At the Policy and Resources Committee on Monday 12 March 2012, councillors were considering the Report on Changes to Housing Benefit and Welfare Reform. Here is a copy of my speech in support of my proposed improvements to recommendations in the report. My amendment, on behalf of the Labour Group, was approved.
Convener, I welcome
this report but loath what it tells us about the combined reduction in benefits
which will be paid out in our city.
It is indeed crucial
that we address the issues affecting our citizens from the combined effects of
the Westminster Government's cuts in social security benefits in Dundee. The
paper from the Finance Directorate calculates that the combined annual
reduction in cash benefits in the city will total £27.5 million.
This will
significantly reduce household incomes that are already being squeezed by price
increases in the shops, hikes in electricity and gas bills, increases in fares
and at the petrol pumps. Every one of those families and households in
receipt of less money reduces the cash in purses and wallets. That level of
cash reduction not being rung up on the tills will inevitably have an effect in
our city shops and businesses. As a result, I am sure that the council will
find it a more challenging times in which to recover rent and council tax
arrears.
The
Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government at Westminster is the source
of these changes and are to blame for heaping so many combined cuts on
households. It makes David Cameron's claim that "we are all in this
together" sound rather hollow.
But there one matter
that receives rather less attention in this report. Are the Council using their
existing powers to the full to protect our citizens from the financial tsunami
that is advancing towards us?
The paper has little
to say about the evidence of growing demand for welfare rights advice in our
city. Switching more benefit administration to the Department of Work and
Pensions will mean many more folk interacting with a faceless service via a
call centre or on a computer screen. Given the scale and complexity of the
changes and the difficulties each household will have understanding and coping
with the changes, demand for face to face welfare rights advice will inevitably
grow. This will put a further strain on the existing providers of welfare
rights advice in the city including the council.
So we need to know
whether we have enough welfare rights advisers in Dundee and are these
available in the right places? Where, for example, is the Broughty Ferry access
point for at least a weekly surgery for Advice and Information on Welfare
Benefits?
Many of the existing
network of advice agencies lurch from year to year on insecure funding like the
clients they serve. There should be scope for the Council to ensure that those
agencies that provide front line advice and advocacy and meet quality standards
have their funding guaranteed for three years.
In April 2013 there
will be an important transfer of powers from the UK to Scotland when the
responsibility for the payment of crisis loans and grants from the Department
of Work and Pensions transfers to the Scottish Government. It’s not yet clear
whether this will be administered by local councils or the Scottish Government.
In the Council's submission to the Scottish Government consultation, the
council indicated that their preferred option was for a national scheme with
national guidance that is administered by local councils. We concur with that
position and hope that the Scottish Government will as a matter of urgency
clarify its position. The Council will need good notice of its additional
responsibilities if it is to be ready to exercise these in a fair and efficient
way to some of our most vulnerable citizens confused and disadvantaged as they
migrate from one or more benefits to another. We need therefore as a committee
to know how we are preparing to take on our responsibilities for this
additional duty.
Convener, I so move.
Councillor Laurie
Bidwell
12 March 2012
