Advice Services will buckle without ongoing support, Derry groups warn amid fears over cuts proposals

Local advice service providers have been at the forefront of the major effort to support local communities, and recently this has meant stepping up services by extending hours and increasing resources to meet the surge in demand.

With proposed reductions to the Department for Communities Draft Budget for 2021-22 now out for consultation, the Independent Advice Sector could see a £1.5m funding cutback at a critical time for its services.

The city’s three leading advice providers have now issued an urgent call for sustained support, and warned that cuts will directly impact on the most vulnerable in our society as escalating pressures threaten to overwhelm services.

Council’s Governance and Strategic Planning Committee agreed to draw up a submission regarding the DfC draft budget highlighting the detrimental impact that the £1.5m reduction will inevitably have. The Health and Community Committee this week added its comments for inclusion in a comprehensive response being prepared by Council to the consultation, stressing that the non-award of funding to support the independent advice sector would have an immediate and extremely negative impact within the District.

In the current financial year £112,000 has been awarded by Council via the Community Support Programme to Advice North West, Dove House and the Resource Centre, who are now working evenings and weekends just to keep up with demand. This week a further £16,500 was approved by members of the Health and Community Committee from Council’s Hardship Funding to bolster services.

Advice North West is the largest of the three local advice bodies, where Jacqueline Gallagher manages a team of experienced advisors who provide information on a range of issues including rights in the workplace, benefit maximisation, debt advice, financial health checks, budgeting information, advice on savings and affordable credit. They have seen a surge in demand over recent months, and anticipate that this will only escalate as the furlough scheme comes to an end and lenders become less lenient regarding debt recovery.

“The pandemic has led to thousands of individual crises all over the council district as individuals and families have faced unforeseen sudden changes in their circumstances,” she explained.

“Not only has this been a health emergency - it’s become a serious economic and social emergency.

“Despite some of our traditional core work of social security appeal tribunals coming to a virtual standstill, we are still seeing an increase in customers.

“While our money and debt advice services are quieter with many availing of payment holidays and lenders not pursuing those debts as rigorously, this is obviously a problem waiting for us down the line.

“We’re just bracing ourselves for the complexities this will cause in the not too distant future.”

Collateral damage

Advice NW has had to adapt to the changing work environment imposed by Covid, which has made providing a personal service much more difficult, Jacqueline explains.

“As an organisation we reorganised our services and moved swiftly to home working and telephone and email advice. This agility has helped us to deal with the demand we have faced to date. We’ve witnessed many cases of real crisis with sudden reductions in income, the loss of employment, loss of livelihoods and businesses, the isolation of our elderly, bereavement, ill health, and a growing mental health crisis. Our frontline advisers have been dealing with unparalleled level of stress, anxiety and real fear among the people who contact us.

“ Advisers deal regularly with clients who experience suicidal ideation and with those who are struggling to afford essential food and fuel to adequately sustain themselves and their families.

“Those who were already in persistent poverty, remain so. To further compound this bleak situation, we anticipate a high volume of redundancies when the furlough scheme ends and the collateral damage to the economy, society, and people that this will cause.

“The advice sector has stepped up to the mark yet again to meet the needs of citizens and the community infrastructure has also helped to provide support. Council has provided solid support for its advice services. Additional funding has been secured for out of hours services to help to meet demand. As a charity and as a sector we face a precarious funding landscape as austerity policies and cuts are adopted which squeeze funding pots. Just this week there was a £1.5m proposed reduction in funding for advice services, which would undoubtedly affect the sector’s ability to meet demand. For us such a cut is just unthinkable in the circumstances.”

Emotional distress

At Dove House staff are deeply invested in the local community, which has been taking its toll on the advice team emotionally as they fulfil a counselling role as well as an advisory one, with many customers approaching them in emotional distress.

Donna Burke said that her team is dealing with a much higher number of cases involving anxiety and depression as a result of Covid19.

“We are finding that a lot of people are presenting with mental as well as physical problems since the pandemic. Where mostly we were dealing with people with physical conditions, since lockdown we have seen a big increase in people suffering from anxiety and depression. And that’s right across the board – people of all ages.

