Supporting People Through the Cost-of-Living Crisis
Councillors will next week be updated on the whole range of measures being taken by the Council and its partners to help people through the cost-of-living crisis and address long-term poverty.
Since the creation of the multi-agency Poverty Group a targeted approach has been taken based on the five key themes of supporting communities; evidence and engagement; ensuring residents know where to go for support; enabling increased access to services and raising the profile of issues affecting residents.
A regular cost of living survey and intelligence report ensures that the Council is paying attention to the most prevalent issues. An Anti-Poverty Summit will take place in September with partners that helped to shape the initial response to the cost-of-living crisis.
Support for communities continues with the establishment of over 70 Welcoming Spaces, a boost for crisis funding, school uniform and holiday provision and Council Tax support; as well as help to maximise benefits such as Pension Credit.
Access to services has been enhanced by an online platform to share information amongst partners and financial support continues to be given to food banks (which the Mayor, Councillor John McCabe has made one of his chosen charities), to the Key2Life community food bus and to boost the capacity of the Welfare Support Team. Close working is underway with schools, the community and voluntary sector, local businesses (through the South Tyneside Pledge) and through Council services such as Family Hubs and social navigators.
Members of the Cabinet will be told that, while it is difficult to assess the impact of the partnership's work so far, more than 400 people a month are using the Welcoming Spaces, the Council's costs of living web pages have had over 30,000 hits and 18,400 households were supported through the Council Tax Support Scheme. In addition, over £7.5m and £5m respectively in benefits was secured for residents by the Citizens Advice and Welfare Support Team, almost 9,000 people were supported by just one of the food banks in the borough, while 9,000 children received food vouchers over the holiday last year and 1,000 children were supported through school uniform vouchers.
Councillor Paul Dean, Lead Member for the Voluntary Sector, Partnerships and Equalities, said: "it is clear that the cost-of-living crisis is creating a whole new level of vulnerability - many of our residents who were just about managing before, are no longer.
This has led to a dramatic three-fold increase in food bank usage since last year while Citizens' Advice reported a significant increase last year in clients in financial crisis seeking advice.
"We know the steps we are taking are making a real difference. We know, for example, that many people using the Welcoming Spaces over the summer do so for social reasons as rising prices make it more difficult for people to pay for transport to visit friends and family or take part in social activities.
"The work of the Poverty Group and wider partnership will continue with a real focus on learning lessons from our actions in the past, using an evidence-based approach, continuing to assess and act on the issues which most impact our residents and raising these issues with decision-makers in Westminster. This will help us target support to make things fairer, boost the financial security of our residents and deliver on our ambition for people in the borough to live healthy, happy and fulfilled lives."