Tag: London

Rich London/poor London – and the world’s best social worker

In a powerful article in the Guardian recently, Aditya Chakrabortty describes the nature of the recovery Britain is enjoying. He points to analysis by the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (Cresc) at Manchester University. This, he says,  shows that London and the South East “have come roaring out of the crash, and now account for a greater share of growth than they did even during the boom”. He describes how a restaurateur in Canary Wharf has had his opening delayed while he waits for a supply of marble to arrive from an Italian quarry.

The owner of this latest upmarket eatery targeted at the capital’s bankers and lawyers points out that he knows it’s been a dark period nationally, But he says customers at his other restaurants in central London have spent more year upon year – “apart from what he describes as a blip in 2010”. The restaurateur adds: “….On our figures, it’s as if London has never suffered a recession.”

A few miles down the road from Canary Wharf, we’re trying to identify signs of  this economic good cheer. All we’ve picked up on so far is a surge in demand at our borough’s food banks. Is this what Aditya Chakrabortty describes as a “recovery centred on the capital and driven by credit”  looks like in our part of London?

‘Margaret’ (not her real name) came into the food bank that’s located in a far corner of the borough recently (the food banks in this borough are all supported  by the Trussell Trust, which partners with churches and communities to open food banks nationwide). Out of breath, she told us that she lives very close to here, but by mistake had ended up at a different food bank, which was closed (Each food bank in the borough opens on a different day of the week). She eventually got here with her eight-year-old daughter . Margaret was exhausted and in need of a cigarette. We took two chairs outside so that she could speak freely without her daughter listening (and because smoking is banned in the food bank).

This former store manager for a major retail chain has had the most difficult of lives since she was widowed in 2001. At that point she had a breakdown, and lost her children when they were taken into care for a year. “I got the children back, but neither I nor the kids were offered any support.”  A social worker – “the world’s best” according to Margaret – took over her case recently. She says the social worker was shocked when she worked through the family’s paperwork and is now offering the family ongoing support.

As well as her eight-year-old, Margaret  has sons of  21, 16, 15, and 13. She also shares her home with her 21 year-old stepdaughter.  Margaret’s 21 year-old son is severely autistic, her son of 13 has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and she also spends as much time as she can helping to care for her father – who has had a stroke and memory loss – and her mother, who is wheelchair-bound.

The family became homeless in February, and was eventually rehoused by a different borough in September.  Her family’s troubled situation seemed to only trigger intervention when their homelessness was picked up by staff at her daughter’s school. Someone from the school referred the family to child protection.

Once on the scene, the social worker quickly realised that this was not a child protection situation, said Margaret.  With the social worker involved, things are improving.  Margaret is a terrific person, who wants to care for everyone, but has missed on on vital support for years. But this dynamic social worker has clearly decided that the family will have a future . She’s told Margaret that “all you need to do is get a foot in the door”. Margaret is a wonderful, intelligent woman and a great communicator.  Many employers would see her as an asset.

Margaret tell me that her social worker is not scared of  telling her what’s what. “I put a telly into Cash Converters – but she said you can’t do that. She went into the shop and she got it back.” At this point her daughter comes outside and chips in: “We’ve got the best social worker ever!”

Her daughter’s eyes light up when she sees the supply of emergency food. She shouts out: “I love people!” She then tells us she can do break-dancing and Irish dancing – and we’re treated to an enthusiastic demonstration of each.

This is a  family that has much to build on. Margaret’s son of 16 is a talented rugby player, whose club is supporting his attendance at an academy. He’s also getting extra help to deal with his dyslexia. Margaret loves watching him play at the weekends. The social worker is arranging for them to have a holiday – the sort of thing they have missed out on for years. There’s a lot of love to go round in this family, and maybe that has helped them through some ghastly times.

London’s “boom” is not making a deal of difference to the food bank clients in this blighted corner of the world, but this social worker just might be able to help effect some progress for Margaret, her kids and her parents.

Benefit delays leave ‘Michael’ starving – while DWP hides the statistics

I met “Michael” (not his real name) last weekend at a different food bank in a much more visibly run-down area of our London borough. It’s a massive area of mainly social housing, straddling two boroughs. Although it’s in a corner location among endless blocks of council flats, it’s hard to find.  I was driving – and arrived late after getting lost. There are no signposts or posters indicating its existence.

The volunteers here are amazingly kind and highly committed – as they are in the other food bank I’ve been going to in the last few weeks. But the tiny size of the public room here doesn’t make it easy for them to sit people down in a comfortable way and offer them a cup of tea and a biscuit. The volunteers do try to offer this when they’re able – depending on how busy they are. But usually clients must take their place on a sad row of chairs at the side, then wait while their emergency groceries are put together in the storeroom next door.

