A budget for the poor

With the budget this week there are many of us in the advice sector who are hoping that the Government will act boldly to do two things. Firstly reverse the dreadful tide of growing inequality by taking concrete steps to help the poorest in our society by putting more money in the pockets of the poorest families. As the Child Poverty Action Group points out this can be done best and quickest through the benefit and tax credit systems, and this is the fastest way to pump cash into the local economy to help business and protect jobs.

Many of us believe that it is the growing chasm between the richest and the poorest that cause so many of the growing social ills we see around us. Under New Labour there continues to be a yawning gap between those who are socially and financially excluded on the one hand and the obscenely rewarded risk takers who got us into this mess on the other. Lasa believes that concrete help in the budget for the poorest through a one off upgrade to benefit levels and a real effort to increase take up of benefits and tax credits would be a highly effective form of fiscal stimulus

Secondly the Government must reconsider its punitive and unworkable welfare reform bill. At a time of recession and rising unemployment, trying to bully people back into work when there are fewer jobs just doesn’t make sense.

Recession-proofing the advice sector

Not a day goes by without some gloomy news about the impact of the recession. Of course, we in the advice sector know full well about its impact, as we see people coming through our doors everyday who have been affected. But, what are we in the sector doing to recession-proof ourselves from the impact? How are we coping with the increased numbers coming through our doors day in, day out because they need help with their benefits or they’ve just their job or about to lose their home?

We know that there has been an increased demand for our services. In evidence gathered by LVSC as part of their campaign on the impact of the recession on the voluntary and community sector, organisations reported being on the verge of closing because they cannot bring in enough money to sustain their services, key staff leaving due to ‘burn out, implementing wage freezes for staff and increasing deficits as many funders do not recognise ‘full-cost recovery’.

But, how is this increased demand translating into additional funding? Are we collating evidence and providing it to funders to make the case for additional resources? Well, we should be, because we need to show them that our services are collapsing under the strain of the additional demand on our services.