WELFARE advice services for the Bradford District’s poorest communities will continue for a further three years due to an additional £3 million from Bradford Council.

The funding from the Public Health department aims to target the link between poverty, debt and ill health by offering greater access to welfare rights and debt advice within local communities.

It aims to reach households where individuals are long-term sick and disabled, and also to carers, lone parents, the unemployed or low paid.

Cllr Imran Hussain, deputy leader of Bradford Council, said: “Often the services have been the starting point for people to understand the kind of support that they can get, bringing a range of organisations together in order to solve often quite complex and very different problems.”