We offer an advice service at Community Links, where last year we saw over 17,000 people to sort out welfare benefits, debt and housing issues. One of our principle funders is the Legal Service Commission who requires us to assess the eligibility of those seeking advice: i.e. their income has to be below a certain amount.
People have to prove this by bringing in a current (this month’s) bank statement for example, and here lies the difficulty. We are having to turn people away because they don’t have correct, up-to-date paper work. On one day a few weeks back, six out of the 15 people (40%) who came to our open door advice service didn’t have the right paperwork.
So for example, one middle-aged man came to our open-door advice service last month with his Post Office Card Account statement, which is only produced every three months (so doesn’t count as proof of income because it’s too old, even though he receives his benefits weekly from JobCentre Plus) He also had a letter from the Jobcentre saying they were deducing money from his account (but this doesn’t count, as it’s not a proof of income, even though it shows money being withdrawn!). So we had to send him off to his nearest Jobcentre in Stratford to get a ‘proof of award’ letter (that would qualify as proof of income). These can take 10-15 days to come through (what does he do in the meantime?), and he’d have to send what precious little money he does have on travel expenses.
Sue, one of our receptionists, gave me another example of how vulnerable and in need some people are:
“On Fridays we are closed for advice [our advice service is open Monday - Thursday, with Friday kept free for advisers to follow-up casework] but we usually have members of the public coming into the building asking when the next session will be. Sometimes they are desperate and the weekend can be a long time to wait, to get their problems resolved.
One Friday during the snowy weather in February someone, let’s call him Jack, came in for advice, and was very anxious that he had to wait till Monday to be seen. He had been suffering from depression, was very down. He had applied for benefits but had no money. We explained that we could help but he needed a letter of support from someone to qualify as his proof of income [to meet our funders' eligibility criteria].
Unfortunately, the snow came and on Monday and Tuesday the building and advice service was shut. When we opened again on Wednesday there was Jack in the queue. He’d turned up on both Monday and Tuesday in hope to be seen. Thankfully he had his ‘proof of income’ letter with him and he was seen by an adviser and his problem was resolved. We were even able to give him some food donated to us to tide him over. [Yes, we have a cupboard full of food that we regularly distribute - and this a couple of miles from the financial centre of the in the 4th largest economy in the world!]
I saw Jack when he was leaving and he shook me by the hand and thanked me for the help, which really the advice team should take credit for. But his whole manner was lifted; you could see the change in him.”
The question to pose is how do we help the most vulnerable fit into this bureaucracy? Or should we be asking: how does the bureaucracy change to meet the needs of those it’s trying to serve?
Let us know what you think?
The 
On May 16th 1968 Ivy Hodge went into the kitchen of her flat on the 17th floor of the Ronan Point tower block and struck a match to light the stove for her early morning cup of tea. The naked flame sparked a gas explosion, collapsing one whole corner of the building like a pack of cards.
“There are 66 words in the Lord’s Prayer; 42 laws of cricket; but housing benefit regulations runs to 967 pages, five parts, six schedules and 40 statutory instruments.”