2008 End of Year Round-up
By Richard McKeever | December 23, 2008
As we reach the end of a very busy year the linksUK team would like to wish you a happy festive season… and all the best for 2009.
Our highlights of 2008 include:
Chain Reaction: The first Chain Reaction event was a huge success! over 1000 people, from 17 countries, at least 250 aged under 21, community organisations from up and down the country and beyond and artists from Brazil, the Philippines, Croatia, Canada, Iceland and Kenya, Social Entreprenuers, bloggers and techies with new tools to try out, business leaders (among others, CEOs from Royal Mail, BBC, IBM, CBI, BITC, Accenture) and a roll call of Ministers - including a visit from the PM.
Keep in touch to find out about Chain Reaction 2009.
Need Not Greed: The Need not Greed campaign was launched in autumn: Cash-in-hand work is a survival mechanism for many people living in poverty. We are campaigning to end a reliance on cash-in-hand work and help people to make the transition into formal work, gradually coming off benefits.
Keep in touch on the Need not Greed Campaign Website
Publications: This year we launched a new series of Community Links publications the first two of our Social Change Series detailed our work on Regeneration and Child Poverty.These booklets are available for free download from our website.
Keep in touch: the series continues in the New Year.
Council on Social Action: We continue to support the work of the Council on Social Action, led by Community Links co-founder David Robinson. Part of our work this year was the publication of five papers reporting on the work of CoSA, including policy advice to government about the power of one-to-one working in “Side by Side“ available for free download.
Keep in touch at the Council for Social Action website.
Community Allowance: We were pleased to see that the latest DWP White Paper specifically references our idea of CREATE the Community Allowance; which enables community organisations to pay people to do work that strengthens their neighbourhood without it affecting any of their benefits. However we want this to be available for anyone on any benefit and we will keep pushing for this change in 2009. Download our proposals.
Keep in touch with developments at the CREATE website
Please contact us with your ideas about how we might work together in 2009.
With very best wishes for a happy holiday from the linksUK team:
Geraldine, Aaron, Laura, Spyro, Marlen, David, Radhika, Maeve, Zoraida, Matthew, Emma, Richard and all of the linksUK volunteers and interns.
Topics: Benefits, Child Poverty, Communication, Community Engagement, Informal Economy, Regeneration, Research, Welfare | No Comments »
‘Need not Greed’ campaign in the press
By Richard McKeever | December 16, 2008
Last weekend The Observer published an article about our Need Not Greed campaign. One of their reporters, Jon Robins, came to the Community Links building in Canning town to meet local people and discuss their attitudes towards work, money and debt.
The article reports on people who are struggling to bring up families and are forced to workfor cash-in-hand in the informal economy out of “Need not Greed“. We are campaigning to end a reliance on cash-in-hand work and help people to make the transition into formal work, gradually come off benefits and at the same time not be thrown further into poverty. Whist the issue is relevant throught the year, the extra pressure for expenditure on children at christmastime brings it into sharper focus.
You can read the full article on the Observer website and join in the debate by leaving a comment. You can read more on the campaign at www.needdnotgreed.org.uk or email Maeve McGoldrick.
Topics: Benefits, Child Poverty, Informal Economy, Welfare | No Comments »
Initial reaction to new DWP White Paper
By Aaron Barbour | December 10, 2008
The latest DWP White Paper Raising Expectations and Increasing Support: Reforming Welfare for the Future came out 30 minutes ago so I’m still trawling through all 201 pages. Really pleased to see that on page 92 our idea of piloting the Community Allowance is given the go ahead within the new Employment and Support Allowance (the new Incapacity Benefit). This is a step in the right direction. However we do want it to be available for anyone on any benefit, so will keep pushing for this.
Sad to see that the government has not made mention of cash-in-hand or informal paid work. With so much talk of recession in the White Paper to ignore the obvious reality that more people will be pushed into supporting their families by turning to cash-in-hand work is a missed opportunity. Visit our ‘Need Not Greed’ Campaign website to find out more.
