Over the next several periods we will

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Over the next several periods we will

• Identify how poverty is tackled in the UK
• Identify what central government, the Scottish
  government, councils, voluntary groups and
  private companies do to tackle poverty in the UK
• Understand the arguments over whether these
  organisations do too much or too little to tackle
  poverty

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Success Criteria

• I will be able to identify the different aspects
  of the benefits system in Britain today
• I will be able to identify what different
  organisations are doing to tackle poverty
• I will be able to reach a judgement as to whether
  or not the benefits system is too harsh or too
  generous

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Tackling PovertyCentral Government

• Lesson Starter
• In what ways does the government help to tackle
  poverty? Write as many ways as you can think of.

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Tackling PovertyCentral Government

• The Department for Welfare and Pensions is the
  biggest spending department in the UK Government
  - spending 166.98bn in 2011-12, which is Of that
  huge sum, 159bn was spent on benefits - an
  increase of 1.1 on the previous year. That is
  23 of all public spending.

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Tackling PovertyCentral Government

• UK spending on welfare is to be capped at
  119.5bn for 2015-2016, Chancellor George Osborne
  has announced.
• The basic state pension and some unemployment
  benefits will be excluded from the cap.

119.5 billion!
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Tackling PovertyCentral Government

• What benefits do you think this money is spent
  on? Why?
• Number yourself 1-4.
• On your own think about the following benefits.
  What are they? Who might claim them and why.
• Rank the following benefits in order with the
  most spent first.
• Job Seekers Allowance
• Pensions
• Disability Living Allowance
• Housing Benefit

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Total spent on benefits in 2011-12
Highest spend on pensions
JSA (the brew or the dole) is quite low
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http//www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/year_spending_20
13UKbn_12bc1nukgs302 Government spending
figures
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Should there be a benefits system?
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Should there be a benefits system?
YES NO
A democratic society should look after the poorest and weakest in society Having no benefit system would lead to an increase in crime as poor people need to get money somehow Some people deserve help the disabled, lone parents, unemployed etc. Anyone can face difficulties such as becoming unemployed or developing a health problem and so they should be entitled to help The government should be responsible for creating jobs and helping people get jobs Children should not suffer because of their parents mistakes The system creates equality Why should people that work have to pay for people that dont? Why should people have to pay for drug addicts, alcoholics etc. to get benefits when they choose to become addicts? People on benefits are laughing at people who go to work People should take responsibility for their own actions not look to the government for everything The system costs too much - taxes would be better spent on other things like improving education and healthcare People cheat the benefit system by working and claiming benefits The benefits system encourages people to be lazy
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Tackling Poverty
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Tackling Poverty

• You need to know about what is happening to
  tackle poverty. This is the responsibility of
• Central Government (London)
• The Scottish Parliament
• Local Authorities (Councils)
• Voluntary Sector
• Private Sector

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Central Government

• The UK Governments Department of Work and
  Pensions are responsible for providing people in
  need in the UK with financial support. Some of
  these benefits have been around for a long time
  and are listed below. However, the coalition
  government are introducing a Universal Credit as
  part of their welfare reforms.
• Jobseekers Allowance (JSA)
• Income Support
• Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) (Formerly
  Incapacity Benefit)
• Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
• Cold Weather Payment
• Winter Fuel Payment
• Sure Start Maternity Grant
• Community Care Grant
• Social Fund
• Tax Credits
• Minimum Wage

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The Jobcentre

• This helps people who are out of work to find
  work.
• Also helps people to claim benefits.
• Unemployed people can use this service to arrange
  mock interviews, look at job vacancies and meet
  with special job advisors.

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Jobseekers Allowance (JSA)

• This is the main benefit for people who are out
  of work.
• Must be looking for work or working under 16
  hours per week and be over 18.
• To keep getting JSA you must go to a Jobcentre
  office every two weeks to show how youve been
  searching for a job. This is known as signing
  on.

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Income Support

• This is extra money to help people on a low
  income and people working less than 16 hours per
  week.
• It is for people who dont have to sign on as
  being unemployed.

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Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

• This is financial help to people who are unable
  to work because of illness or disability.
• Aims to help people into work.
• Evidence suggests people who work are in better
  health.

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Disability Living Allowance (DLA)

• For people who have severe difficulty walking,
  need help getting around or need to be looked
  after.

