Annual Report 2025
PREPARED FOR: WNDIS (WEST NORFOLK DISABILITY INFORMATION SERVICE) TRUSTEES, FUNDERS AND THE CHARITY COMMISSION
PREPARED BY: VICKIE JOEL WNDIS COORDINATOR
OVERVIEW OF WORK AT WNDIS 2025
APPEAL PERCENTAGES
The percentage success rate for tribunals in 2025 is: 75%
There have been 24 tribunals this year and even more pre-tribunal awards than in the preceding year. The pretribunal awards this year make up over half of the total tribunal awards. This continuing trend is good for clients as it saves them going to a tribunal and it resolves the appeal more quickly. In addition welfare benefit tribunals,
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there were three successful cancellations of debt: two via letters to the DWP and council (for a housing debt) and one via a tribunal. These meant that a total of £25,000 was cancelled.
TRIBUNAL AWARDS
The total of the awards from the beginning of December 2024 to the end of November 2025 is : £800, 953.60 The pre-tribunal decisions amount to awards of £ 550,543.40
NEW CLIENTS
There have been 390 new clients this year, up from 340 last year. Existing clients are not counted in this calculation and once a client is recorded they have permanent access to WNDiS services. There are around 400 existing clients who are getting support e.g. with an appeal. The increase of 50 new clients compared to last year means roughly an extra 4 clients a month, which is still within the capacity of the charity. Most WNDiS clients self refer as there is a high level of trust in the charity and
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most new clients have heard of the charity through friends or family who have used it in the past.
VARIETY OF WORK OFFERED
WNDiS helps with a wide range of things from advice on heating, mobility aids, grants, Blue Badges, and activities as well as signposting to other helpful organisations such as debt advice organisations. WNDiS has also continued to support parents who have children /young people who need extra help at school.
CAMPAIGNS
WNDiS has been supporting clients with Blue Badge applications since it started. A meeting was held with the Blue Badge Unit in September 2024, and this year WNDiS asked for the suggested changes at this meeting to be considered in the policy review. The outcome of this is pending.
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James Wild and Terry Jermy have been helping WNDiS with individual applications, when refusal or requests for more medical information has not seemed at all reasonable.
WNDiS has highlighted problems with Blue Badges in the local press and also warned against the changes proposed to PIP in March this year.
COLLABORATIONS
This year WNDiS has worked with MIND and Purfleet Trust for PIP and other benefit applications and appeals as well as with The Stroke Association, Headway, Merchant’s Terrace as well as with the Job Centre which uses WNDiS services for all the Limited Capability for Work Forms. It also took on an appeal from CAB, who directly asked the char-
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ity for this. The social prescribers attached to all the local medical practices also refer clients for benefit advice and help with assessments and applications for health and welfare benefits.
TREASURER’S REPORT 25
WNDiS Accounts 1st April 2024 - 31st March 2025
Income
NHS 19870.50 (This year’s funding plus 6 months from previous year) Farthing Trust 10,000
King’s Lynn Borough Council 2066.00 ((This year’s funding plus previous year’s funding)
Donations 821.00
Access Audit 50.00
Total: 32801.50
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Expenses
Salary 21,368.43
Office Rent 4472.00
Pension 891.22 Insurance 719.17 Telephone 653.20 Petty Cash 100 Office Expenses 67.71
Post 64.99 Other 274.90
Surplus 4117.88
We are grateful to our funders for their continued support:
NHS Norfolk
Farthing Trust
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King’s Lynn and W Norfolk Borough Council Without them WNDiS would not be able to continue providing a vital service. As Vickie mentions elsewhere, successful benefit appeals bring hundreds of thousands of pounds into the local economy, enabling people to avoid the poverty trap. We are very good value ! Jonathan Toye
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VICKIE JOEL COORDINATOR
Vickie does appeal work and case work and keeps records of all the work which comes in, as well as the outcomes e.g. the awards. She is keen to extend the work WNDiS does for children and young people who need extra support in school and college.
