Tag: Trussell Trust

Standing taller…

Alan the food bank manager passes on some heartening news. “Elizabeth”, the Nigerian lady who came in two weeks ago with her baby, returned  to our London food bank on Friday with her children.  The older two were off school because of half term. At first the volunteers weren’t sure it was her.  Alan says she was much brighter, and “standing taller”.

When I interviewed her a fortnight ago, she was very low and so overcome by trauma that she spoke in a whisper. Her husband tried to commit suicide by hanging some weeks earlier. Her eight year old daughter had to fetch a knife to cut the rope.

Alan tells me: “We had a good chat and it seems that social services are now fully involved and are helping her. The kids were sweet and very engaging. It was so good to see her looking so much better, even though hubby is still in hospital and not making much progress. Still we pray….”

This food bank is one of almost 400 set up by the Trussell Trust – which partners with churches and communities to provide a supply of at least three days emergency food to those in a crisis. Alan is the kindest of people and devotes his life to providing practical help to his food bank clients. He also believes in the power of  divine intervention and prayer, as do many of the volunteers who help here in this borough.

I respect Alan’s strong Christian beliefs, which motivate him to do this work.  But  I’m much more of a believer in the power of citizens  to protest at this government’s targeting of  the poorest and most vulnerable. The current direction of welfare and immigration  policies is disturbing – and is turning people like Elizabeth and her family into England’s scapegoats.  A perceptive article in the New Statesman describes the Immigration Bill as an “explicit response” to public perceptions that the benefit system is a “magnet for migrants coming to access more generous benefits that they would receive at home, even though there is very little hard evidence of this…” This Bill, says the article’s author Alex Glennie, is “essentially a statement of intent and a triumph of symbolism over substance, designed to send a message that the government is serious about creating a hostile environment for those whose legal right to live and work in the UK is in question”.

I would guess that Elizabeth has contributed much to the UK.  She rents privately and is receiving maternity pay of £278 a fortnight from her job as a support worker for the elderly.  Elizabeth has been looking after London’s elderly parents and grandparents. Her maternity pay doesn’t cover her rent to the private landlord, food and bills.  Her husband had to leave his accountancy training course because of his depression and is still very ill following his suicide bid.  Elizabeth says he had to stop working while on the course because of changes in the visa rules (the couple are applying to stay permanently in the UK).

As well as myths about immigration, there are also an increasing number of  fables in circulation about why food banks are growing in “popularity” – for want of a better word. One of the 10 most common myths about food  banks is that they create dependency and don’t address the causes of poverty. If people come to a food bank more than three times in six months the system flags this so that the food bank manager can contact the service or person that referred them. They can then make sure a plan is in place to help the client overcome poverty. Elizabeth was referred by her GP,  who would seem to be very much on the ball and has made the referral to social services. Of course it won’t be easy for Elizabeth to improve her family’s circumstances quickly. But there are some optimistic signs now that she’s on the radar of  an alert GP and social services.

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‘Elizabeth’, her sick husband, and the knife

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt is appointing a new NHS director of costs. His job, says Mr Hunt, will be  to help the health service ‘get better’ at charging immigrants who are already in Britain, but not eligible for free treatment on the NHS. The coalition’s position is that short term immigrant and foreign visitors should pay more than £500m a year towards the cost of their NHS care.

Let’s look at the account of one woman who came to our London food bank a few days ago, and who happens to be making an immigration application.  ‘Elizabeth’ (not her real name)  came to the UK from Nigeria with her husband in 2010, and she is the quietest, saddest-looking woman I’ve seen for a long time. She brought her baby boy of seven months, who was fast asleep.

In a voice that’s no more than a whisper, she slowly, painfully, tells me her story.  I desperately hope that this is the worst account from a food bank client that I ever have to pass on.

Both Elizabeth and her husband have been renewing their visas while they try to negotiate the immigration application process. They also have two older children  – a girl of eight and a son of five. Elizabeth says: ‘My husband is in hospital. He has depression and he’s had it since 2010. He was working for 20 hours a week, and was also a student. But the rules changed and he wasn’t allowed to work. He was studying to be an ACCA (chartered accountant), and he has passed the first stage. But he has been in hospital now for over a month.’

How do they all survive, now that he is unable to work? ‘My maternity pay is the only money coming in. I get £278 every fortnight, from my job as a support worker for the elderly. A social worker is getting involved now, and is looking at whether there will be any financial help with regard to the rent.’

Why has a social worker suddenly intervened? Elizabeth tells me of the terrible circumstances which led to her husband being taken into a mental health unit as an in-patient recently: ‘He tried to commit suicide. I called the ambulance. My eight year old daughter got me a knife and I cut the rope.’ This poor woman’s daughter saw everything. By the time she’d reached the end of the account she had broken down and was in tears.

The stress this woman is going through, along with three small children, is horrific. Elizabeth’s GP was able to ease things a little by giving her a voucher for the food bank. We were then able to give her an emergency supply of food, including some nappies. She stayed with us for quite a while that afternoon, and I hope that talking to us about this almost unimaginable trauma, helped her – even a little. At least  – small comfort – she was able to feed herself and her two older children that weekend. She is still breast-feeding her baby.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Elizabeth and her family this week. Let’s hope that he responds well to the treatment he’s receiving. I’m not completely sure whether she and her husband have ‘temporary migrant’ status – It looks as if they do. What is a ‘health tourist’? Is Elizabeth’s husband one of those? If these new proposals supported by Jeremy Hunt do make their way into law – the Immigration Bill was passed yesterday by 303 votes to 18 – at what point during his recovery would some NHS doctor have to present Elizabeth’s husband with the bill for his treatment?

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.