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Archive for December, 2009

A Year of Social Change

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

As we reach the end of 2009 the national team at Community Links have been reflecting on the last year … and begining to plan for 2010.

In 2009 Community Links has seen more and more people come through our doors, as people struggle and demand for our services increased. In Newham Community Links  carried on running much needed local services -  youth clubs, the New Deal, our own school, provided advice and support to families struggling with debt and welfare, and much more. And we’ve continued to share our learning nationally, achieving considerable success.

Projects that our national team have worked on this year include
The Parliamentary launch of our Need NOT Greed Campaign in February, to the National Talent Bank in June, Chain Reaction in November,  including the launch of three more Council on Social Action reports and much else besides.

We have produced a short report on our activities: you can read it here.

To all those with whom we’ve worked, a warm thank you. To those with whom we haven’t, how about next year? The election, unprecedented regeneration, the European Year Against Poverty all provide us with enormous opportunities for social change. We look forward to seizing that moment with you.

Wishing you a peaceful Christmas and a joyful New Year
The Community Links national team.

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Posted in Benefits, Child Poverty, Communication, Council on Social Action, Informal Economy, Innovation | No Comments »

The Better Off in Work credit and the Hidden Economy Advisory Group

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

Edit: We only just noticed,  hidden away at the bottom of this page, the introduction of the ‘Hidden Economy Advisory Group’ in today’s Pre-budget report. This is fantastic news, it’s great that government is recognising the importance of those working informally, and looking at positive steps to include them in the formal economy. A major success for our Need Not Greed campaign. We’ll keep you up to date with how it develops.

The report also saw the  nationwide rollout of the Better Off in Work credit, which tries to make sure people earn more in work than on benefits and has been piloting for the last year in Yorkshire. Our Need not Greed campaign highlights the lack of incentives for many people moving off benefits into work, so this is interesting news, welcomed by the our coalition partners the TUC amongst others. It shows government recognises some of these barriers, but we don’t believe it’s the right solution.

The scheme is aimed at people moving off benefits into full-time but low-paid work. Often these people actually end up worse off, as they lose not just one but several benefits all at once. This is a powerful incentive not to get a job. The scheme ensures people are atleast £40 better off per week in their job than they would have been on benefits, by topping up their income. It lasts 26 weeks, and is administered by the jobcentre.

There are several problems. Firstly, it’s actually a top-up on a top-up, since tax credits are supposed to ensure that work pays. It’s adding even more complexity to a system that desperately needs to be simplified, and for that reason will probably not be accessed by many of those entitled to it, who will never find out about it.

Secondly, it ignores the fact that people can often only access part-time jobs from the jobcentre – over a third of jobcentre vacancies are temporary and part time. These part-time jobs can be a vital step back into work, but the credit does nothing to improve incentives for people moving into them.

And thirdly it doesn’t address the fundamental problem of low pay. Half of poor children live in families where someone works, despite tax credits. A living wage would ensure people don’t have to rely on a top-up to get by.

The scheme has just finished a year-long pilot in Yorkshire and Humberside, and it would be fascinating to see the evaluation results. If anyone knows where they are, do let me know.

Last week we called for people on Jobseekers Allowance to be allowed to earn up to £50 a week before it affected their benefit. Our experience shows this would act as a good incentive for people to take the first step back into work. It was good to see the chancellor recognising the often-perverse incentives facing those getting a job, but the Better off in Work credit probably isn’t the right solution.

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Posted in Benefits, Informal Economy, Welfare, employment | 2 Comments »

The King’s new clothes are in tatters

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

For people on low incomes, the boom years of the noughties ended much earlier than many thought. According to a report released last week by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation poverty has been on the rise since 2004.

Poverty, unemployment and repossessions started rising when the property market was still booming and long before queues started appearing outside Northern Rock and banks went into freefall.

Poverty is now back at levels it was in 2000 and two million children are in low-income, working households – the highest figure since records began. One in eight people of working age want but lack a job; the highest figure since 1997. Repossessions are six times the level of 2004 and are now back at the level they were in 1994.

So the New Labour miracle – bringing an end to the cycle of boom and bust – was even more shallow and short lived than many of the most sceptical imagined. If the king’s new clothes were looking a bit threadbare before last week, they are in tatters now.

In this video Tom MacInnes, senior researcher at the New Policy Institute and one of the report authors, explains a bit more about it.

