By Steve Berwick
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.
