A Robust Safety Net

What is this mission about?

Our goal is that by 2025, every Londoner will be able to access the support they need to prevent financial hardship.

Why are we doing this?

Before the COVID-19 outbreak, an unacceptable number of Londoners were already struggling to make ends meet. More than a quarter of all Londoners, some 2.5 million people, were living in relative poverty – higher than any region in the UK. Poverty has significant negative impacts throughout a person’s life, including lower life expectancy, poor mental health and lower educational attainment.

Financial hardship in London is linked to other forms of inequality. 54% of single parent families, 38% of Black, Asian and minority ethnic households and 37% of households with a disabled person are trapped in poverty. Migrants are also at a much greater risk of experiencing extreme poverty or outright destitution in London, more than in any other UK region. Supporting and empowering Londoners on low incomes is vital to addressing other deep-rooted inequalities in the city.

To enable London’s recovery, we must tackle both pre-existing inequalities and the disadvantages highlighted by the crisis.

COVID-19 has not only made life tougher for those already struggling. It’s also pulled tens of thousands more Londoners into financial hardship. However, the pandemic has also increased public and political awareness of poverty. Crucially, it has demonstrated how taking political action can protect those who are struggling to keep their heads above water.

To recover from the economic, social and health impacts of the pandemic, City Hall has set out a missions-based approach. This will bring together the public, private and voluntary sectors, and involves working with all Londoners to make it a success.

We propose to achieve this mission through:

• targeted activity to connect the most disadvantaged or excluded communities with advice or hardship support
• taking steps to address the issue of some communities not having access to financial support services
• raising awareness among Londoners of their rights and financial entitlements and where they can get help to enforce or claim them.

This will focus on three main projects:

1. a minimum standard of local welfare
2. improved coordination of advice and support in London
3. embedding advice in community locations.

In addition to the three key projects, we’ll also continue to call on the government to implement necessary policy changes to support Londoners who need it most.

Short-term actions:

• Establish stakeholder partnerships to define the scope of our proposed activity.
• Bring councils together to discuss existing local welfare assistance schemes.
• Establish strategic partnerships between organisations that fund advice services, which will start to address gaps in provision.
• Explore and test ways of embedding advice in community locations such as places of worship, food banks and schools. We have started this work through the Advice in Community Settings funding programme.

Mission lead: Jim Minton (Chief Executive, Toynbee Hall)

Lead organisations and partners: GLA and London Councils, local councils, voluntary and community sector, advice providers, funders, community anchor institutions (e.g. schools, faith/health settings)