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Posted in General, Housing, News | 1 Comment »

Ensuring families receive everything they’re entitled to

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

Last week I ran a seminar at 4Children’s conference ‘Child Poverty 10 years on’. The theme of the event was joining things up – providing advice and support in an integrated way. I was asked to focus on how we can ensure that people get the financial support they need to flourish.

As Community Links’ Family Support worker, I’m very familiar with the problems faced by many people in Newham. As I pointed out (you can download my slides here), in one Newham ward, 78% of children live in low income households.

I know just how important financial support can be for a family struggling to get by. For example, someone moving off benefits into low paid work needs the extra support provided by tax credits to ensure work pays. It is estimated that 400,000 children live in poverty because their families are not claiming all the benefits and tax credits they’re entitled to.

It’s in the interests of the Council, other local residents, and the individuals themselves if they know about and access the support they’re entitled to. Communities will be less deprived, with more local investment and more prosperous citizens. Councils will not have to deal with bigger problems further down the line, and families will be able to move on and flourish on the back of a secure financial situation.

That’s why benefit checks and employment advice should be incorporated into other processes. For example, when a family living in poverty is struggling to make the rent, that should trigger an automatic benefits assessment to ensure they’re getting everything they’re entitled to. The alternative, eviction, ends up costing the council and their community more, as well as having a huge impact on the family involved.

There are some excellent examples where this approach to benefits already happens: in Newham the Mayor’s Employment Project combines back-to-work support with benefit advice, ensuring jobseekers are claiming everything they’re entitled to as they’re looking and after they’ve moved into work. There are also examples in other London boroughs and in other local authorities – people from Islington, Haringey & Newcastle all gave examples of work in their areas.

The discussion after the presentation concentrated on the challenge we practitioners face giving the best possible services to families in our communities, working within the current system but thinking creatively about how we reach people.

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Posted in Child Poverty, News | No Comments »

Understanding your local area, hidden warts and all

Monday, December 7th, 2009

A couple of weeks ago the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill was given royal assent, so becoming law. It does two things: firstly it aims to create more opportunities for local people to get involved in decision making; and secondly it gives local authorities a greater role in economic development, including requiring them to assess economic conditions in their area, produce a regional strategy in conjunction with the Regional Development Agency, and cooperate with other councils.

The requirement to assess local economic conditions has been of particular interest to Community Links, because we have carried out research into the informal economy in several London boroughs over the last few years and have increasingly realised its importance to local economies. We estimate up to 20% of people have worked informally, and the sector as a whole could be worth as much as 12% of GDP, or £120bn a year. We decided it was such a crucial yet under recognised issue that we set up our Need not Greed campaign to raise awareness.

So does this new act make it obligatory for Local Authorities to understand and include their local informal economy in their assessments and strategies? Well sort of. The legislation allows for local Councils to determine what they want to assess. It’s only the guidelines that suggest they think about all aspects of their local economy, including the informal economy. This is a shame, so just to highlight how important we think it is here’s an example.

In 2006 Haringey Council’s economic regeneration unit knew there was a gap in their knowledge. They knew people in Haringey must work cash-in-hand, because they’d come across individual cases from time to time. But they had no idea who was doing it, why, or how many, or how it impacted on the department’s work, and therefore it was barely considered in their plans. They asked Community Links to do some research, knowing that we’d done very similar research before, in other boroughs.

We quickly built up links with the Selby Trust, a well-respected local community organisation in Tottenham, who coordinated all the interviews. In talking to 2,600 people in Haringey we found that informal paid work was a significant part of the local economy, mostly in areas like catering, cleaning or childcare. The council used our detailed report to build the informal economy into economic regeneration strategies and activities so they better reflected the reality of life for people in the borough.

To find out what’s really going on in your area see the Community Links website or contact Aaron Barbour on 020 7473 9666 (dd) and aaron.barbour@community-links.org

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Posted in Informal Economy, Research | No Comments »

£5 earnings cap traps people on benefits

Friday, December 4th, 2009

Today saw the launch of our Need Not Greed campaign’s demand for the earnings limit on Jobseekers Allowance to go up from £5 to £50. It was discussed on the Today Programme (mp3), and Nicola Smith of the TUC gave a great interview on BBC Radio 5 Breakfast (mp3).

People on JSA face a £5 cap (or ‘earnings disregard’) on the amount they can keep each week when they get any kind of paid work. Above this amount, benefits are deducted at the same rate as earnings, which means claimants who take on part time or occasional work are often little better off.

