“After many months of working side by side with the Council and our partners in the Tower Hamlets Community Advice Network to produce an effective advice strategy, the sudden change of direction and proposed 60% cut is a huge shock for all of us. It comes at a time when we are already trying to cope with huge legal aid cuts happening in April, and the loss of substantial support from the London Councils grants scheme, so it feels like the last straw. The Council has really valued advice over many years because they recognize that it costs a lot less than the results it achieves, in terms of benefits gained, homelessness prevented, debts written off or made manageable, employment disputes resolved. Add to that the costs to people’s mental and physical health when they don’t have a safe place to live, or enough money to feed and support themselves or their families, and funding advice services is a no-brainer. We can’t understand what has happened, why the goalposts seem to have shifted without any consultation or warning. Two weeks ago everyone was planning to cut their cloth in line with a 6% reduction in the budget – that was £10k a year: now we are trying to work out how to save £85k a year. At very least it will mean making expert staff redundant and turning away hundreds of people who desperately need help. At worst it could mean closing a service that has been giving access to justice to the community since 1974.”
No comments:
Post a Comment