Michael sat there quietly in this gloomy room  – imagine something worse than the most depressing GP surgery you might ever have been to – and told me why he’d ended up there.  As is the case for many of the people I’ve come across in the last few weeks, he’s run out of food because of delays to his benefits.

Life has not treated him well. He used to work for a charity before becoming unemployed. The Jobcentre has now stopped his money because he missed an appointment.  He says the reason he didn’t make the appointment was because he had been attacked and assaulted and was making a statement to the Police at the time of his Jobcentre appointment. He claims he was attacked by three men – two of whom he says are now back in prison, and the third is ‘on the run’.

The case, says Michael has still to come to court. He adds: “They were drunk and they put me in hospital. They haven’t been sentenced for this, but they (the Police) put them straight back into prison. I had a statement from the Police to say they were with me. I sent the form to the Department of Work and Pensions  (DWP), but they weren’t happy with that. I’ve had four to five weeks without any money. It’s very difficult to survive.”

This is an understatement. Michael is 39, and he’s fading away. His spirit and his body have been damaged by this attack. I wonder whether the assault has destroyed him, and whether he will be able to overcome such a setback. Has he reached the stage of thinking that this is what must be accepted from life?  Because he can’t afford to eat, his weight is down to nine and a half stones. He says that previously he was about 11 stones. This is the first time he’s had to use a food bank.  His private landlord understands his situation, he says – so at least he has a roof over his head.

This food bank and the others in the borough, were set up by the Trussell Trust, in partnership with churches and communities. It’s one of almost 400 currently launched by the charity nationwide.  Alan, the food bank manager for all the borough’s food banks, says the DWP produces its own voucher that it can give to those claimants it chooses to refer to a food bank. But the DWP opted to introduce its own voucher in April that no longer records the reasons why a claimant has been referred. Before then a tick box had been included that allowed them to record the reasons for referral, including delays to paying benefit. “The DWP is trying to camouflage the numbers by taking the tick boxes off these vouchers,” says Alan.

According to an article by Patrick Butler in the Guardian, this move by the DWP was “a petty, cynical obfuscation”.  That sounds about right to me.  As he puts it, the move “smudges and distorts reality”. But the Trussell Trust  – which is still using the original DWP forms as a data source,  said in April that 30 per cent of claimants were referred because of benefit delays.  That  figure feels much higher here – and we’ll return to this crucial issue very soon.

Fingers crossed for ‘Niall’ today

What are the hot trends in this major world financial centre? Bankers’ bonuses are back on the table, and bidding wars for property in central London are pushing prices higher than before the 2008 crash. In the Guardian on Saturday Ian Jack called London the ‘world HQ of speculative house-buying’.

If you were a qualified chartered accountant from the south of Ireland and  your job disappeared a while back – you might consider it a good idea to  head to this glorious metropolis. Niall (not his real name) must have read the headlines when he did just that and hit the streets of London on September 25.  Irish governments have passed seven austerity budgets since 2008, and according to think tank Civitas, if Ireland exits the bailout programme successfully it will be hailed as ‘a poster child for austerity’. That’s all great, unless  like Niall you find yourself unemployed at the age of 32 after 13 years of work.

Arriving here, Niall has ended up not far from this suburb a few train stops from the City. But now the perspective has shifted. Our pawnbrokers and pound shops suggest an alternative vision of London, although Walthamstow High Street to the north of here still beats us in terms of sheer quantity of payday loan shops.

Niall, who came into our London food bank  – set up by local churches in this borough in partnership with the Trussell Trust  – has been surviving on a £79 emergency loan since he arrived. He moved in with a friend in London, but the young friend he came over with fell out with Niall’s London mate, and the two of them had to leave. They ended up sleeping in a local park the night they were kicked out. Next, they moved in with Niall’s uncle.

Niall said: ‘Things have been rough to say the least. I’ve gone through £500 in the last three weeks, and that’s without socialising. But I’m optimistic. I’ve come with aspirations to do well, not to be a benefit seeker. I have literally got £5 left. I’m applying for any job I can get. If they want me to sweep shit off the street I’ll do it. I don’t think I’m too good to do anything. I’ve applied for 40 jobs in one day, and I’ve applied for 100 jobs since I got here.’

Things may indeed look up very soon for Niall, who is articulate, charismatic and funny. He sent his CV off to a major accountancy firm and they interviewed him today. He showed me a very positive email from the director of human resources, who tells him he’s very much looking forward to meeting him. ‘He’s very impressed by my skills and my knowledge.’

He thanks the volunteers at the food bank for the bags of groceries he and his friend are given, saying: ‘This is going to be a huge benefit.’  He brushes off our concern about the  five mile trip they have to tackle on foot carrying the six heavy bags, saying: ‘Who needs a bus when we’ve got fine legs on us…. I could sit here all day and moan to you, but we just have to get on with it.’ He’s determined to turn his life around.