Norfolk charities warning over Household Support Fund end
Published on 22 February 2024 01:23 PM
Dan Skipper our CEO joined Norfolk Community Advice Network (NCAN) leaders signing a letter this week (19/02/24) to the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, The Secretary of State for The Department for Work and Pensions, Mel Stride, and Norfolk's MPs urging them to continue the Household Support Fund, which has been available since COVID to help people struggling with living essentials.
Although the scheme does not tackle the underlying issues that push people into hardship, it is a lifeline that reduces the risk of ill health, hospitalisation, social care, and avoidable mortality. The letter highlights how this is still needed, with charities seeing 30%~40% rises in referrals over the last two years, and local improvements for levelling up yet to take impact.
Norwich is in the third highest quartile for the Cost-of-Living Vulnerability Index, which is a sum of poverty-based vulnerability and work-based vulnerability indicators. A higher score indicates an area's relative risk of more people being pulled into poverty, and the relative risk of those who were already hard up being pushed into destitution. Norwich scored 978, well above the 749 average.
Dan said “With significant national and local strategies around levelling up, tackling health inequalities and moving to prevention, this decision does not seem logical, especially with no other clarity of plans coming through. Without support, vulnerable residents will become unwell and possibly end up with life-threatening conditions that will put them at the door of health and social care. There will be little saved in view of tax-payer costs, in-fact, it’s going to be more expensive and impactful to our residents, particularly older people.”
You can listen to interviews at 7.05am and 8.05am from Age UK Norwich and the CEO of Norfolk Community Law Service.
Chris Goreham - Anthony Isaacs sits in (22/02/2024) - BBC Sounds