Campaigning

Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper

We are very concerned about the government’s latest green paper which proposes some changes to welfare benefits that we believe would push more people into hardship. Here is a letter we have sent to local MPs addressing our concerns. We encourage you to do the same.

‘Wirral Foodbank are writing to you with serious concerns around the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper.

We are very concerned about the changes to disability payments and limited capability for work element of universal credit. We believe these changes will lead to more people needing to use the foodbank.

The research, conducted by YouGov on behalf of Trussell, reveals that almost one in five (19%) people receiving Universal Credit and disability benefits have used a food bank in the last month, while a shocking 77% have gone without essentials in the last six months. See here.  Furthermore, attached is some data from our foodbank+ project demonstrating that 74% of clients they support at Wirral Foodbank are disabled or have a long-term health condition. This demographic is already overrepresented at the foodbank and these proposed reforms only threatens to worsen this.

Here are some key parts of the green paper that we are concerned with and that we would like to take action on:

• First, making it harder to get Personal Independence Payments (PIP) – disability payments that have nothing to do with whether people can work or not. These payments are to help with the additional costs of being disabled.
• Second, cutting the additional payments some people on Universal Credit receive when they cannot work due to their disability or ill health. These will be frozen for people already receiving them and halved for everyone who applies for them from April 2026, and people under 22 will not be able to get these payments at all.
• Third, increasing job-seeking rules for disabled people; experience shows that when such changes are introduced, benefit payments can be stopped, and many people are pushed to food banks.

We know that people claiming universal credit are already on a budget deficit which pushes people towards foodbanks.  So why is the government now planning to reduce payments to those with health conditions and disabilities?  We understand that you want to help disabled people get into work, however, there is actually little evidence to suggest cutting benefits increases employment outcomes.

We urge you to speak to the chancellor to safeguard cuts to disability payments to protect some of your most vulnerable residents.  We ask you to ‘put people first’ as stated by a disabled foodbank user that we supported last week.’

 

 

Guarantee our Essentials

The basic rate of Universal Credit should at least cover the cost of essentials like food, household bills and travel, but it is not currently set according to any objective assessment of what people need.

This is only £91 a week for a single adult. That means there’s a significant shortfall between people’s living costs and their income, and it’s pushing people to food banks.

We are campaigning for the government to put in place a measure whereby Universal Credit is always aligned with the actual cost of living and to ensure that it never falls below that amount.

The majority of universal credit claimants are living in a negative budget and this is bringing a significant amount of people to the foodbank.

Numerous charities and community groups across the UK are also campaigning for an Essentials Guarantee for Universal Credit including Trussel, see more here Guarantee Our Essentials | Trussell

We have held a local campaigning event at Birkenhead townhall to raise awareness and engage with MPs about this campaign. We are working with Trussel to feed into their national campaigning efforts.

Write to your MP about this campaign! Use our Letter to MP template

More face to face advice and support on money matters

The design and delivery of the social security system is the biggest driver towards foodbank nationally and locally at our foodbanks on Wirral.

People have been telling us that they wish there had been more face-to-face advice and support with this and some were not even aware of what services were on offer.

We are campaigning for three objectives within our campaign:

1. To improve communications to improve access to advice
2. For more advisers to be available on a face to face basis in a community hub drop-in setting
3. More funding for advice services

What have we done so far?

We are working with local advice organisations to set up a community advice hub in Central Birkenhead where anyone can drop-in to receive advice and support on any money matters.

We have created a leaflet to advertise local money advice services. If you would like some copies please print from the pdf link or let us know! See leaflet hereLocal money advice leaflet

A large number of people had problems contacting the right person who could support them. Many feel like they have to jump through hoops, feel that people have no real understanding of the difficulties they are experiencing and have to contact multiple organizations and wait on busy phone lines.

To be on universal credit, or other forms of social security payments, you have to be organsied, need a phone and access to the internet. We speak to many people who are struggling to cope generally and some do not have access to the internet. People with complex needs and those who are vulnerable are asking for face to face support and we want to help them access that.

Imagine if your phone breaks, and you’re living off £91 per week, you have to go to a hospital appointment, afford food and perhaps look for a job. You cannot afford to fix your phone and therefore cannot organize appointments. This is why we need more local drop-ins based in warm welcoming open spaces that people will feel comfortable approaching. This is why we need to clearly inform people about how and where to access this support and to encourage people to ask for help.

We are currently exploring ways to improve access to advice and support, especially for those on universal credit. Let’s offer face to face drop-ins based in local community centres and let’s make sure people know about it and feel comfortable to ask for help. Let’s help people navigate this complicated system, let’s create a service designed for the people who need it most and ensure that they get the support that they need.

We are hoping this will open up access to other services across the region. Many of these services are working hard to tackle many of the other reasons that bring people to the foodbank. We want to ensure that everyone knows about what is out there and can access these services.

 

Articles:

We have created some more in depth articles about the work we have been doing. For those who would like to find out more, click on the links bellow to read:

Stories of Hardship and Hope – article

Guarantee Our Essentials – article

End of year summary 2024

 

 

Group Information:

We hold an open meeting once a month for anyone who is interested in getting involved to come along and learn more about what we are campaigning on, what are group is doing and to take your first step in getting involved in positive community action! Our meetings are a safe space for people who have lived experience of financial hardship. We meet every first Wednesday of the month from 11:00-13:00 at St James Centre, 334 Laird Street,  Birkenhead, CH41 7AL.

 

 

 

 

You can also contact our community organiser Beth Saunders on 07894919477 or [email protected]

 

 

 

 

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