Online training

This one-day Basic level course is aimed at those supporting women fleeing from domestic abuse. The course is suitable for those with little or no benefit knowledge.

Many women fleeing domestic violence will need to claim benefits in their own right, and for the majority of cases that will be universal credit (UC), especially if they have children.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This one-day Basic level course is aimed at those supporting women fleeing from domestic abuse. The course is suitable for those with little or no benefit knowledge.

Many women fleeing domestic violence will need to claim benefits in their own right, and for the majority of cases that will be universal credit (UC), especially if they have children.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

There are two new Scottish disability benefits: child disability payment and adult disability payment. These replace disability living allowance (DLA) and personal independence payment (PIP) for people who live in Scotland. This course will help you advise confidently with an understanding of which rules are different or new, how the transfer process works, tactics when there is an existing appeal, and more.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This course is for people who want to learn how to use QBC (the Quick Benefits Calculator) effectively and confidently. 

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This is essential training if you are starting out as a welfare rights adviser in Scotland or need a good understanding of the benefits system. It introduces you to the social security system and important concepts to help you maximise benefit entitlement. You will gain a detailed knowledge of the core benefits and assessments involved in welfare rights advice – universal credit, the assessment of limited capability for work and the assessment of adult disability payment. You will learn how to maximise entitlement and deal with problems.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This half-day standard level online course looks at how limited capability for work rules affect UC. The outcome of the work capability assessment has a crucial role in determining claimants’ work-related requirements as well as the amount of money they get.

You will also explore how the work capability assessment affects UC and how to navigate the process and challenge decisions.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

How can you help your service users manage universal credit? Supporting people with an online system, especially if you are working from home, can be difficult.

Understanding the claim process and how to maintain the online journal can help avoid delays and payment issues that can lead to debt. You do not need to be an expert to make a difference. This course aims to equip you with the practical knowledge you need to help your service users navigate universal credit and avoid potential pitfalls.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This one-day standard level course provides a practical and tactical look at working with people with mental health diagnoses to help secure full entitlement to benefits, and to help avoid some of the pitfalls of the system.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Judicial review is an essential tool for challenging decisions that affect benefit and tax credit claimants where there is no right of appeal. This interactive course gives advisers a clear understanding of its potential use and helps them to develop their skills in challenging unlawful decision-making.

In increasing areas of the benefit system, rights of appeal have been removed, decision making has become discretionary and legal aid is no longer available. As a result, judicial review has become more important a remedy than ever. Delays, discretionary welfare decisions and late mandatory reconsideration refusals are just three examples of areas where judicial review could be necessary, and which advisers are more likely to encounter as a result of welfare reform.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Many advisers work with students in both further and higher education. This standard level course explains the different benefits that further and higher education students can claim, in particular universal credit.  

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Some claimants receiving ‘Legacy’ benefits under the old rules may elect to ‘jump ship’ early onto UC because they think it is better for them, or because they have been encouraged to do so by the DWP or other officials. This can result in winners and losers, with no way back.

Other Legacy claimants are sitting tight, waiting for a UC ‘migration’ letter from the DWP that will propel them into UC, at the risk of losing all their Legacy benefits if they fail to comply.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This half-day online training course explains how PIP entitlement ‘points’ can be scored if you show you cannot do something ‘reliably’.
In this way, understanding reliability regulation 4(2A) is vital to your understanding of who qualifies for PIP, and accordingly how you can support PIP claims and appeals.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Older people commonly do not claim all that they are entitled to. This course provides an introduction to pension credit and aims to help you with effective benefit checks to maximise income. 

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This course focuses on the transitional issues for claimants who are moving from legacy benefits and tax credits to universal credit (UC). It is expected that claimants in Scotland will begin to be moved to UC under the managed migration process during 2023. Giving the right advice and support during this process can make a huge difference. In some cases, transitional protection is available, intended to ensure claimants are not worse off. This equips advisers with the knowledge to give advice on options and implications involved in moving from benefits and tax credits to UC.     

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This course explains the jargon and takes a practical, problem-solving approach to navigating the “decision based system” of benefit entitlements set out in Chapter 2 of the Social Security Act 1998. This will help advisers identify the right way to get decisions changed and get processes unblocked, and so get the best outcome for claimants.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Advisers can find it difficult and intimidating to advise non-European nationals on how their immigration status affects entitlement to benefits. 