And finally just a thought about the jobs that people are going to have to move into. this doesn’t quiet tally with the daily reports of thousands being made redundant. What are the government’s suggestions on this within the White Paper and beyond? I will have to read on to find out… I hope. There will be more thoughts and comments from us over the next couple of days, but what’s your reaction in the meantime? Leave a comment below.
Topics: Benefits, Child Poverty, Communication, Informal Economy, Research, Welfare | 1 Comment »
Read all about it: benefits and welfare reform
By Aaron Barbour | December 9, 2008
There is a lot in the news this week about the benefits system,
here are a few links to a selection of press articles:
‘Welfare for All’
www.compassonline.org.uk/campaigns/campaign.asp?n=3451#post
Social Security Advisory Committee’s response to the welfare reform green paper
www.ssac.org.uk/pdf/finalresponse.pdf
Britain’s Jobless: Who cares?
www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7736303.stm
Case study of multiple complex problems faced by “workless” families from the BBC website
www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7746174.stm
Comment about the Welfare-to-Work targets
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/02/welfare-employment-targets
Comment about welfare policy need to change in times of recession
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/02/welfare-policy
What have you read? Can you suggest any other interesting articles to add to the list?
Topics: Benefits, Child Poverty, Communication, Informal Economy, Welfare | 4 Comments »
Reflections on the Queen’s Speech
By Aaron Barbour | December 3, 2008
Today’s Queens Speech (watch bits of it above) on behalf of her government includes a Welfare Reform Bill: aimed at creating “incentives” for people returning to work and “consequences” for those who do not. It promises the use of more “sanctions” against people on benefits who don’t ‘play by the rules’. The direction of travel is plainly wrong, and that’s why we’ve joined Compass and a host of Trade Unions, poverty campaigning organisations, academics and practioners to urge the government to think about ‘Welfare for All’ in the light of the very different and difficult economic times that we are now living in, from when these welfare reform ideas were developed over a year ago.
There is a perverse focus on benefit fraud in this Queen’s Speech. Benefit Fraud represents 0.7% (£800m) of the total benefits budget. Any business with so little fraud would be very proud of these figures. Why then is the government becoming increasingly obsessed with ‘toughening up’ and ‘cracking down’ on benefit fraud? Could the answer be votes? Let’s put this figure into perspective. Official error is £1.9bn (1.4%); and unclaimed benefits and tax credits totals £9.5 BILLION (7.5%).
The increasingly heavy handed approach of ‘one strike and your out’, the use of lie detectors (or voice risk analysis technology), increasing use of sanctions and benefit withdrawal all in a time of increasing need and economic recession, is wrong. If the system worked properly then people would be on benefits for the shortest period of time with the maximum dignity. Rather than today where are trapped on benefits, yes the benefits trap is alive and kicking; where you are actively discentivised from taking a job; where you are not supported once you are in-work, even though that this is a proven method of getting people off benefits, back to work and then to stay in employment over the long term; where anyone on benefits is tarred with the same brush (through DWP advertising - see previous blog posts) of being a benefit thief, a scrounger, ’undeserving’ of what is a legal entitlement.
You could compare this to a boss. Who likes a boss that is mean, doesn’t pay you properly, doesn’t trust you, and regularly harasses you? Or do you prefer a boss who is supportive, encouraging, works to get the best out of you? I know which one I prefer having experienced both sorts.
Put yourself into the shoes of someone who’s recently been made redundant and having to sign on. There are hundreds of thousands who this has happened to already and many more to come - back to 3million unemployed by next year possibly. I have real concerns that government is ignoring the core issues of people living in poverty and pressurising jobless people to find work that simply doesn’t exist given the limited number of jobs available. The situation for the long-term unemployed is likely to worsen as more qualified recently redundant people flood the market. “The analogy of the flower shop rings true - employers will pick the freshest flowers and the others will get more and more wilted.”
