Scottish VCS worried by welfare reforms

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) annual Sector Forecast has found that 63% of respondents said that they would be either directly or indirectly affected by welfare reforms. SCVO say that the high number of detailed responses to this question (190 out of a possible 234), and their content, shows that levels of concern in the sector around welfare reform is very high.

As expected, funding was once again by far the most important single issue facing organisations. This year, ‘the recession’ was not mentioned as much, but respondents remain very concerned about reduced or stand-still funding, and also made particular reference to:

* Difficulty securing core funding
* Short-term funding, and the difficulty to forward plan
* The need to invest in developing new services
* The need to develop new sustainable income sources
* Less reliance on a single funder

The second most important issue this year increased demand – ‘Less funding, increased demand’ and ‘increased demand’ was cited by 27 respondents as their primary concern.

Welfare reform was of particular concern, with many respondents expecting demand for their services to increase, and many raising concerns about the impact of changes to the wellbeing of vulnerable people. The flip-side of welfare reform is that some respondents felt that people would be less able to afford the services they provide, resulting in both a reduction in organisation’s ability to generate funding, and also in service users with reduced incomes being able to access services with a cost, even at reduced/subsided rates e.g. social events.

For a copy of SCVO’s full report, see SCVO’s State of the Sector Survey 2012

The report has also been covered by the BBC, see Scots charities ‘struggle to meet demand’ as welfare cuts bite