Rising living costs, particularly energy bills, are putting more pressure on low-income families and this is set to intensify as the energy price cap is lifted in April. Many of these households, having recently been hit by the removal of the £20 uplift to Universal Credit, were struggling to get by anyway so their financial outlook for 2022 looks bleak.
The inadequacy of the welfare system is highlighted by research showing that the basic rate of benefits is at its lowest for thirty years.
Against this backdrop we look at work that local authorities are doing with their data to tackle poverty in this webinar.
Listen back to hear
- The impact of the pandemic and rising living costs on indebtedness
- A view from the frontline with Margaret Gallagher and Darrell de Souza, Haringey Council
- How you can make a difference
With guest speakers Margaret Gallagher and Darrell De Souza, Haringey Council
View the webinar
There's the difficulty of getting the money to the places where it's needed the most. Households need to to know to claim. Research shows that only one out of five households that need a Discretionary Housing Payment actually receive one. This suggests that these discretionary support measures are highly underclaimed.
There's nothing more satisfying than knowing that we've identified an issue and can tell the story of what we've done to help. Recently, the LIFT platform identified that we have 5,187 households estimated to be in food poverty.