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Cold Weather Payment

• Money towards heating costs during very cold
  weather.
• Available to people on income support, JSA, ESA
  or Pension Credit.
• Payment of 25 for each 7 day period of very cold
  weather between 1 November and 31 March.

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7. Winter Fuel Payment

• An extra payment to help older people with the
  cost of heating bills.
• Amount paid depends on a persons circumstances.
• Payments range from 100 to 300.

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• The cost of providing benefits for people out of
  work has risen constantly over the last several
  decades.

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Cost of benefits 2011-12
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8. Universal Credit

• Universal Credit is a new benefit that has
  started to replace 6 existing benefits with a
  single monthly payment into your account.
  Universal Credit will help you to be better off
  in work, start a new job or work more hours.
• Universal Credit will eventually replace
• Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Income Support
• Working Tax Credit
• Child Tax Credit
• Housing Benefit

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8. Universal Credit

• At this time, your eligibility to claim Universal
  Credit depends on where you live and your
  personal circumstances.
• Universal Credit started to be introduced in
  stages from April 2013.
• The plan is to make Universal Credit available in
  each part of Great Britain during 2016. New
  claims to existing benefits, which Universal
  Credit is replacing, will then close down, with
  the vast majority of claimants moving onto
  Universal Credit during 2016 and 2017.
• There are no limits to the number of hours you
  can work a week. Your Universal Credit payment
  will reduce gradually as you earn more - you
  wont lose all your benefits at once if youre on
  a low income.

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Impact?

• The government estimates 3.1 million households
  will be entitled to more benefits as a result of
  universal credit.
• 2.8 million households will be entitled to less,
  but will receive a top-up payment to protect them
  from a drop in income.
• New claimants will receive the lower payment.
• Across all households, ministers say there will
  be an average gain of 16 per month.

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8. Universal Credit

• How much people receive depends on their personal
  circumstances. Universal Credit is paid
  differently to current benefits. Itll be paid
  once a month into a persons bank or building
  society account.
• Any help people get with rent will be included
  with their Universal Credit payment and then they
  pay the landlord yourself.
• People have to sign a Claimant Commitment to
  make a claim for Universal Credit. The individual
  and their work coach will decide what goes into
  the Claimant Commitment, e.g.
• what you need to do to look for work (e.g.
  registering with recruitment agencies, writing a
  CV)
• how many hours you need to spend looking for work
  each week
• your circumstances (e.g. work history, health,
  family or caring responsibilities)
• Your benefit might be cut if you dont do whats
  in your Claimant Commitment.

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Critics of Universal Credit

• The government thinks this will help promote good
  budgeting and more closely replicate monthly
  salary payments arguing that 75 of all
  employees receive wages monthly. "This will help
  smooth the transition into monthly paid work,
  encourage claimants to take personal
  responsibility for their finances and to budget
  on a monthly basis which could save households
  money.
• Campaigners are worried that the shift from
  weekly and fortnightly payments to this new
  regime may push claimants recipients into debt.
• The National Housing Federation says the shift
  from paying landlords to paying claimants direct
  for the housing benefit element could trigger
  unprecedented levels of arrears and increased
  rent collection costs
• 84 of associations believe that rent arrears
  will increase as a direct result of welfare
  changes.
• BBC obtained figures that showed when the direct
  payments were piloted in six areas of the country
  there was a big rise in rent arrears as some
  tenants failed to pass that money on, with
  arrears rising from about 2 to 11.

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Tackling Poverty
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The Scottish Parliament

1. Aims of Scottish Parliament
2. Scotland's Regeneration Strategy
3. Universal Home Insulation Scheme (UHIS)
4. Scottish Child Poverty Strategy

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Aims of Scottish Parliament

• Aims to target all areas to do with poverty not
  just income.
• Works to improve health, housing, educational
  attainment, employability and access to services.
• Solidarity Target To increase overall income
  and the proportion of income earned by the lowest
  three deciles as a group by 2017.

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Aims of Scottish Parliament

• Aims to simplify benefits
• End the so-called benefit trap
• Free childcare
• Tackle fuel poverty
• Improve social housing
• Increase opportunities for apprenticeships

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Aims of Scottish Parliament

• More Choices more Chances
• Targets young people between 16 and 19.
• Aim is to get them back into education,
  employment or training.

