We want your views

By Lucy Bird, Fundraising Officer

Click here to complete the Greater Manchester Poverty Action Annual Impact Survey 2022. Deadline is Wednesday August 17th, 2022.

We run our annual survey to find out more about how the people in our network perceive our work, what they value and the different ways in which GMPA has an impact. The findings will help inform our work and support us when making a case to funders and other stakeholders.

The survey should take around five minutes to complete and not every question is mandatory. We really value how our network engages with and supports us and would greatly appreciate you taking the time to complete the survey. The more responses we receive, the better it can shape our work.

Through providing us with your views, you are helping us get closer to achieving our shared vision of a Greater Manchester free from poverty.

Click here to complete the survey.

You can view the results of GMPA’s 2021 Annual Impact Survey and read more about our impact here.

Deadline for completing the survey is Wednesday August 17th, 2022.

GMPA’s network is made up of over 1700 stakeholders from across Greater Manchester’s voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE), public and private sectors. It also includes some members of the public and national organisations involved in tackling poverty.

Our vision is of a Greater Manchester free from poverty where all residents can realise their potential and access the benefits of living in a diverse and vibrant city region

As the cost-of-living crisis continues, we want to keep you up to date with the latest regional and national policy announcements. Over the last few weeks there has been a slew of research reports and policy recommendations so, we have put together the top updates from the last few weeks to keep you informed.

Ending the need for foodbanks

The Times this weekend covered the growing food insecurity across the country, describing food banks as the “nations newest emergency service.” At GMPA we understand that foodbanks play an important role but charitable donations are not a sustainable response to the widespread and rising poverty we see.

At GMPA we believe that the most effective response to poverty is getting more money into people’s pockets. We advocate for a “cash-first” approach to local welfare, and an “advice first” approach to other support services. We are currently working on co-producing Money Advice Referral Tools in six of boroughs in Greater Manchester. The tools will describe all the places that people can go for advice and other income maximisation support.

GMPA recently responded to the Ending the Need for Foodbanks All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) Inquiry into ‘Cash or food? Exploring effective responses to destitution’. We will share our response in due course.

Rise of the number of pensioners in absolute poverty

Data from the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that if you are over sixty-five there is now a one in four chance you are living in absolute poverty. The research analyses how household incomes and income poverty rates have been affected by the increase in the state pension age from 65 to 66 for men and from 60 to 66 for women.

Raising the state pension age has left many who rely on benefits poorer. Across Greater Manchester more than £100m in benefits goes unclaimed each year including approximately £70m in unclaimed Pension Credit  – it is so important for everyone to check if there are benefits they may be entitled to.

Local responses to poverty

At GMPA we work with local authorities to maximise the effectiveness of local welfare assistance schemes and support the development and design of anti-poverty strategies. It is great to see that Durham County Council plans to  “change political will” on poverty by directly lobbying the government and also setting out plans to refresh and refocus their anti-poverty action plan.

Here are a several more recent reports that shed more light on the realities of the cost-of-living crisis.

Going without – The Joseph Roundtree Foundation’s latest report “Not heating, eating or meeting bills: managing a cost of living crisis on a low income” examines the worst-off 40% of households and shows that, “7 million low-income households have either gone without, enough food in the previous 30 days, or gone without at least one essential such as a warm enough home or basic toiletries because they can’t afford it, since the start of 2022.”

The broken benefit cap – Analysis from Child Poverty Action Group  (CPAG) has shown that 35,000 more families will face the benefit cap next year – with DWP figures showing that more than 120,000 households were subject to the cap in February 2022. When inflation rose to 9% these families faced a real-terms income cut of £1,800 (£2070 in London) including losing the £20 a week universal credit uplift.

Half of all children in lone-parent families living in relative poverty – Data from the IFS shared with the Guardian shows that relative poverty for children in lone-parent families has risen at a significantly faster rate compared with other households.

We hope you found this roundup useful. The cost-of-living crisis is hitting those on low incomes the hardest and it is vital organisations working to prevent and reduce poverty continue to highlight the injustices along with lobbying government for change and campaigning locally.

A new programme from GMPA

By Graham Whitham, Chief Executive Officer

The cost-of-living crisis continues. At a time like this, when so many families are struggling, it is vital that they claim all the support they are entitled to. We know that hundreds of millions of pounds in benefits go unclaimed each year in Greater Manchester and that problem debt is compounding financial hardship for many households.