Our experience shows that this low cap on earnings often removes the incentive to take the first step back into work and can push people into illegal cash-in-hand jobs.

The £5 cap was set in 1988 and has never been raised. We argue that raising it to £50 a week would immediately allow people on JSA an easier route back into work. It would allow them to take on a few hours of temporary work to build up experience, and give people more flexibility when moving off benefits.

At the moment, many people getting these kinds of jobs do not tell the jobcentre, knowing that doing so would jeopardise their income. In doing so however, they’re breaking the law.

However, increasing the Earnings Disregard alone is not enough. We’re asking for this now as a measure which could be quickly implemented and make a large difference to the lives of people trying to move off JSA. In the end nothing but a complete overhaul of the benefits system would really allow people to make that smooth transistion off benefits and into work.

To find out more, you can download a briefing paper about the campaign or visit the Need NOT Greed website.

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Posted in Benefits, Informal Economy, News, Welfare | 1 Comment »

The Council on Social Action: Twelve Snapshots

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

The Council on Social Action was set up by the Prime Minister in 2007.  It brought together innovators from every sector to generate ideas and initiatives through which government and other key stakeholders can catalyse, develop and celebrate social action. 

 

The Council considered “social action” to include the wide range of ways in which individuals, communities, organisations and businesses can seek through their choices, actions and commitments to address the social issues they care about.

The Council on Social Action first met in December 2007, and yesterday the last meeting of the Council took place, over the short life of CoSA we have discussed many issues and suggested several new ideas in a brief overview of just some of our work here are four topics from our agenda and, two years later,  twelve outcomes.

At the first meeting  the PM  challenged us to imagine a society where we might all have a one-to-one relationship, someone to turn to,  through out our childhood years and thereafter in times of crisis or transition….

Our report on this subject in November 2008 made 44 recommendations. We have subsequently pursued them all;  31 are now either completed or underway.  We made 11 more last month, four are underway already.

To further develop  the ideas on the ground two “Leading Community” pilots will begin work, with independent funding, in spring 2010

And “extra time funding” has been secured from our three corporate partners to chase through and further develop all our one-to-one recommendations for another 12 months

At the first meeting we considered the challenge of sustainable funding……

A pilot for the “sustainable law centre” built around the one-to-one relationship between client and adviser is now being developed in south London by the Ministry of Justice and a group of  independent trusts and city law firms.

Much work on developing the Social Impact Bond is close to generating the first pilots. It has taken a lot of effort, several partners and a long time but could transform the funding of preventative work and early intervention.

And it has led to further work on developing and sharing other alternative funding models and to the new “Alternative Funding” ning.

At the first meeting we talked about bringing together people, ideas and opportunities………

More than 1200 people from 20 countries have attended the first two Chain Reactions. Much larger numbers are connecting, collaborating and committing to new ideas for social action in the thriving Chain Reaction online community.

The Catalyst community awards for social technology have unearthed and profiled hundreds of inspiring stories demonstrating the power of technology for catalysing social action.

We have developed the idea of a National Talent Bank to promote and support employee volunteering amongst those with more time to share as a consequence of recession

And the Big Lunch, a twinkle in Tim Smit’s eye at that first meeting was served at more than 8,000 street parties last July.

And at the first meeting we discussed the importance of not just doing things but also generating new thinking  and long term structural change……..

One-to-one is now a “common core skill” in the cross government children’s workforce training strategy, considered in procurement and a featured priority for all new policy in the DCSF “Making Policy” guides and tools.

And our eleven publications have included many more examples of the advice we have offered and the projects we have led. They have covered new ground on “willing citizens”, on “collaborative commitments”, and on the implications of our one to one learning for the reform of public services. Our two commentaries have reflected on what we’ve learnt through out the process as well as on the outcomes.

For further more information on these projects and all our other work see www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/social_action.aspx

David Robinson is Vice-Chair of the Council on Social Action and Co-Founder of Community Links.

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Posted in Communication, Council on Social Action, Innovation, Inspiration, Leadership, News | No Comments »

Personalised service and Knight’s digital vision

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

community Links Advice workerPersonalised service = zero human interaction. An online welfare system; modern, instant and resistant to human frustration or despair: the computer says no.  I just read today’s announcements by Jim Knight MP, the employment minister about improving the Jobcentre’s service. If you have a lack of computer skills you will get a technologies budget to get internet access at home and training in computer skills. He also went on to say that the Jobcentre Plus measures it success in the number of people get gets into a sustainable job.

