My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Politics

Government abolishing DWP Crisis Loans

46 replies

BeingAMumIsFun · 31/07/2011 15:02

The government is getting job centre staff to send people to the trussell trust for food parcels.

The government stated it was only people who were refused crisis loans that were being sent to the trussell trust with a voucher for a food parcel.

But the government announced they intend to scrap crisis loans -that people pay back (for people who have hit a short term crisis e.g. child in hospital, flooding).

The are recommending that councils in England get the money instead and also recommending that instead of actually giving out crisis loans that councils send people to the trussell trust for food parcels instead www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/social-fund-localisation-call-for-evidence.pdf

There were 2.69 million crisis loans given out in england last year.

So I guess this means the job centre won't only be giving those refused crisis loans money for food parcels but the job centre staff will be kept extremely busy as they will have to handle sending at least 2.69 million families to the trussell trust next year to queue for food parcels (with no fresh meat, no fresh milk, no fresh veg, no fresh bread) instead of borrowing a small amount in an emergency (and paying it back) to allow families to pay for fresh food when crisis and unexpected expense strikes.

So if you are on benefits and your child falls ill and ends up in hospital and you have to spend your benefits taking your child to hospital and visiting them in hospital - remember and leave time to trapse your children to the next town to collect your food parcel with no nutrition to help your child recover from their illness.

Let's go back to war time rations

OP posts:
Report
Empusa · 31/07/2011 15:12

FFS :(

How can they have so little understanding of how hard it is for those with little money?

Report
aliceliddell · 31/07/2011 15:14

War time rations? Are you mad? The country can't afford it.

Report
deemented · 31/07/2011 15:19

Bloody hell Angry

That is outrageous.

They really want to bring back the poorhouses, don't they?

Report
QueenOfFeckingEverything · 31/07/2011 15:19

Angry

I do actually think this Govt. will only be happy when all the poor, needy or vulnerable people fuck off and die.

Report
crazynanna · 31/07/2011 15:24

So what if you have to put money in the elecric after being mugged?
Last time I tried,a tin of beans won't fit into that little slot Hmm

Report
TartyDoris · 01/08/2011 02:12

Maybe people should do all they can to avoid getting in that position. When I worked for the benefits agency it always seemed to be the same people applying for crisis loans, drug addicts and alcoholics mostly.

Report
AmberLeaf · 01/08/2011 02:25

Oh do fuck off Doris

Report
crazynanna · 01/08/2011 09:19

Oh really Tart?

Well,how to you reckon I got one 2 years ago then when I got mugged,being in neither of your qualifying groups?

Actually,you do sound like a cunt person that would work in the Dept of Wankers and Pricks.

Report
OracleInaCoracle · 01/08/2011 09:29

Fuck off doris. Go back to your daily mail.

On the subject, how utterly disgusting. So if your money doesn't go in and you have no gas or electricity you are supposed to sit in the dark and cold as your punishment for being poor. Fucking tories, I can't begin to explain how muvch I hate the vile cunts.

Report
OracleInaCoracle · 01/08/2011 09:29

Fuck off doris. Go back to your daily mail.

On the subject, how utterly disgusting. So if your money doesn't go in and you have no gas or electricity you are supposed to sit in the dark and cold as your punishment for being poor. Fucking tories, I can't begin to explain how muvch I hate the vile cunts.

Report
HappyMummyOfOne · 01/08/2011 12:22

Reading that link, its more than just a food parcel company that is being recommended to replace the service. Theres a credit union etc.

Given they have lots of things in place to replace the interest free loans and grants, surely it can only be a good thing. It frees up money for other things that are more urgent and needed.

People dont realise that benefits are not a bottomless pit and that people need to do all they can to support themselves rather than rely on the state to hand them everything.

Report
OracleInaCoracle · 01/08/2011 12:32

Happymummy, credit unions offer loans if you save with them. What if you can't afford to save? People on benefits don't expect to have anything handed to them, that is a view put about the dm, as if anyone would choose a life on benefits ffs.