More needs to be done to maximise household incomes and to boost financial resilience. From this week, GMPA’s new Money Matters project has begun delivering benefits and debt advice to parents/care givers of students at Trafford College, Lostock High School and Seymour Park Primary School.

Graham Whitham

Support is being provided by our trained Financial Inclusion Officer, on secondment from Citizens Advice. We want to deliver financial gains to parents and demonstrate the need for more projects that work with schools and other institutions to proactively identify people in need of financial support.

Evidence from this work will be used to support GMPA’s policy and advocacy work, and the scaling up of the initiative across Greater Manchester should it prove successful. The programme is being funded by Kellogg’s and making use Citizens Advice resources and systems. The programme will initially run until May 2023.

Our main Money Matters website page can be found here.

The importance of local anti-poverty strategies

By Alexis Darby, Head of Advocacy, Policy and Research

At GMPA we work with local authorities across Greater Manchester on the design and implementation of their anti-poverty strategies. As the cost-of-living crisis continues to hit more and more people, local councils have a key role to play in offering guidance and support to residents.

Occasionally places outside of the city region reach out to GMPA for support. Recently our CEO, Graham Whitham, met with Oxford City Council’s child poverty review group to discuss steps the council could take to become an ‘anti-poverty’ council. It’s great to see the publication of their report ‘Child Poverty In Oxford’ which sets out recommendations for an anti-poverty strategy and includes taking a cash first approach to local welfare which gives residents maximum dignity, choice and control when accessing local welfare support. Crucially, this approach gets more money into people’s pockets, boosts household income and is the preferred choice for individuals facing financial crisis rather than the use of food banks, vouchers or other in-kind support.

Across Greater Manchester, Salford has a robust anti-poverty strategy in place that focuses on creating a more inclusive borough by preventing people falling into poverty, providing targeted support for people struggling in poverty and campaigning for long term change in Government policies and practices.

We know that other boroughs are in the stages of updating their strategies and we are currently supporting Trafford Council and Manchester City Council on updating their anti-poverty strategies.

Local welfare assistance scheme and best practise

By Alexis Darby, Head of Advocacy, Policy and Research, GMPA

As the cost-of-living crisis continues, more people are struggling to make ends meet. At GMPA we work with the ten local authorities across Greater Manchester to strengthen their local welfare assistance schemes. Whilst schemes aren’t statutory and don’t have ringfenced funding, all ten authorities in the city region have worked hard to retain local provision which is a lifeline for people experiencing financial hardship.

Our new briefing ‘Local welfare assistance schemes – best practise for local authorities’ explains the guiding principles of local welfare assistance schemes along with examples of best practise from four local authorities across the UK: Greenwich, Norfolk, Newcastle and Moray. Learning from other councils provides an opportunity to benefit from improvements to schemes that have been tried and tested elsewhere.

There are a number of proactive measures that local authorities in Greater Manchester can take that would immediately improve access to support and outcomes for residents in financial crisis across the city region:

• A cash first approach to local welfare provision would maximise dignity, choice, and control for recipients of support.
• Schemes should be resident-focused, identifying a clear and sustainable pathway out of poverty rather than simply offering a one-off transactional piece of support.
• Partnership working both within the council and with external partners is vital to ensure there is awareness of local welfare assistance scheme provision and so that schemes sit within a wider, clearly identified support offer to financially vulnerable residents.

Local welfare assistance schemes should not only mitigate an immediate crisis but help people find sustainable pathways out of poverty.

The importance of Socio-economic duty

GMPA’s vision is of a Greater Manchester free from poverty where all residents can realise their potential and access the benefits of living in a diverse and vibrant city region. A foundation of achieving this vision is the socio-economic duty. However, successive governments have chosen not to enact the duty, which is contained in Section 1 of the Equality Act 2010. If enacted, it would legally require public authorities to consider the way their decisions increase or decrease inequalities that result from socio-economic disadvantage.

In the absence of enactment at a national level, a number of local and combined authorities are choosing to voluntarily adopt the duty. We are delighted that the duty is being taken by a number of Greater Manchester councils and was recommended for adoption by the Combined Authority in the Greater Manchester Independent Inequalities Commission report.