NICKY MARTIN VOLUNTEER
Nicky has been a volunteer for WNDiS for eight years, and provides very valuable support generally, particularly for tribunals. Her experience really counts, especially in successfully resolving the most difficult cases such as her work on the appeal for Kevin Bennison (see website) and many others.
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DONNA NICE
WNDIS SUPPORTER
I'm Donna, I live with my daughter and dog chip. I'm really family oriented and love going on dog walks. I Was lately assessed for autism and Dyslexia at the age of 32. I left school in year 10 with no qualifications. This was one of the reasons I was so proud when I walked through the doors of Ely cathedral to graduate, having gained a degree in Social Sciences in 2015 with The Open University. Since then, I have cared for my daughter and navigated through some difficult situations that we have faced. I have appealed at 3 SEND tribunals, without representation. The year before last, we faced homelessness which is how I found WNDIS.
Jonathan Toye
TREASURER
Although Jonathan is now a trustee, not a front line worker for WNDiS, many clients remember him from his time in the office as 'the man with the stripy jumper' and he is largely responsible for WNDiS’ great reputation locally.
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JEFF LEWIS - LEGAL ADVISER TO WNDIS
Jeff Lewis qualified as a Solicitor in 1990 and has worked almost exclusively as a criminal defence lawyer since then. For about the first 20 years he was based in the North
West of England working out of two legal aid firms in Manchester.
This century he has worked in the south east of England principally in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk with the odd excursion into practice in London.
Criminal Defence work has inevitably brought him into contact with a wide variety of people many of whom are extremely vulnerable. His clients are often dependent on the benefit system for financial survival and frequently they or members of their family suffer from some degree of disability. Many different aspects of fragile mental health often feature in his caseload.
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Jeff has two grown up daughters living in London and Tokyo.
Jeff hopes that he can bring the benefit of his experience in this sector to the role of trustee of WNDiS, and in this way contribute to the invaluable service that WNDiS provides to the local community.
MICHAEL DE WHALLEY - CHAIRMAN
I work as a self-employed IT consultant and have lived in West Norfolk for most of my life. I was educated in King’s Lynn at St. James’ Boys (now Greyfriars) and King Edward VII schools. In my early twenties, I travelled the Australian continent extensively, solo. Other travel experiences include New Zealand, America, Spain, Gibraltar, Russia and France. I worked initially in local food factories and moved into Information Technology in 1991, for a short period at the Borough Council and then (mostly) in various manufacturing companies.
Between 2001 and 2006, I was a member of the 2620 squadron of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force (i.e.territorials), which led to a six-month
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deployment to Kuwait and Iraq in 2003. In 2005, I became self-employed providing IT support and additionally took up OU studies, being awarded a Diploma in Computing in 2006 and a Bachelor of Arts Open in 2009. I became actively involved in politics in 2008.
2010 was the first general election in which I stood. 2010 was also the year I started the successful KLWIN anti-incinerator campaign, which included a judicial review and a public inquiry, culminating in 2015. I have chaired the very successful Gaywood Valley Conservation Group since its inception in 2015; the group built up to attracting approximately 30 volunteers, every week, until the beginning of the pandemic. Grimston Fen and Allotment Trust invited me to become a trustee in 2016. Currently, I am a Grimston parish councillor and, in May 2019, I also became Borough Councillor for Gayton and Grimston Ward and a parish councillor for Congham.
LOUISE MARRS
Supports WNDiS with housing advice and is the trustee responsible for safeguarding.
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My passions, as well as equal rights in all its forms, are my horses and my Grandchildren. The horses (my boys) are my escape in a sometimes very strange world, nothing matters when I am at the field, usually picking up after them.
~~West Norfolk Disability~~ ~~i nformation Service (WND~~ ~~i S),~~ Page 13 14 Tuesday Market Place,King’s Lynn, Norfolk, PE30 1JN. 01553 782558 | ofce@wndis.org.uk | www.wndis.org.uk