So come on government be more positive… and be fair. Focus your efforts on the 99% who are honest, hard working people that want to get back into work and not the 0.7% who are ripping-off the system.
Topics: Benefits, Informal Economy, Welfare | 1 Comment »
The Queens Speech: Welfare and benefit cheats
By Maeve McGoldrick | December 3, 2008
Today the Queen’s speech will consist of support for people and small businesses through the economic recession. The idea is that when times are tough for people, government plans to push for fairness. As for welfare reform this will consist of a greater crackdown on benefit cheats. Measures such as a ‘one strike and you are out’ system to deter benefit recipients from cheating. Pilots that use voice recordings to detect liars will be rolled out across the country.
In the Guardian the article is titled : PM to return to New Labour’s so-called ‘respect agenda’ with proposal that fraudulent claimants lose access to benefits for a month.
The Queens Speech offers support to small businesses yet toughens up on benefit recipients, people who are struggling to survive as benefit levels have not risen with the food prices or monthly bills. There is very little respect or fairness on the agenda for benefit recipients. In fact after reading the Guardians article governments proposals for welfare reform are beginning to sound a bit like a witch hunt, turning local communities against people who have to work cash-in-hand a couple of hours a week because benefits are so low they are keeping families living in poverty.
Proposals that create headlines such as benefit cheats are seriously worrying as they immediately incriminate every person on benefits. Proposals ignore the fact that many people are working cash-in-hand and claiming out of need, not greed. Either we reform the welfare system to enable people to work legally or increase the levels of benefits. Government needs to ask why people are claiming and working before they enforce greater sanctions, as recommended by Paul Gregg. In tough financial times the government should be looking at ways of developing informal work and entrepreneurial skills to enable formal self employment and local enterprises to grow: to create social mobility and ‘unlock talent’
As for fairness and respect, people living in poverty and on benefits receive neither, the current benefit system traps people on benefits and in informal work. The term ‘benefit cheats’ is so over used in recent months that it is becoming difficult to know what it means; is it people working and claiming or simply people on benefits and therefore cheating the rest of society in these hard times? If the latter is the case then who is to decide who is cheating? As the levels of unemployment, the numbers of benefit rcipients and the cost of bills rise in the coming months will the levels of benefit fraud also rise? Surely we need a complete modernisation of the welfare system to serve its purpose in modern day society - to support people in times of crisis, as a temporary measure with the maximum amount of dignity. The welfare system should be at its best now - not being demolished. The Need NOT Greed campaign is is supporting the Welfare reform campaign lead by Compass.
Topics: Benefits, Child Poverty, Community Engagement, Informal Economy, Innovation, Welfare | No Comments »
Obituary - The Environment Trust (1979 - 2008)
By Aaron Barbour | December 2, 2008
The Environment Trust has sadly been ‘credit crunched’ at the tender age of 29 years old. An east London institution since 1979, this development trust and charity was responsible for the £25m redevelopment of Mile End Park in Tower Hamlets. It ran a number of successful community development projects. It worked closely with local east end schools to develop environmental education and green school grounds. And it also helped to set up a number of social enterprises including Fair Finance (whom Community Links helped to establish), Tower Hamlets Community Recycling and the Turks Head Company.
A hole has been left in the east end by the demise of the Environment Trust. RIP.
Topics: Community Engagement, Innovation, Regeneration | No Comments »
Congratulations Kevin
By Aaron Barbour | December 1, 2008
Community Links Co-Founder and Senior Advisor, Kevin Jenkins has been named as the overall winner of the national Beacon Fellowship Awards 2008. He also won the ‘Community Builder‘ award, for his contribution and work with children and young people of Newham over the last 30 years.
Kevin is just one of six recipients of the 2008 Beacon Prize and joins the ranks of previous Beacon winners such as Sir Bob Geldof and Jamie Oliver who have been recognised for their charitable work through what has become known as the ‘Nobel Prize of the charity world’. Kevin received his award at a Prize Ceremony on 18th November, held at the end of day two of our very own Chain Reaction event on London’s South Bank. This really is a fantastic achievement for Kevin - there is stiff competition for this well deserved prize!
