Hackney Council notes that even before the coronavirus crisis, 4.2 million children (one in three) in the UK lived in poverty after taking into account housing costs.
In Hackney 36% of residents, and half of all children, currently live in poverty after housing costs have been taken into account, the 3rd highest rate in London.
At the same time, according to the Money Advice Service, Hackney is one of ten areas in England and Wales where more than 1 in 5 people have problem debt.
After years of frozen benefit levels, unemployment benefit is at its lowest since 1990, and, with many families subject to the benefit cap, the average benefit income of a family with children is £2,900 a year less than in 2011. After successive cuts, freezes and caps over the past decade, Local Housing Allowance, the benefit, designed to make renting in the private sector affordable for households on a low income, has left barely a handful of homes in Hackney affordable.
The human cost of this is all too real, with over 3,000 Hackney households, many with children, now living in temporary accommodation. This is compounded by the same inadequate benefit expected to cover temporary accommodation costs and to help families find a permanent home - leaving many with the hear tbreaking decision of whether to leave the borough that is their home, or face a potential stay of years in temporary accommodation.
As well as causing misery for thousands of families, welfare cuts have also failed in the Government’s goal of reducing welfare spend. Instead, the costs have been passed on to local authorities, through temporary accommodation costs, discretionary housing payments, or the wider support families pushed to breaking point need. Poverty and social insecurity costs the UK state £69 billion every year, with further identifiable knock on costs.
While the Government during this crisis has introduced limited measures to increase support through the benefits system, many of these are only temporary changes such as:
The Government’s rhetoric on the generosity of support put in place during Covid-19, with furlough and other initiatives, sits in stark contrast to the grim reality of the day-to-day level of critical benefits; a reality the Government has acknowledged with the temporary initiatives put in place above.
When the £20-a-week uplift ends, 700,000 people, including 300,000 children, will be left worse-off during a period of economic instability. A Child Poverty Action Group survey of low-income families found that 8 in 10 respondents reported a significant deterioration in their living standards due to a combination of falling income and rising expenditure as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hackney Council notes the additional support that the Council has invested in both prior to and during the pandemic to support low income families:
Hackney Council believes that social insecurity has been caused by the deliberate erosion and neglect of the welfare state over the past decade; it has become a prison that traps people in poverty, rather than the means of addressing inequality.
We also note that poverty itself discriminates. National figures show that 42% of households where the head of household is from a black ethnic group live in poverty after housing costs. The same figures show that households which include at least one disabled member are significantly more likely to live in poverty. Women are more likely to live in poverty, as are single parent households. We cannot aspire for a more inclusive and equal society, if we do not address the failings of today’s welfare state.
We note that Hackney Council, as a campaigning Council, has a strong track record of opposing welfare cuts presented as ‘reform’, including the bedroom tax, benefit cap and cuts to Local Housing Allowance, together with the freezing of benefits and cuts to funding for Council Tax Support.
Hackney Council further notes the existing commitment in the Hackney Labour 2018 manifesto to:
“Continue to challenge the Government and push for a return to proper national funding for benefits like Council Tax support and Housing Benefit, and we urge a future Labour Government to make them a priority.”
Hackney Council believes that to tackle poverty and encourage economic growth, the welfare system needs significant investment, and as a first step the temporary changes introduced by the Government should be made permanent immediately.
Hackney Council resolves to lobby the Government to end social insecurity in the Borough, with proper and full investment in the welfare and benefits system as set out below:
1. Local Housing Allowance rates should return to the 50th percentile market rent they were introduced at;
2. the benefit cap should be abolished;
3. the two-child limit should be abolished;
4. Child Benefit should be restored as a universal benefit;
5. the bedroom tax should be abolished;
6. Universal Credit should be reformed and fully funded;
7. Access to benefits should be based on need alone and not depend on a person’s country of origin ? the No Recourse to Public Funds condition should be scrapped.
Proposer: Cllr Clare Potter
Seconder: Cllr Sharon Patrick