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One in five people in England live in area without local authority crisis support
At least 25 upper-tier local authorities in England have stopped schemes that provide people with support for food, fuel and essential furniture during a time of crisis, new research has found.
A report by End Furniture Poverty estimated that one in five people in the UK do not have access to local welfare assistance schemes as at least 25 local authorities were found to operate no such programme.
Moreover, the research found that one in four people in England are no longer able to apply for essential furniture items from their local authority due to the closure of welfare schemes and a number of schemes not offering support with furniture.
In 2013/14, the government replaced crisis loans and community care grants with local welfare assistance schemes, the funding for which is not ringfenced.
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Freedom of Information requests sent by End Furniture Poverty to all local authorities in the UK found that 95% of such schemes were spending less than their allocated funding, leading to an 87% decline in spend on crisis support over the past decade.
End Furniture Poverty also found that crisis support spending per capita is far lower in England compared to the rest of the UK.
Per capita spend on crisis support in 2019/20 in England stood at £0.64, compared with £6.88 in Scotland, £6.79 in Northern Ireland, and £4.19 in Wales.
As a result of its findings, End Furniture Poverty is calling on the government to increase the funding for local welfare assistance schemes by £250m per year, funding which is said should be ringfenced.
Claire Donovan, campaigns manager at End Furniture Poverty, said: “For millions of people living in furniture poverty, local welfare assistance is a vital lifeline, helping them to access essential furniture items like cookers, beds and fridges.
“A decade of austerity, followed by the immense challenges during the pandemic, mean that millions more are now struggling, so we urge the government to adequately fund and ringfence LWAS budgets, and provide clear guidance for local authorities to end this postcode lottery of support.
“The impact of living without essential furniture and white goods can have a tremendous toll on people’s financial, social, mental and physical well-being. Funding adequate crisis support is not only the right thing to do, it is also a prudent investment as research by the National Audit Office showed that a £0.5m LWAS spend can save £9.7m across local and central government budgets.
“We urgently ask the both the government and local authorities to look again at LWAS funding – the amount of support you can receive should not depend on where you happen to live.”
A government spokesperson said: “We are committed to supporting the lowest-paid families and have consistently targeted our support to those most in need by raising the living wage, boosting welfare support by billions and introducing the £269m Covid Local Support Grant, which is distributed by local authorities to help children and families stay warm and well-fed.”
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