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Evaluation of the provision of social welfare advice across London

shawn mach
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New report from Advice Services Alliance:

Research by the Advice Services Alliance found that even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit increasing numbers of people in London are seeking advice for welfare benefits, debt, immigration and employment issues. Services are struggling to meet the demand. Drivers of increased demand for advice include changes to disability benefits, the roll out of Universal Credit, the no recourse to public funds immigration policy, a shift to online processes for claiming benefits and Brexit. The situation is worse this year due to the impact of coronavirus.

The provision of advice in London was found to fall short of the high level of demand with 75% of survey respondents informing of gaps or shortages in social welfare advice in their area. Young people and ethnic minority communities are least likely to easily access advice services although they are more likely to need them. People living in deprived areas of outer London boroughs were found to have greater need for advice yet less accessible services than those in inner London.

Whilst facing a backlog of clients, advice organisations are having to cope with depleting funding and resources as well as switching services to remote delivery in response to Covid-19. One in seven advice services reported being told to expect future funding cuts from local authorities and 50% said they didn’t know what the future held.

More: https://asauk.org.uk/advising-londoners-research-press-release/