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Scotlands Regeneration Strategy

• Scotland's Regeneration Strategy sets out a 175
  million programme of investment to support the
  country's most disadvantaged communities,
  transforming the prospects of the people who live
  there.

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Universal Home Insulation Scheme

• This is interest free loans for more expensive
  insulation measures including boiler replacement
  to improve energy efficiency.
• 12.5 million which was invested by the Scottish
  Government in September 2011.

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Scottish Child Poverty Strategy

• Aim is to reduce child poverty by maximising
  household resources and improving childrens life
  chances.

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Tackling Poverty
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Local Authorities

1. Housing and Council Tax Benefit
2. Affordable Warmth Dividend (Glasgow)

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Housing and Council Tax Benefit

• This is help towards paying rent and council tax
  and is available to people on low incomes.

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Affordable Warmth Dividend

• This is a scheme operated by Glasgow City Council
  to assist residents of the city who are 80 years
  of age and older with additional costs associated
  with winter.
• 100 affordable warmth dividend is part of
  efforts to wipe out fuel poverty in Glasgow.

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Tackling Poverty
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Voluntary Sector/ Pressure Groups

1. Child Poverty Action Group
2. Shelter
3. Save the Children

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Child Poverty Action Group

• CPAG campaigns use evidence of the hard realities
  facing children in low-income families to call
  for changes that will help end child poverty.
• Support from the public helps strengthen their
  campaigns and reach decision-makers.
• CPAG in Scotland took a lead role in the campaign
  for free school meals, which was launched in 2001
  to persuade the Scottish Parliament to introduce
  universal free school meals and therefore ensure
  that every child in Scotland has at least one
  decent nutritious meal a day.

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Child Poverty Action Group

• 1 in 4 children in Scotland live in some kind of
  poverty.
• CPAG seeks to raise awareness of and tackle child
  poverty in Scotland.
• CPAG offer advice to families and produce
  publications.
• For example, CPAG helps families claim certain
  benefits such as tax credits.

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Child Poverty Action Group

• CPAG in Scotland works with other Scottish
  members of the End Child Poverty campaign - a
  coalition of 150 organisations from civic society
  including childrens charities, child welfare
  organisations, social justice groups, faith the
  vision of a UK free of child poverty.

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Shelter

• This is a charity which tackles homelessness and
  poor housing
• Shelter gives advice, information and campaigns
  for political change
• They lobby the government and encourage them to
  do more and change policies to assist the
  homeless and those in poor housing

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Save the Children

• This is a charity which works to influence
  government policy regarding child poverty.
• Work with MSPs to discuss potential policies and
  campaign to end child poverty.
• For example, STC believe all children should be
  entitled to free school meals and that childcare
  should be paid for by the government.

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Tackling Poverty
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Private Sector

1. Job Creation
2. Public Private Partnerships

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Job Creation

• Scottish Entrepreneur Tom Hunter set up the
  Hunter Foundation in 1998.
• Invested 35 million to encourage Scots to be
  entrepreneurs.
• Positive Destinations scheme where grants are
  given to companies to be used to help young
  people in terms of education, employment or
  training.

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Public Private Partnerships

• Private companies build state of the art
  hospitals and schools which councils cant afford
  to build.
• These ensure that people have access to good
  quality healthcare and education which in the
  long run will tackle some forms of poverty.

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Tackling Poverty
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Minimum Wage

• This is the minimum amount per hour that workers
  in the UK are entitled to be paid
• It is set by the UK Government (see table below)
• The national minimum wage will increase by 19p an
  hour to 6.50, the government has announced.
• The new rate comes into effect in October 2014
  and will benefit a million workers.

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• The transition to Universal Credit will take
  place in three phases over four years, between
  2013 and 2017.
• From 29 April 2013, it will be trialled in
  Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside, Greater Manchester,
  before rolling out to Oldham, Wigan and
  Warrington in July.
• The government says the new scheme will mean
  people are better off in work than on benefits.

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I can

• I will be able to identify the different aspects
  of the benefits system in Britain today
• I will be able to identify what different
  organisations are doing to tackle poverty
• I will be able to reach a judgement as to whether
  or not the benefits system is too harsh or too
  generous

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UK Welfare Attitudes

• http//www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2013/jan/0
  8/uk-benefit-welfare-spending - attitudes survey
  by The Guardian