Islington Labour councillors have backed calls for vital emergency support for local people to be protected and have called for the Tory Government to give new funding to councils to provide Local Welfare Assistance.
At Islington Council’s Full Council Meeting on 27th June, Cllr Andy Hull and Cllr Angela Picknell brought a motion in support of The Children’s Society ‘Strengthening the Safety Net’ campaign. The campaign seeks to draw attention to the impact of Tory Government cuts on the provision of vital emergency support for people at crisis point.
The support system, known as Local Welfare Assistance, acts as a lifeline and a safety net for some of the most vulnerable in society.
However, in 2013, the Tory Government – backed-up by the Lib Dems in the Coalition – slashed the budget for providing people with emergency financial assistance and devolved responsibility to local councils.
At the time, Cllr Andy Hull set up and ran a national ‘Keep the Safety Net’ campaign to oppose this move, which successfully retained around £75m of funding nationally for one-year, before that too was removed. In 2015/16, the remaining ring-fenced funding for this was removed completely and councils now have to fund it from their core funding, which has also been cut massively.
Research by The Children’s Society has shown that, since 2013, the number of people receiving crisis support nationally has fallen by 75%, and 1 in 7 councils have lost their Local Welfare Assistance Schemes entirely.
However, Islington Council, under Islington Labour’s leadership, is one of only two local councils in the country to have actually increased the amount it spends on this vital support between 2013/14 and 2018/19, despite facing cuts to its core central government funding of 70% since 2010.
In Islington, the Local Welfare Assistance Scheme is part of the Islington Resident Support Scheme.
Cllr Andy Hull, Islington Labour’s Executive Member for Finance, Performance and Community Safety, said:
“Islington’s Resident Support Scheme provides vital financial support to around 5,000 local people each year, including for essentials like food for their kids, heat for their homes and essential furniture, such as a bed to sleep on.
“Sadly, many local people find themselves in desperate need of this lifeline. That’s why I am really proud that Islington Council has increased its budget for providing local welfare support in the last five years – one of only two local authorities in the country to do so.
“We will always maintain this offer of crisis support, but we need the Government to urgently allocate new funding for local authorities to ensure that, across the country, councils are able to offer crucial help to people when they need it most.”
Cllr Hull and Cllr Picknell have now written to the Chancellor to call for the upcoming Spending Review to provide new funding for Local Welfare Assistance, and to protect that funding for the years ahead.