Our new briefing ‘The current scale of the socio-economic duty in England’ sets out the scale of voluntary adoption of the socio-economic duty by local authorities in England, based on data from Freedom of Information requests GMPA submitted. We’ve seen an increased level of interest in the duty from local authorities over the last twelve months with 39 Councils in England now having formally adopted the duty. Our data shows that six out of nine regions have a high percentage of councils considering socio-economic status within all equality impact assessments and equality frameworks. It’s great to see so many working in the spirit of the duty ahead of (hopefully) adopting it. At GMPA we offer guidance for local authorities and other public bodies on ways they can ensure implementation is done in a way that has maximum impact. You can read our practical guide for implementing the duty here.

We hope you find our briefings useful. At GMPA we work to support local authorities, the Combined Authority and other public bodies on actions, programmes and policy interventions they can take to reduce and prevent poverty across the city region.

Alexis Darby

We have recently published the Greater Manchester Poverty Monitor 2022. The Monitor reveals the scale and nature of poverty in Greater Manchester. By developing this resource we’re able to get a multi-dimensional picture of poverty in the city region across ten themes:

Child poverty, Debt, Education, Fuel, utilities and food, Health, Homelessness, Housing, Deprivation, the Labour market and Social security

This vital resource equips stakeholders with evidence to inform policy development and service design and delivery. We’ve already received positive feedback from users, and it is good to know that the Monitor is proving a useful tool for organisations in our network.

“The Poverty Monitor is very, very useful when we’re planning our strategies for most social impact, really helping local people and subsequently speaking to funders. I found the local statistics in the interactive maps that Chris pointed me to. They are incredibly helpful.”  Director of a local VSCE organisation supporting low income families in the Leigh area of Wigan

“I have passed details of the Poverty Monitor to our policy team who will find this valuable in terms of our policy development and lobbying of the DfE and DWP.” National children’s charity

In the Monitor we strive to provide data at below local authority level as we know this is particularly useful when developing local responses to poverty. Whilst this isn’t always possible, local (i.e. at either ward, MSOA or LSOA level) fuel poverty, child poverty and life expectancy data are provided. We intend to add some further neighbourhood level data over the coming months, along with a small number of other updates and additions. Watch this space!

Beyond that, we don’t currently have the resources to keep the Monitor updated on a rolling basis.  We know from the feedback we have received in the last week and from comments on the previous iteration of the Monitor that this is a well-used and valued resource.

To support us to secure funding for future updates, and to understand how we can develop and improve the Monitor please complete this short survey.

Thank you for everyone who helped us raise awareness of the Monitor. Please keep doing so by sharing it with colleagues and stakeholders.

Government response to the cost of living crisis

Last Thursday the Government announced help for households to deal with soaring energy (and other) costs. All households will receive £400, with extra support for households in receipt of means tested benefits (£650), pensioners (£300) and people receiving disability benefits (£150).

The Household Support Fund (funding from central government to local councils to support residents who are struggling financially) has also been extended. Next year, benefits will be uprated in line with inflation.

Whilst welcome, it is now time to move on from piecemeal and ad hoc responses to poverty. It is time to fix the benefits system so that it effectively supports people year in, year out to avoid financial hardship and enables them to cope when living costs are soaring.

By Penny Rimmer, Policy officer, GMPA

Research conducted by Loughborough University for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has revealed that families with children face price rises of £400 per month on basic necessities including rent, heating, and food. The findings have been calculated using the Minimum Income Standard (MIS), which is based on what members of the public think is required for a minimum acceptable standard of living in the UK.

The cost of living crisis is worsening for everyone, but those on the poorest incomes are being affected drastically, as they spend a higher share of their income on food, electricity, and other essentials.  We have seen inflation rise by 9% in the 12 months to April 2022, up from 7% in March (on the CPI measure). However, the research has shown that families with two children are facing a cost rise of 13% compared with last year. Families spend an extra £120 per month on energy, £90 on transport including petrol, and £65 on childcare. This is plunging low-income households into devastating circumstances. Families face constant tough spending decisions day-in and day-out about whether to pay bills, eat or use gas and electricity. The never-ending cycle of struggling to afford the basic necessities should not be the reality for so many households across the UK.

Penny Rimmer

Further to the support announced by government last week (detailed on the frontpage), we need a long-term fix to the benefit system. Strengthening the social security system is central to this, as JRF findings have shown that the basic rate of social security in 2022/23 will be the lowest since 1982, at a time when inflation is at a 40-year high. Therefore, to protect the poorest families, the government needs to fundamentally review the value of benefits and end policies such as the ‘bedroom tax’ and two child limit on children’s benefits.

