Rise in demand for Barnardo's emergency grant sparks calls for Budget shake-up
Jessica Lewis-Bell
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Children's charity Barnardo's has revealed demand for its emergency grants has risen by 19 per cent since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2007, sparking calls for vulnerable families to be afforded more protection in next week's Budget.
The children’s charity is calling on Chancellor George Osborne to make changes to universal benefit such as winter fuel payments and TV licences, and instead target some of this money for the most deprived families.
The call comes after Barnardo’s research showed demand for its grants for economically disadvantaged young people and families has risen by more than £63,000. In 2007/08, £329,838 was handed out to families rising to £364,443 in 2008/09. Initial projections of the total handed out during 2010/11 come to £393,443.
Barnardo’s chief executive Anne Marie Carrie said: "Families need financial help, now. There is room for more redistribution of funds – free TV licences, winter fuel allowance and child benefit should be better targeted.
"By ending these universal benefits and compensating families and pensioners on low incomes so they don’t lose out, £3.9bn would be left over to help combat the pending catastrophe for the poorest families, pensioners and children."
The government has already announced changes to the Social Fund, which helps low-income families with living costs that are not covered by weekly benefits through grants and "crisis loans".
From April, access to the fund will be restricted, it will be unringfenced and left to local authorities to distribute. Applications to the government’s Social Fund rose 18 per cent this year to £6m. Of these, £3.5m were for crisis loans – a rise of 25 per cent.
Carrie continued: "If this mounting pressure on poor families is ignored we are storing up even greater trouble for the future; employment is the only long-term route out of poverty.
"With almost 60 per cent of children living in poverty having a parent with a job, it is imperative that they are not left worse off through work – yet the government has created disincentives to work which need to be reassessed and fast."