nadeem as their first Pension Benefit Outreach Worker. Aisha will work as part of the Equal Opportunities team under the guidance of the Housing Equal Opportunities Manager.
The role of the Outreach Worker is to visit BME communities throughout Scotland and assess the benefit entitlement of “hard to reach” older people. Working closely with local Pension Service offices, Aisha will help to improve the take up of pension benefits and ensure that benefit entitlements actually become money in people’s pockets.
The new post was established as a result of a successful grant funding application to the government's Pension Service Partnership Fund, which secured £56,000.
Trust, Hanover and Bield's Equal Opportunities programme has already built up an extensive interface across Scotland's BME communities and Aisha will use this platform to launch her own programme of outreach initiatives.
Aisha, who was previously a branch manager with the Post Office, has considerable experience of managing pensions and benefits, advising older people on entitlements and assisting them with the often complex task of completing the appropriate forms.
Aisha is bilingual and has direct experience of the difficulties older people face in accessing benefits and entitlements when English is not their first language.
Says Aisha: "I am thrilled to be appointed to the Pension Benefit Outreach project. It is important to recognise that many hard-to-reach BME older people in Scotland live in poverty due to barriers that prevent them from accessing the benefits they are entitled to. I believe this project will significantly narrow this gap by increasing the uptake of services that are essential to everyday quality of life."
The pension outreach project starts this month and will run for 18 months.
Trust, Hanover (Scotland) and Bield’s outreach initiative is one of around 170 projects across Great Britain which has secured funding from the Pension Service Partnership Fund and which will be working as part of a coalition to deliver extra help to the country’s pensioners.
For further information please contact:
Aisha Nadeem
Pension Benefit Outreach Worker
Trust, Hanover (Scotland) and Bield housing associations
t: 0131 225 7246
e: anadeem@trustha.org.uk