If the government continues to fail to provide an adequate state safety net, more families will be pushed into poverty, which will have a lasting impact on the economic, physical, and mental well-being of future generations.

By Alexis Darby, Head of Advocacy, Policy and Research

The Household Support Fund was established during the Covid-19 pandemic as part of the government response to support those struggling with the cost of living. The funding was distributed to local councils in England and the devolved administrations and ran from 6 October 2021 to 31 March 2022.

In the spring budget the Chancellor announced £500 million of new funding for the Household Support Fund which local authorities can spend in the next six months (£27m has been allocated across Greater Manchester’s ten councils). The government hope this extension will help the most vulnerable households deal with rising living costs. A third of the funding has been ringfenced to support families with children and another third will be set aside for pensioners.

Government have said that “Local Authorities will determine how to best use the remainder of the fund within the scope set out by ministers. Previous funding has supported households with food, clothing, energy and water costs, and this extension will ensure that this support continues through to the autumn.” The guidance for the latest tranche of funding can be found here.

There are mounting financial pressures on households across the UK. We have seen inflation rise to 6.2%, the cost of essential food products rise by more than that and energy bills soar up to 50% in some cases. All this impacts low-and-modest-income households hardest. The Chancellor uprated benefits in April by just 3.1% despite the rise in inflation. The JRF highlighted that April saw the basic out of work benefit experience its biggest drop in value in fifty years – so those who receive benefits are experiencing a real-terms cut in income. JRF predict that as a result 400,000 people could be pulled into poverty and that nine million families who receive benefits due to low incomes will be £500 worse off on average as a result of this real terms cut.

While the extension of the Household Support Fund will provide short term relief for many it is a sticking plaster. Government must increase benefits in line with inflation and reverse the £20 per week cut to Universal Credit. There needs to be a well thought out, long term national strategy for ending poverty in the UK and permanent hardship funding for local welfare support, not one off, piecemeal funding.

Across Greater Manchester it is vital that we focus on maximising household income, providing cash first responses to poverty (something the Housing Support Fund should be used for) and boosting financial resilience by:

• Adoption of the Real Living Wage by employers. Nearly 200,000 workers in our city region would benefit if all employers paid the Real Living Wage.
• Promoting and supporting benefit take-up so people are accessing all the benefits they are entitled to. The annual amount of unclaimed benefits in Greater Manchester exceeds £100m.
• Maximising the help people receive through Council Tax Support and effective use of Discretionary Housing Payments – aspects of the benefits system that sit locally.
• Providing cash grants rather than in-kind support to people facing financial hardship. This is being done by some councils through their local welfare assistance schemes.
• Making use of support available from utility companies. For example, United Utilities offer a range of
  different types of help those who are struggling with their bills.
• Supporting people to access affordable, ethical credit, for example through credit unions. Credit unions in Greater Manchester saved people £13m in interest last year.

Until we have a long-term national response to ending poverty in the UK it is through these local actions that we can do what we can, to protect people from the cost-of-living crisis.

Organisations in Tameside are better able to help people to access the support that’s right for them as a result of GMPA’s Money Advice Referral Tool project.

GMPA’s Money Advice Referral Tool is currently in place in Tameside and Oldham. The Tool supports people to access advice and maximise their income by improving referral and signposting between different agencies. The aim is to help people get all the money that they are entitled to, and to reduce the need for referrals to food banks, by increasing access to other kinds of support.

ICF Consulting Services has been commissioned to support GMPA to evaluate the pilot stage of the programme. As part of this, ICF recently undertook a rapid process evaluation of the pilot roll-out of the Money Advice Referral Tool in Tameside.

The evaluation was informed primarily by:

•  Qualitative interviews with those responsible for designing the tool and four support services listed on the  tool (Citizens Advice Tameside, Tameside Welfare Rights, GM Law Centre, Christians Against Poverty).

•  Interviews and focus groups with 16 stakeholders in 11 different referral organisations (two food banks, a housing association, social prescribers, a church, Jobcentre, a local charity, and a range of council services) to understand their awareness and experiences of the tool.

The interviews provided illustrative insights into how the tool has been accessed and received.  Here are some of the comments about the Money Advice Referral Tool made by those interviewed:

The Money Advice Referral Tool appears to have been well-received among services in Tameside. Positive feedback was provided about the layout and functionality of the tool, particularly that information was provided on one-sheet (with further information available online) and it was clear what services could provide support based on the numbering format used.  Interviewees generally felt it was simple and easy for a range of people (professionals and non-professionals alike) to use. Some even described the tool as empowering, at when given to people in need of support, it enabled them to take charge of their own situation.

