national work
Campaigns
Community Links has been running community-based projects and campaigns in east London for over 30 years.
Welfare Reform
We have been campaigning for changes to the benefits system for many years, so the introduction of Universal Credit presents a significant opportunity. We are lobbying hard to influence the detail of the changes, focusing on certain areas such as the proposed sanctions regime, the importance of helping people who have been working informally, and the social fund. See our blog for all our latest thoughts on welfare reform.
Recent publications and policy papers on welfare reform include:
- Response to 21st Century Welfare (PDF) (Word): September 2010
- Response to the DWP Select Commitee Enquiry into Universal Credit: December 2010
- Joint organisation briefing on the Welfare Reform Bill second reading: March 2011
- Oral evidence to the Welfare Reform Bill Scrutiny Committee: March 2011
The Work Programme
Community Links have been the most successful New Deal provider in London and the South-east for the last four years, and are now a subcontractor on the Work Programme. We have also been lobbying to influence the development of this new programme, to ensure organisations like us are not excluded from delivering, and to make sure it works as well as possible for the jobseekers we work with. See our blog for all our latest thoughts on the Work Programme.
Recent publications and submissions on the Work Programme include:
- The Work Programme - helping the hardest to reach: June 2010
- Response to the DWP Select Committee enquiry into the Work Programme: November 2010
- Oral evidence to the Department for Work and Pensions Select Committee: February 2011
Social welfare advice
Community Links has provided debt, benefit and housing advice services in Newham for 30 years, and now runs the only drop-in advice service in the borough. We saw 9,000 people for advice last year, but much of this work is under threat from government's proposed changes to legal aid. We have joined up with the Justice for All campaign to argue against these proposals, which we think will leave vulnerable people in places like Newham with nowhere to turn. Find out our latest thinking on advice on our blog.
Recent reports on legal aid and advice include:
- Cuts to legal aid for advice work - a Community Links briefing: December 2010
- Community Links briefing on welfare reform and legal aid: January 2011
- Community Links briefing on charities and legal aid: January 2011
- Response to the Justice Select Committee enquiry into legal aid: January 2011
- Response to Proposals for the Reform of Legal Aid in England and Wales: February 2011
To find out opening times and locations for our advice service please see the advice pages on this site.
Jobcentre Plus
We are developing a campaign on the Jobcentre Plus, which grew out of our work on the European Year Against Poverty in 2010. It will aim to influence the development of the Jobcentre while Universal Credit and the Work Programme are introduced. We began our lobbying effort when a group of Jobseekers from around the UK met Chris Grayling in January 2011.
Recent publications on the Jobcentre include:
- Briefing for Chris Grayling MP on suggested reforms to Jobcentre Plus: January 2011
- Evidence Paper 17. Caught in the Middle: Jobcentre Plus’ response to cash-in-hand work in east London: January 2011
We are also members of several national campaigns led by other organisations.
These include
- The Campaign to End Child Poverty
- The Fair Work Coalition - campaigning for fairness at work for those in low-paid and precarious jobs.
- The Fair Welfare Campaign - calling for reform of the benefits and tax credits system
- The European Anti Poverty Network minimum income campaign
- The Justice for All Campaign - campaigning on the importance of advice work