Women's Views on News |
| Parliament’s homelessness report tragic Posted: 18 Aug 2016 02:50 PM PDT
‘A demonstrable increase in homelessness, driven by the cost and availability of housing, has pushed the problem to such a level that a renewed government-wide strategy is needed’, the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Select Committee has concluded in a report published recently. The Committee also found that despite some examples of great work, it is not acceptable that the level of support offered to vulnerable people varies significantly across the country. It points out that 'women who have been victims of domestic violence are particularly at risk of becoming homeless, and there is currently insufficient support to help them escape homelessness’. And there are particular challenges for homeless women, who are at a greater risk of sexual violence, prostitution or engaging in unhealthy relationships in order to access accommodation, the report said. Presenting evidence to the Committee, the Nia Project argued that women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness will often take almost any measure, including measures that increase their vulnerability to predatory and exploitative individuals, in order to avoid being street homeless. Women At The Well, a women-only drop-in centre in Kings Cross, explained that many of their clients report engaging in unwanted sexual liaisons to avoid rough sleeping and to ensure they secure accommodation each night. Agenda reported that 28 per cent of homeless women have formed an unwanted sexual partnership to get a roof over their heads, and 20 per cent have engaged in prostitution to raise money for accommodation. And in its conclusions and recommendations the Committee calls on the government to ensure that sufficient resources are available to meet this very real need. It also recommends that the government review the level of refuges and hostel accommodation for single people and consider providing additional resources for further provision in areas of highest need. Many people are badly treated by council staff and those who are judged not to be in priority need are often poorly served and sent away without any meaningful support or guidance. The Committee also calls on the government to monitor councils, identify those not meeting their duties and review and reinforce the statutory Code of Practice to ensure the levels of service that local authorities must provide are clear. The government should also consider setting a statutory duty for local authorities to provide meaningful support to single homeless people with a local connection after the inquiry found that many people receive little more than a list of local letting agents. The report explains that a shortage of social housing means many people rely on the private rented sector to avoid or escape homelessness, but often the financial barriers or instability of tenancies are too great. It urges the government to work with local authorities to provide homes for affordable rent and says local housing benefit levels should be reviewed to more closely reflect market rents. Other recommendations, conclusions and findings include: The impact of welfare reforms of recent years has increased pressure on the levels of homelessness; That the Secretary of State should write to all local authorities to reiterate their duties when placing families outside their areas; The government should review the level of refuge and hostel accommodation and consider providing additional resources for further provision with regard to victims of domestic abuse; The government must takes steps as a matter of urgency to improve data collection on homelessness and implement the recommendations of the UK Statistics Authority; The Committee does not advocate the abolition of the priority need criterion in England; Housing benefit recipients should have the option of their benefit being paid directly to the landlord to reduce likelihood of arrears and increase landlord confidence; Landlords should be encouraged to offer longer Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreements, which the tenants allowed to break tenancy early without penalty; and The government should consider allowing housing benefit to be used for costs in supported housing for a short period of time to facilitate the transition from homelessness to employment. Clive Betts MP, chair of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee, said: “No one should be homeless in Britain today, but the reality is that more and more people find themselves on the streets, in night shelters or going from sofa to sofa to keep a roof over their heads. "They are often driven there by the availability and cost of housing and have been failed by front line support services along the way. "The scale of homelessness is now such that a renewed government strategy is a must. "It needs to not only help those who are homeless but also prevent those vulnerable families and individuals who are at risk of becoming homeless from joining them. "All Departments will need to subscribe to this common approach and contribute to ending homelessness. "Local authorities also have a big part to play. "The Committee recognises they face a significant task with funding pressures and legal obligations, but vulnerable people are too often badly treated, being made to feel like they are at fault, and offered ineffectual and meaningless advice. "We want the government to monitor local authorities and help them achieve best practice. "The Committee has made a number of recommendations and we plan to follow up many of these issues in a year's time to see what progress is being made." To read the report, click here.  |
| Britons dying from malnutrition daily Posted: 18 Aug 2016 01:27 PM PDT
By Sue Jones. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) have released figures that show 391 people died from malnutrition in 2015. There were 746 hospital admissions for malnutrition in just 12 months. The statistics also show two people in the UK are admitted to hospital with the condition every day in what campaigners have called a "national scandal." Health minister Nicola Blackwood confirmed the numbers in a written answer in Parliament. More than six people a month perish from starvation in England, one of the richest nations in the world. The UK's biggest food bank network, the Trussell Trust, provided more than a million three-day food packages over the past year, including 415,866 to children. What is worrying is that people may only have this support for a maximum of three days and have to be referred by a professional, such as a doctor or social worker. Chairman Chris Mould said: "It's a scandal that people living in the sixth largest economy in the world are going hungry, which is why we're working to engage the public, other charities and politicians from all parties to find solutions to the underlying causes of food poverty. "Our food banks support many thousands of people in various states of hunger. "Some people have been missing meals for days at a time; others have been unable to afford certain food groups or have sacrificed quality for long periods of time to keep costs down. "This, no doubt, has a negative effect on their health – and for people at the extreme end of the scale it will lead to malnutrition. "Every day we meet families across the UK who are struggling to put enough nutritious food on the table and hear from parents who go without food so their children have enough to eat." A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: "We now have record numbers of people in work and wages rising faster than inflation. "But we need to go further, which is why we've committed to increase the National Living Wage, we're taking the lowest paid out of income tax and our welfare reforms are ensuring it always pays to work." However it seems that "making work pay" is a euphemism for punishing those out of