Many of the interviewees could describe the potential benefits the tool might have in Tameside, including supporting faster referrals and establishing better links between organisations.

It was felt that there was scope to develop the tool further, by evolving the functionality of the tool (e.g. by translating it into a mobile app format) and to use it as the basis to create a system to make referrals between organisations in Tameside.

Several early lessons can also be shared from the pilot:

A formalised and clear dissemination strategy (which includes considerations for branding, training modules on how to use the tool, outreach plans to increase access to different communities) will help to spread awareness of the tool and ensure end-users understand its purpose and how it should be used. This could also help to track who is using the tool, which in turn can help measure its impact.

The tool requires regular updating to ensure it can keep up any changes in who is offering advice and support, and what is most relevant for the tool. Consideration should be given to how this may practically work, to help support the sustainability of the tool.

Continued monitoring and evaluation of the tool will help to identify what impact it is having. It will also identify if there any gaps in services, if the tool should be updated, and how else the tool might be improved.

The ICF Team are now continuing their evaluation, focusing on the implementation of Oldham’s Money Advice
Referral Tool pilot.

Commenting on the evaluation, GMPA’s Graham Whitham said, ‘We’re delighted with the way the Tool has been received by agencies in Tameside. The Tool is helping to ensure that organisations can help low income residents maximise their incomes and access advice and support appropriate to their needs. ICF’s initial evaluation is helping us understand how we can develop the Tool further and achieve maximum impact through its implementation as we seek to rollout it out in a further four boroughs this year’.

By Graham Whitham, Chief Executive Officer

There has been a large amount of evidence published recently highlighting the mounting financial pressures facing households in the UK. Costs generally have been increasing rapidly, with the inflation rate standing at 5.5% (on the CPI measure).

The cost of some essentials is going up by more than that. Campaigner Jack Monroe has highlighted how the cost of basic food items has soared over the last year, at a rate much greater than official inflation figures. The cost of certain food items, such as chicken, beef and butter rose by over 10% in 2021. A litre of petrol increased by 28% over the same period.

As the energy price cap rises in April, people will see their bills soar – up by 50% in some cases. These increasing costs are likely to be exacerbated by the heart-breaking events taking place in Ukraine.

Stating the obvious, these pressures will hit low-and-modest-income households hardest. People who spend a larger proportion of their income on essential items will feel their budgets squeezed more than those on middle and higher incomes.

Just as the energy price cap rises, low-income households will face another real terms cut in income. Benefits are being uprated by just 3.1% in April in spite of the inflation being much higher. The JRF say that 400,000 people could be pulled into poverty and that nine million families who receive benefits due to low incomes will be £500 worse off on average as a result of this real terms cut.

So far, the national policy response has been limited. Government should increase benefits in line with inflation and reverse the £20 per week cut to Universal Credit. This would help alleviate the immediate financial pressures facing low-income households and provide a much sounder foundation on which to build the proper strategy for ending poverty the UK so desperately needs.

Locally it is vital that we focus on maximising household income, providing cash first responses to poverty and boosting financial resilience. That can be done through:

• Adoption of the Real Living Wage by employers. Nearly 200,000 workers in our city region would benefit if all employers paid the Real Living Wage.

• Promoting and supporting benefit take-up so people are accessing all the benefits they are entitled to. GMPA estimates that the amount of unclaimed benefits in Greater Manchester exceeds £100m per year. Benefits advice and welfare rights services in Greater Manchester bring tens of millions of pounds into the pockets of local residents every year, but there is more we could do.

• Signposting people to financial advice and support, including debt advice.

• By maximising the help people receive through Council Tax Support and effective use of Discretionary Housing Payments. These are aspects of the benefits system that sit with local authorities.

• Providing cash grants rather than in-kind support to people facing financial hardship. This is being done by some councils through their local welfare assistance schemes. VCSE organisations and even some foodbanks are supporting people to access grants.

Graham Whitham, GMPA CEO

• Making use of support available from utility companies. For example, United Utilities offer a range of different types of help to people who are struggling with their bills.

• Supporting people to access affordable, ethical credit. Credit unions offer customers low interest loans and access to other financial products and support. Credit unions in Greater Manchester saved people £13m in interest last year.

Through these local actions we can do what we can, to protect people from the cost-of-living crisis.