The Salvation Army welcomes the support in today’s Budget to help
people cope with the rise in the cost of living. This includes an
increase to the Household Support Fund, which councils use to
help low-income households and families with children.
However, the Church and Charity warns these measures are a
short-term fix and won’t stop the cycle of poverty in the UK’s
most deprived areas.
The Salvation Army’s Lieut-Colonel Dean Pallant said: “The rising
cost of living has hit the poorest the hardest and we are pleased
the Government is taking steps to reduce this financial burden.
“We see first-hand the pressure families are under. Our officers
are struggling to meet the demand for our food banks. However,
while we are relieved there are measures to tackle the cost of
living in the short-term, more needs to be done to help people
escape from poverty in the long-term.
“The Government has pledged to level up the country and our
research* shows that
to do that there must be investment in helping people into secure
jobs. That means helping people retrain in areas where old
industries have died and investing in childcare to ensure parents
can afford to work.
“Without these measures, people living in the areas that the
Government has pledged to ‘level up’ will struggle to escape the
poverty trap. The cost of living crisis will only make them more
dependent on emergency measures to make ends meet.
The Salvation Army is calling on the Government to:
- Invest in skills and employment support to help individuals
out of low-skill, low-wage jobs.
- Expand free childcare provision so parents can afford to work
or train.
- Ensure that investment to level up the country by tackling
regional inequalities helps lift deprived communities out of
poverty.
- Give those on Universal Credit sixty days ‘breathing space’
to pay back the loan they received while waiting for their first
Universal Credit payment to prevent then falling into debt.
--Ends--
Notes to Editors:
*A report on the Levelling Up agenda by The Salvation Army and
the Institute for Employment Studies, ‘Understanding People,
Understanding Places’ (2021)