Photo: Rebecca Marshall www.rebecca.marshall.com
View Video of Kevin Jenkins at Beacon Website
Read the Beacon Fellowship Press Release
Topics: Inspiration, Leadership | No Comments »
Pre Budget Report: spend or save?
By Maeve McGoldrick | November 25, 2008
I attended the briefing on the Pre Budget Report, given this afternoon by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Two major factors arose from the cut in VAT from 17.5% to 15%, which will cost £12.4 billion. Firstly this cut will give people immediate money, but there is a question mark over what to do with this money - save it for future tax rises? If the future tax rises will even affect those who choose to save? Will government combine tax rises with a cut in public spending?
Secondly the price drop in 2009 is aimed at increasing spending. VAT is an expenditure tax and will only benefit those who spend. This begs the question of who will spend and who will save? Is it better to spend when prices are cheaper or to save for the future when taxes will rise? All complicated and full of question marks and assumptions.
Speaking to a journalist from The Times as we entered we got talking about the unknown and in these uncertain times neither party could produce a pre budget report without any question marks. Goverment has been radical in its borrowing and is pinning a lot of hope on public spending to get the economy growing again. In a Conservative blog entry pre the Pre Budget Report ‘This is how to cut VAT’ Richard Hyslop calls for a more targeted but larger percentage cut in the VAT that is imposed on building repair and maintenance work. He highlights examples from other countries indicating that we should be learning lessons from what works around us:
Los Angles’ approach to the informal economy is about providing help for the vulnerable worker and a greater crackdown on rogue employers. The director of economic recovery talks of better education and support to track the informal economy and reverse the trend.
A chief economist Jack Kyser said “We’d estimate the underground economy would be very, very significant, it represents a huge entrepreneurial (economy), but lots of tax revenue is being lost by local government at a time when they need all they can get.”
Yesterday Lord Myners, The Parliamentary Secretary, HM Treasury gave a written answer about reviewing taxes highlighting “the current size of the informal economy and its potential for reduction.”
Following the successes of other countries a package of benefits and tax changes could help to harness the informal economy which is estimated to be worth 12.3% of the UK GDP. With greater collaboration between different departments government could also be spending to generate a growth in the economy.
That’s what we are camapigning for at www.neednotgreed.org.uk.
Topics: Informal Economy, Welfare | No Comments »
Side by Side: one-to-one mentoring and befriending
By Richard McKeever | November 24, 2008
Chain Reaction saw the launch of a series of publications detailing the work of the Council on Social Action (CoSA) and suggesting policy recommendations for government. CoSA brings together innovators from every sector to generate ideas and initiatives through which government and other key stakeholders can catalyse, celebrate and develop social action.
One of these reports “Side by Side” sets out CoSA’s work on one-to-one working, this is defined as: “…mentoring and befriending and all kinds of transformative relationships where knowledge and experience are shared with another person who is not a family member or close friend”. The full report is available as a PDF download from the CoSA website.
In the Chain Reaction session entitled “Personalising Social Change” representatives of organisations cited as case studies in the report shared experiences and insights. One of our volunteer Social Reporters, Clare White, posted her notes on the session on the event website and interviewed Richard Hardie of UBS about his part in the report.
For me one of the most powerful parts of this session was the remarkable work of St Giles Trust who are mentoring and befriending “at the sharp end” with ex-offenders and those soon to released from prison. The power of this work was represented in a most compelling way by Erbay Safer one of St Giles Peer Mentors who told his story using VideBoo technology from BestBefore Media.
One-to-one was a theme picked up in several conversations across the event. Gracia McGrath Chief Executive of Chance UK and Suzy Messenger CEO of 1-2-1 Befriending also used the VideoBoo system to appeal to others who are keen to connect, collaborate and commit to working together on a one-to-one approach.
Topics: Communication, Innovation, Inspiration, Volunteering | 1 Comment »