“When we are speaking to our customers we always ask how they are doing and try to offer a very personal service, so a lot of people open up to us. We try to build up a rapport with customers, to be compassionate and offer a customer focused service. This has become more difficult as we are no longer able to offer face to face services, and it also takes much longer to take people through the relevant stages of the benefit support processes.

“There are some days I get off the phone in tears - the customer will never see that, but it does really affect us as we provide a listening ear as well as advice. If I thought someone came to work for advice services for the money, I wouldn’t give them a job – this is all about helping people and doing the best we can for them no matter what the circumstances.

“We hear some very sad stories about people losing homes, businesses, relationships breaking down, children having to go without, and the stresses of the current time are having a major impact. For example, one case I was dealing with involved a customer who had been happily running her own successful business, but since the pandemic has now lost her business, her marriage has subsequently broken down and she has had to enter the benefit system. Like most people she has a mortgage, bills, and other commitments but her income has now plummeted to £400 a month to provide for herself and her family once her mortgage is paid. It’s heart breaking.

“There’s a lot of confusion out there which has been exacerbated by the reintroduction of the PIP scheme and other changes to the support available.

“There was also an increase in Universal Credit which will soon be reduced again and which will leave people in further hardship. And the end of the furlough scheme will leave many people in serious difficulty.

“We will have to deal with the fallout and we’re just bracing ourselves for another tidal wave in the coming weeks and months. I would appeal for any proposed cuts to the Department’s budget to be urgently reconsidered – we will need additional resources, not less to deal with what’s coming down the line.”

Massive backlog

The Resource Centre has faced similar pressures as it has tried to meet the increase in customers new to the benefit system. Jude McKinney is advice manager at the centre and he explained that as well as a significant rise in new claims, there is a massive backlog of disability and incapacity appeals clogging up the system and holding up support for people in need.

“Following the initial period of ‘lockdown’ towards the end of March 2020 incapacity, and disability forms and medical examinations and disability appeal tribunals were all suspended,” he recalls. “So the main issues that clients were seeking advice on at the beginning were mostly to do with matters such as the newly introduced furlough and Job Retention schemes.

“Then there were queries around SSP and state sickness benefits for persons unable to work or having to shield or self-isolate, or those who had directly contracted Covid-19.

“During those first few months there were lots of new enquiries from people out of work especially those in hospitality and retail asking about what benefits they may be eligible to claim, such as Jobseekers benefit, and also enquiries from many self-employed people ranging from taxi drivers to hairdressers unable to carry on their trade. Enquiries and claims for Universal Credit soared from the end of March onwards.

“The statistics speak for themselves - on 29 February 2020, 57,920 households (65,200 claimants) were on Universal Credit.

“By 31 August 2020, 114,530 households were on Universal Credit and the total claimants in Derry and Strabane District Council area stood at just under 14,000

“NISRA figures show that at almost 2,500, the number of collective redundancies proposed in June 2020 was the highest monthly total on record. 820 redundancies were confirmed in August 2020, the second highest monthly total in the past five years.

“The pandemic has led to a huge backlog in disability and incapacity appeals which was already significant prior to Covid-19 and face to face appeal hearings remain suspended.

“These delays are not only denying people the financial support they need and are fully entitled to, but it’s having a negative impact on physical and mental health.

“To date our appeals representative has accumulated a vast caseload stretching back to early 2020, and is continuing to be inundated with new cases. This demand is likely to become even more challenging once face to face hearings recommence.

“Throughout the pandemic our community shop has extended its services to help address the impact of unemployment and food poverty within the Outer North area, distributing over 1,927 food parcels, food hampers and free meals and issuing foodbank vouchers.

“With the uncertainty now over whether some or all of the current welfare mitigation payments will be extended we are facing a very serious situation.

“ The recent threat of possible funding cuts to local frontline provision outlined in the DfC proposed budget allocation will have serious implications for social security claimants.

“We believe that keeping advice services running is vital in protecting those most vulnerable, marginalised and in need of assistance – it just won’t be possible for us to provide that service without adequate resources. It will strike a blow right at the heart of the community.”