Last week a group of local volunteers got together with local unemployed people from Canning Town as part of the Need NOT Greed campaigning groups. One guy had been unemployed since the 80’s and told us how he struggled to apply for jobs as the Jobcentre adverts often only provide emails, not phone numbers to call.

 Today I spoke to a local grassroots campaigner who needed £20 to pay his agreed debt payments or the bailiffs would be round tomorrow, eviction just in time for Christmas. He was looking for a cash-in-hand job to earn the emergency £20, and had one lined up but the rain meant it had been called off. The weather man tells us the rain isn’t likely to look any better over the coming months. Neither is his situation.

On Monday I heard a rumour that there would be an announcement from Jim Knight by the end of this week about improving the service and efficiency at the Jobcentre. Immediately some recent reports sprung to mind Working Alongside, produced with ATD and both  People of Influence and Time Well Spent from the Council on Social Action. I emailed Jim Knight’s private office about the announcement and included Working Alongside to contribute some recommendations from individuals who had experienced the service themselves. I got no response. Frustrated I picked up the phone to call, I was told the appropriate person would call back. In despair I read the announcements this morning.

Online activity is great; we use it regularly at Community Links as part of our Need NOT Greed campaign and Chain Reaction social network. It is great to share government and grassroots activists voices, to link people up and to support people. However accessing benefits online and applying for jobs online will not deal with the multiple complex problems that the most vulnerable face, like the two people I met just over the past week.

Bringing in a move like this is important, so that the 21% of  UK adults who have never used the internet are not even more excluded in 10 years time. However “personalised” online efficiency is not the same as “humanised” one-to-one support. Consider Dell, I have been requiring their services recently because of a laptop problem that I have no understanding of. Most of us have experienced something similar. When dealing with new, complex issues that we have no, or very limited experience of, the first thing people want is someone to speak with directly, in a language they understand and to have confidence in their competency. If I had to entirely fix my own computer, by myself online – honestly I probably wouldn’t do it. On the other hand I’d prefer to search for employment on line. The welfare system is catering for incredibly complex needs and, yes, government actions on digital inclusion are excellent, but it should not mean sacrificing the vital one-to-one support that is needed and gives results.

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Posted in Benefits, Communication, Council on Social Action, General, Informal Economy, Voices from the Ground Up, Welfare, debt, employment | No Comments »

End Child Poverty 4 in 10 Campaign

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Community Links is a member of the End Child Poverty coalition and keen supporter of the campaign aims.

Recently children and staff from Community Links’ Arc in the Park open access childcare project worked with filmmakers from ECP to make a film for the London 4 in 10 campaign, raising awareness of the log lasting impact on young Londoners growing up in poverty.

The film is launched today by Liz Thorne of ECP at a conference event in Stratford Town Hall: Into 2010 The European Year Against Poverty. You can see the film below:

A second film focussing on the campaign in Newham is also available to view online.

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Posted in Child Poverty, Voices from the Ground Up, Welfare, employment | 2 Comments »

A partnership of equals to tackle Child Poverty

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Speaking at the Conference Into 2010 The European Year Against Poverty Financial Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms MP called on campaigners, community organisations and faith groups to join local and national government in a “partnership of equals” to end child poverty over the next 10 years.

He reaffirmed the government’s commitment to end child poverty by 2020 and outlined the significant progress that has been made over the last decade but he accepted that much more needed to be done if the target is to be reached.

The focus on poverty across Eurpoe offered by the European Year Against Poverty will provide an opportunity to develop existing work both in government and at the grass roots level which will help to build a movement to really push on and meet the target Stephen Timms said.

Speaking at the same event Jean Lambert MEP was perhaps less positive about the likliehood of real progress through legislation – but again talked about the progress that can be made through community based campaigns and projects such as London Citizens. She spoke about the need for a welfare benefit sytem to reflect the real situation experienced by communities experiencing unemployment and the challenges of the global recession. Significantly she called for strutural causes of inequality to be considered at the European level – not just responding to the effects.

A greater equality of income was an emerging theme in the discussion and will be something we will be considering in further blog posts over the coming months.

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Posted in Child Poverty, Community Engagement, News, employment | No Comments »