Report
aliceliddell · 01/08/2011 12:43

Pleased you're Happy, MumofOne. The rest of us disabled people idle scrounging bastards are less so, owing to being condem-ed to poverty with no option to change it. I know Atos are of the opinion that if I have a wheelchair, that shows I have no mobility problems. Until I have to get out of the wheelchair? I know, it's all Gordon Brown's fault, but Greece too? And USA? And Spain, Ireland, etc etc? Really?

Report
Empusa · 01/08/2011 12:50

"and that people need to do all they can to support themselves rather than rely on the state to hand them everything"

And some people need to realise that sometimes there are massive hurdles in the way of that, and that just because they are able to manage doesn't mean everyone else can. And that helping the vulnerable in society is never a bad thing.

Report
TartyDoris · 01/08/2011 13:25

Sorry but the vast majority of people I saw getting crisis loans were in that position because of poor life choices that they made themselves, not because of any kind of outside forces. Most of them smoked, most of them drank heavily, a lot of them were drug addicts. Many had children they were unable to afford to raise, and it's not like they had jobs and money when the child was born.

Report
crazynanna · 01/08/2011 13:43

And you really do know everbody's circumstances in the Welfare system,don't you?

Piece of work,on my life

Report
crazynanna · 01/08/2011 13:43

That post was for Tarty

Report
CogitoErgoSometimes · 01/08/2011 13:48

Before you all need hypertension medication.... did anyone actually read the document, particularly he part at the start of the report that stated....

"This paper focuses on the new locally-based service and how it might be delivered in England. Its publication marks the start of a dialogue between central Government, local authorities and customer representative groups. We would welcome your views on how the new service might be delivered in England."

'Start of a dialogue' is not a done deal.

Report
adamschic · 01/08/2011 13:49

I've never applied for a crisis loan and wouldn't be eligible as I'm not on benefits, I work full time. However, my crisis loans are provided by way of an overdraft from my lovely bank without which, I wouldn't be able to buy food and pay for gas regularly. Perhaps the banks will step in Hmm.

Report
CogitoErgoSometimes · 01/08/2011 13:51

Really. Try reading the document rather than believing the rather biased interpretation that Beingamumisfun put on it. It's a lot more interesting.

Report
EdithWeston · 01/08/2011 13:55

Can someone link the abolition bit?

The link in OP describes a reform which retains centrally funded crisis loans (ie current system stops, but new system of "advance of benefit" - in plain English, a crisis loan) plus local support (on which there appears to be a call for evidence, not settled policy).

Report
grumpypants · 01/08/2011 14:02

it's funny how the two sides see each other isn't it? those working in the industry (who choose to express an opinion) tend to side with doris, while those in receipt tend not to. i think the spin in the op is unfair to the proposals.
we do, as a country, need to start getting everybody to take responsibility (financial and otherwise) for their lives and their dependents. and before any one starts with the cheap swipes, no i'm not trying to make all disabled carers homeless etc.

Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

AmberLeaf · 01/08/2011 14:05

Its isnt always as straightforward as simply 'taking responsibility' though grumpypants.

Report
grumpypants · 01/08/2011 14:09

no, of course it isn't amber and what the report is saying is that the way benefits are now remotely administered no longer allows for the level of knowledge that discretinary payments require.
but, we do need people to accept that having additional children when nobody works is not really acceptable, and that budgeting is required. the cliches of someone blowing their dole on nights out and then needing a crisis loan exisit because they are true, in some cases. and then there are the genuine cases, which are managed by people not in receipt of benefits via overdrafts/ family loans and by crisis loans for those who do qualify.
there seems little harm in looking at something to see if it can work better/ be justified.

Report
EdithWeston · 01/08/2011 14:12

"spin" is a rather generous way of describing the characterisation in title and OP of the opening of consultations on a set of proposals for retention and reform of crisis loans.

Unless, of course, there are parallel (presumably non-Governmental?) proposals in this area. In which case, grateful for link.

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.