This standard level course offers an opportunity for advisers to gain knowledge and confidence by taking a step-by-step approach, and looking in-depth at how the rules apply to different scenarios.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This course provides a practical and tactical look at working with people with mental health diagnoses to help secure full entitlement to benefits and avoid some of the pitfalls of the system.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Older people commonly do not claim all that they are entitled to. This course provides an introduction to pension credit and aims to help you with effective benefit checks to maximise income.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This course gives a basic grounding in preparing a social security appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. Using practical examples, the aim is to increase confidence and share tactics.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Adult disability payment (ADP) is a new Scottish benefit aimed at supporting working-age adults who have extra care needs or mobility difficulties because of a disability. It replaces personal independence payment in Scotland. Getting an award of ADP can significantly increase income and so it is a crucial benefit for advisers and others to know about. This introductory level course will give you an understanding of the main rules and help you to identify people who may be entitled.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This training course focuses on Universal Credit (UC), the centre piece of the Government’s welfare reform programme. Universal Credit is now at ‘full roll out’ across the UK and applies to working age claimants whether they are in work or not. UC comes with a reputation for delays and problems relating to poor decision-making, as well as difficulties arising from the UC computer system.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This course provides an overview of benefit support for families in Scotland from pregnancy to school age. Scottish child payment is available for almost half of all children under 16 and significantly increases income. It is crucial for advisers and others to know about this and other family payments in Scotland so that nobody misses out on vital income. The course also covers UK benefits for children, which are still the main source of support in Scotland.  It looks at what can be done to help when UK benefit income is reduced by the ’two- child limit’ and ‘benefit cap’.     

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

The requirement to have a right to reside for key benefits such as universal credit, continues to be the most significant barrier to EEA nationals accessing these benefits.  However, increasingly advisers also need to understand how the immigration status of EEA nationals arriving in the UK more recently can affect their entitlement to the main benefits.

This standard level course offers a step-by-step approach to enable advisers to ask the key questions and gather the information most useful when assisting EEA nationals to obtain their benefit entitlements.  

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Disability living allowance (DLA) is the main way of meeting the additional needs of many children yet it is under claimed and can be hard to understand.

This course looks at the DLA rules as they apply to children. It considers how to fill in the form to get the best outcome for the child.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This essential one-day course, held over two mornings, is aimed at non-benefit staff and volunteers working with people for whom benefits are an issue.

It provides a comprehensive introduction to the benefits and tax credits system and enables staff to complete basic income maximisation checks on behalf of clients, tenants and service users.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

If you need to get a universal credit or other benefit decision changed, this course aims to gives you the essential knowledge to do it. To successfully challenge a decision, knowing what type of decision to ask for can make all the difference. This might be a mandatory reconsideration, a revision or a supersession. In some cases complaints, disputes or judicial reviews might be the appropriate course of action.

This course explains the jargon and takes a practical, problem-solving approach to help advisers identify the right way to get decisions changed and get processes unblocked, and so get the best outcome for claimants.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Attendance allowance (AA) is the main disability benefit for people who have reached pension age. Getting an award of AA can significantly increase income and so it is a crucial benefit for older people.

This course will give you an understanding of the main rules and help you to identify people who may be entitled. The course is aimed at advisers with little or no experience of AA.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This course looks at how to use medical evidence effectively, particularly in Personal Independence Payment, Disability Living Allowance and Universal Credit Appeals. 

It considers how to deal with the traps and pitfalls appellants commonly encounter after disclosing GP notes and specialist letters. It informs advocates and advisers how to make best use of medical evidence. It examines what the tribunal is looking for, and how to ensure your client gets the maximum benefit from medical evidence obtained.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

When a Scottish benefit is refused, an award is wrong or there is an overpayment, what steps should you take to put things right? You may already be familiar with the processes involved in challenging DWP decisions. But the terminology, rules and processes for Scottish benefits are different. Depending on the case, Social Security Scotland can make a ‘redetermination’ or a ‘determination without application’, there is a new process to get an appeal underway and important new ‘short-term assistance’ available. To make an effective case as an adviser and maximise income while challenging a decision depends on knowing which route to follow.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Do you advise or support former members of the British armed services and their families? You will know that it can be difficult to work out how their benefits are affected by the pensions and other payments they get after leaving the armed services.  This course will help you solve these problems and improve your ability to maximise income for former servicemen and women and their families.   