work or those in part-time or low-paid work with absolute poverty. In December 2015, I wrote about research from the Child Poverty Action Group, Oxfam, Church of England and the Trussell Trust which found that failures in the social safety net itself are most often the trigger for food bank referrals. The report said that while money is tight for many reasons, including bereavement, relationship breakdown, illness or job loss, issues such as sanctions, delays in benefits decisions or payments or being declared "fit for work" led people to turn to food banks for support. Around a third of foodbank users in the sample were waiting for a decision on their benefits – and struggling in the meantime. Between 20 and 30 per cent more had their household benefits reduced or stopped because of a sanction. Other factors included loss of income due to the "bedroom tax" or the benefit cap. For between half and two-thirds of the people included in this research, the immediate income crisis was linked to the operation of the benefits system (with problems including waiting for benefit payments, sanctions, or reduction in disability benefits) or tax credit payments. Amongst this group of people are many that are actually in low-paid work, claiming top-up benefits. The remaining number of people needing support from food banks to meet their most basic need are certainly in work, making a complete mockery of the Department for Work and Pension's statement. The research used 40 in-depth interviews with food bank users, data from over 900 users at three food banks around the country, and detailed analysis of nearly 200 clients accessing one food bank in Tower Hamlets. Another academic study said the government's welfare reforms, including benefit sanctions and the bedroom tax, are a central factor in the explosion in the numbers of impoverished people turning to charity food banks. The study, part of a three-year investigation into emergency food provision, was carried out by Hannah Lambie-Mumford, a Sheffield University researcher who co-authored a recently published government report into the extent of food aid in the UK. That report concluded there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate a clear causal link between welfare reform and food bank demand in the UK. This is because the government has refused to make that information available by ensuring the reason for food bank referrals are no longer recorded. But Lambie-Mumford's study says the rise in demand for charity food is a clear signal "of the inadequacy of both social security provision and the processes by which it is delivered". In 2015, more than 2,000 cases of patients with malnutrition were recorded by 43 hospital trusts in a single year. There were 193 "episodes" of malnutrition in 12 months at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust alone, according to new figures. Freedom of Information (FOI) figures show a rise of 259 between the 43 trusts compared with three years previously. With the more recent introduction of more stringent in-work conditionality, including the extension of sanctions to those in part-time and low-paid work, the Conservative's coercive psychopolitical approach to poverty will invariably make it even more difficult for many more to meet their basic survival needs. At the same time, in 2014, Community Links published a study called 'Just about Surviving' which revealed that far from encouraging people on benefits to move into work, the draconian welfare cuts have pushed many further from employment. The report said that the state has reduced welfare support to the point where it barely enables people to survive. Overwhelmingly, the reforms have made people "feel insecure and vulnerable to even small fluctuations in their small income or circumstance; continuing to erode their resilience." Furthermore, by forcing people into stressful situations where day-to-day survival becomes a pressing priority, the "reforms" (that are, in reality, simply cuts to people's benefits), which were hailed by the Conservatives as a system of help and incentives – to "nudge" people into changing their behaviour so that they try harder to find work – are in fact eroding people's motivation. In other words, the reforms have deincentivised and hindered people looking for employment, achieving the very opposite to the intent claimed by the Tories, to justify their draconian policies. The report states that people are caught between trying to escape welfare reform through poor employment alternatives and feeling trapped in poverty. They move in and out of low paid work and are extremely susceptible to financial shocks and unprepared for the future. In 2014, Oxfam's director of campaigns and policy, Ben Phillips, said: "Britain is becoming a deeply divided nation, with a wealthy elite who are seeing their incomes spiral up, while millions of families are struggling to make ends meet." "It's deeply worrying that these extreme levels of wealth inequality exist in Britain today, where just a handful of people have more money than millions struggling to survive on the breadline." Diseases associated with malnutrition, which were very common in the Victorian era in the UK, became rare with the advent of our welfare state and universal healthcare, but they are now making a reappearance because of the rise of numbers of people living in absolute poverty. NHS statistics indicate that the number of cases of gout and scarlet fever have almost doubled within five years, with a rise in other illnesses such as scurvy, cholera, whooping cough and general malnutrition. People are more susceptible to infectious illness if they are under-nourished. In 2013/14, more than 86,000 hospital admissions involved patients who were diagnosed with gout – an increase of 78 per cent in five years, and of 16 per cent on the year before. Causes of gout include a lack of vitamin C in the diet of people who are susceptible. The figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) show a 71 per cent increase in hospital admissions among patients suffering from malnutrition – from 3,900 admissions in 2009-10 to 6,690 admissions in 2013-14. Cases of scarlet fever admitted to hospital doubled, from 403 to 845, while the number of hospital patients found to be suffering from scurvy also rose, with 72 cases in 2009/10 rising to 94 cases last year. The figures also show a steep rise in cases diagnosed with cholera, a water-borne disease which was extremely prevalent in the 19th century, causing nearly 40,000 deaths. The new in-work conditionality regime may eventually apply to around one million more people. The quantity of food being bought in food stores is also decreasing. It doesn't take a genius to work out that repressed, stagnant wages and RISING living costs will result in reduced sale volumes. Survation's research in March 2014 indicates that only four out of every ten of UK workers believe that the country's economy is recovering. But we know that the bulk of the Tory austerity cuts were aimed at those least able to afford any cut to their income. We really must challenge the Conservative's use of words such as "encourage" and "support" and generally deceptive language use in the context of what are, after all, extremely punitive, coercive policies. The government intends to continue formulating policies which will punish sick and disabled people, unemployed people, the poorest paid, and part-time workers. Meanwhile, the collective bargaining traditionally afforded us by trade unions has been systematically undermined by successive Conservative governments, showing clearly how the social risks of the labour market are being personalised and redefined as being solely the economic responsibility of individuals rather than the government and profit-driven big business employers. A version of this article appeared on Welfare Weekly’s website on 15 August 2016.  |
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