Admin issues and 100+ mile trips await Dorset's Ukraine arrivals
Dorset Councillors have been thanking refugees and their host families for their patience.
“Thank you for your patience” – the message from Dorset Council to the local families who have offered to house Ukraine refugees, but have still not been matched, or are suffering other problems.
These include delays in payments, in matching families, in reaching out for a range of support, getting dental help and biometric residential permits.
In some cases refugees are being told they will have to travel to Southampton, Bath or Poole to get help.
Social services director Claire Shiels told a committee on Tuesday that there are still, ongoing problems, in creating a seamless service for refugee families and their hosts although largely not of the council’s making.
She said that over 100 people from Ukraine had now arrived in the Dorset Council area with 200 sponsor families having been matched up, while others were still waiting.
She told the people and health overview committee that there was the potential for over 500 people from Ukraine arriving in Dorset through the Homes for Ukraine scheme in the coming weeks. Others are likely to have arrived, or will arrive, through the separate family scheme.
Once families have arrived they are offered welfare checks by the council to ensure they are settling in and getting the help they are entitled to although the council is not formally told by the Government who is arriving.
“There has been a strong community response from Dorset people…we are still awaiting some guidance from Government… the one thing we are still awaiting, which would be really helpful, is how we re-match families and hosts where it just doesn’t work out, for whatever reason,” she said.
Committee chairman Cllr Mike Parkes said there had been a “tremendous response” from Dorset people: “Thanks you for the way that Dorset has stepped up to the mark in this terrible situation the people of Ukraine find themselves in,” he said.
Purbeck councillor Cllr Beryl Ezzard said there was continuing confusion about the two schemes which dealt with refugees, one which relied on family members living already here and was less well funded than the Homes for Ukraine scheme, funded by the Government and offering more generous support.
“But there is some frustration about visas; there is frustration about who to contact…people are wondering why there is so much delay,” she said, adding that some people in Purbeck were considering offering holiday homes for refugees, rather than let them out during the summer season.
Sturminster Newton councillor Carole Jones told the meeting that forms to claim Universal Credit were causing problems in her area.
“They are simply just not made for a Ukraine refugee,” she said, asking for a step by step guide to be produced to help fill in the forms.
She also spoke about not being able to get through to Citizen’s Advice Bureaux and said it was considered lucky if you ever managed to speak to someone at the Job Centre by phone, which forced people to then travel to Poole Job Centre, or for those who needed residential biometric permits, refugees were being told they had to travel to Bath or Southampton.
She said there was also a lack of dentists offering NHS care throughout Dorset with all the host families wondering when they will get the £350 ‘welcome’ payment they have been promised while there was also a backlog with £200 payments to each refugee.
Dorchester councillor Stella Jones warned that with local exams underway it was a difficult time for schools to be able to properly welcome refugee children, 58 who had either already arrived, or were on their way.
On the positive side some local education providers, including Weymouth College, have already announced plans for extra classes for refugees arriving wishing to learn English. Others are expected to do so in the coming days.