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This half-day online training course explains how the universal credit (UC) ‘Complex Needs’ rules work, who is covered and what this should mean for UC claimants. It also covers how you can ensure the DWP recognises ‘Complex Needs’ status.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Universal credit is the main working age, means-tested benefit throughout the UK. It was intended to simplify the social security system and provide an incentive to work, but its monthly assessment and online process can seem daunting for clients and advisers alike. You do not need to be an expert to make a difference. This course aims to equip you with the practical knowledge you need to help your service users navigate universal credit and avoid potential pitfalls.    

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Most people will claim a social security benefit at some point in their lives. This course is for anyone new to helping people in Scotland navigate their way through the benefits system or who wants an overview of benefits.  The course gives an introduction to the benefits system looking at what it is, who it is for and how it all fits together.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Universal credit (UC) claimants often have difficulties getting their Housing Costs element included in their claim and having the right amount paid on time.

This course focuses on the practical aspects of help towards rent in UC. 

It will include an overview of the claim and verification process, who is eligible for housing costs in their UC award, common problems preventing correct payment of Housing Costs element and how to check payment amounts and dates.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This one-day experienced level online course looks at the universal credit (UC) rules that particularly affect ill or disabled people.

It will equip you to advise clients about the transfer to UC, including through changes of circumstances. You will also explore how the work capability assessment affects UC and the affect of working for disabled people claiming the benefit.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This course explains in detail which students can claim universal credit and how student funding affects the amount they get. It also covers particular problems to do with claiming universal credit and what to do about them. 

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Build your skills with this practical course on effective legal research for benefit casework.  Competent casework starts by knowing the right questions to ask your client.  Whether you are helping clients decide on the right course of action or supporting them with an appeal, the facts relevant to the case depend on the law. This course is an essential guide to finding the relevant law online.   

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This one-day introductory level course - delivered over four one-hour modules, across two consecutive mornings - provides an overview of the benefits system and examines how the system is affected by the introduction of universal credit.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Attendance allowance (AA) is the main disability benefit for people who have reached pension age. Getting an award of AA can significantly increase income and so it is a crucial benefit for older people. This course will give you an understanding of the main rules and help you to identify people who may be entitled. AA will eventually devolve to Scotland and become pension age disability payment. This course will keep you up to date with any developments on this.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

The first income-replacement benefit to be devolved to Scotland is Scottish carer’s assistance. It replaces carer’s allowance and is due to roll out throughout Scotland by spring 2024.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Many Legacy claimants are better off delaying a move to UC, but others should consider switching ASAP. The right choice may be complicated and advisers should not depend on a simple ‘better off’ calculation. This course considers best practice, and looks for a more systematic approach.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This course is essential for anyone who wants to challenge decisions of the First-tier Tribunal (Social Entitlement Chamber) effectively. The main aim of the course is to give you an understanding of what is an error of law, and practice in finding errors of law in the First-tier Tribunal statement of reasons.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Universal credit (UC) changes all the time, as the law is amended, as it is implemented in practice, and as local delivery changes. This course is an opportunity for experienced advisers to get up to date with the latest developments. You will be able to share experiences of UC and discuss legal and practical approaches to best support clients. 

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Universal credit (UC) claimants often have difficulties getting their Housing Costs element included in their claim and having the right amount paid on time.

This one-day course focuses on the practical aspects of help towards rent in UC.

It will include an overview of the claim and verification process, who is eligible for housing costs in their UC award, common problems preventing correct payment of Housing Costs element and how to check payment amounts and dates. The course also covers how and when to apply for Alternative Payment Arrangements and direct deductions for rent arrears, and relevant regulations for challenging administrative errors.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

Social security law and tax credit law can change from day to day and advisers need to keep abreast of developments to advise their clients correctly. Arranged under topic headings and concentrating on regulations and caselaw, this essential one-day course looks at the most important changes in benefit and tax credits law from the previous six months.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This online training course will help ensure that ‘exceptional circumstances’ rules are properly applied using regulations, guidance and case law. This will mean more effective claims, revisions and appeals.

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This course looks at how limited capability for work rules affect universal credit (UC). The outcome of the work capability assessment has a crucial role in determining claimants’ work-related requirements as well as the amount of money they get. 

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more

This short course provides an introduction to benefits delivered by Social Security Scotland. It is aimed at advisers and other workers who have little or no knowledge of these benefits. 

Interested in booking this course? Please click here  to find out more