The Overview & Scrutiny Committee discussed the Council's Cost of Living support policies, received updates from several organisations working with vulnerable people in Tower Hamlets, and agreed to provide some written feedback to the Cabinet and the Mayor.

Cost of Living

Councillor Saeed Ahmed, the Cabinet Member for Resources and Cost of Living, provided an overview of the Council's Cost of Living policies¹ and schemes.

The Committee discussed the Resident Support Scheme, which is a scheme that provides financial assistance to residents in need. The Committee heard that the scheme can be accessed either online or by telephone, and that members of staff are trained to help people fill out applications. The Committee also discussed the Council's Discretionary Housing Payment scheme, which can be used to help people who are struggling to pay their rent.

Councillor Francis questioned Councillor Ahmed about the impact of the Government's Universal Credit policies, specifically the five-week wait for payments, the digital-by-default delivery, and the two-child limit.

“How has the Universal Credit Administration era, the five week wait areas, digital by default delivery and the two child limit collectively contributed to the challenges faced by individuals and families dealing with the cost of living crisis?”

Councillor Ahmed said that the Government's welfare policies were not within the Council's control, but that the Council was working to mitigate their impact on residents.

Councillor Asma Islam asked about the support available for care leavers.

“And then in the report, there's absolutely no mentions of care leavers, and I wanted some more information about why that is, and when it comes, like this is something that's come up, we know about work path, the work that the work path does, a lot of care leavers can't even afford to take up those opportunities because they don't have the travel money to be able to travel to those interviews, so there's a link up work that work path should be doing. Is that happening, and how do we support care leavers through this crisis as well?”

Councillor Ahmed said that care leavers were one of the cohorts that received funding via the Household Support Fund².

Councillor Islam then asked about the impact of the rising cost of moving home for residents.

“One area of work is when it comes to moving homes, especially under cost of living, the cost of moving is never accounted for. So there are some really extreme cases that I know of and I've come across myself where the families that have bidded for a property, got a property or got a temporary accommodation can't afford the really basic things that they need in order to make that move happen, and I just wanted to know what the team knows or what the team is doing about that.”

Councillor Ahmed said that the Discretionary Housing Payment scheme could be used to help people who were moving to a more affordable property.

Councillor Francis questioned the use of the Mayor's name on letters sent to residents informing them of the Household Support Fund.

“I just had one question that quite a few constituents have asked me was how come the letters that they got with the barcode on that meant that they could go to the post office and claim some cash back at the post office, how come they went out in the name of the mayor and whether that's usual practice for those sorts of letters being sent to residents to claim money to be sent in the name of the mayor and whether legal advice was sought and obtained prior to those letters going out in the name of the mayor?”

Councillor Ahmed said that the use of the Mayor's name was appropriate because Tower Hamlets is an executive mayoral system and because the Household Support Fund was a one-off initiative. However, Councillor Ahmed agreed to provide a written response on whether legal advice had been sought on the use of the Mayor's name.

Eastern Citizen's Advice Bureau

Ali Halil, the manager of the Eastern Citizen's Advice Bureau, told the Committee that the demand for advice services had increased significantly in the last year. He said that the Bureau had seen a 44% increase in the number of welfare benefit cases, a 26% increase in the number of debt cases, and a 15% increase in the number of housing cases.

“Since November 2023 to January 2024, we've seen nearly 1,000 clients due to cost of living cases.”

Councillor Asma Islam asked Mr Halil about the Tower Hamlets Community Advice Network (TCAN), an umbrella organisation that supports advice services in the borough. TCAN’s funding has recently been cut.

“We've seen TCAN, one of the organisations that supports organisations like yourselves, who have missed out on the funding through grants and are kind of campaigning on looking at if the council has room for commissioning, basically. So do you think this is something that, as an organisation, you recognise for them to help support all of you that are actually doing some great work that you're doing? Because it is an umbrella organisation, isn't it?”

Mr Halil said that TCAN had provided valuable training and support to advice agencies, and that the Bureau would welcome the Council's support in restoring TCAN's funding. He said that the Bureau would also welcome the Council's support in applying for grants from other sources.

Councillor Francis asked Mr Halil about the impact of the Council's council tax policies on residents, specifically the way that non-dependent deductions, the minimum income floor, and the manner in which collection takes place were affecting residents.

“I just wondered, turning to the issue of council tax, so in theory, in Tower Hamlets, we have a scheme which still provides 100% support. I just wondered if there's anything that East End CAB feel about whether changes either in the way that non-dependent deductions impact on people, or the minimum income floor impacts on people, and also the manner in which collection takes place, so the way that people are issued with a court summons, issued then potentially with a liability order, costs going up, and then even perhaps having bailiffs instructed against them. Is that something you're seeing in the CAB, and if so, do you have any kind of thoughts about what the council might do differently?”

Mr Halil said that the Bureau was seeing a lot of clients who were struggling to pay their council tax, and that the Council's collection methods were often aggressive. He suggested that the Council could do more to communicate with residents about their council tax obligations and to help them to negotiate repayment plans.

First Love Foundation

Denise, the CEO of First Love Foundation, told the Committee that the organisation had transitioned from being a Foodbank to being a specialist legal advice service. She said that the organisation had found that by working with households to map their needs and by bringing together a multi-disciplinary team of advisors, advocates, and support workers, it was possible to arrest and address the decline in households and to remove some of the barriers that prevent people from getting back into work.

“What we have learnt through our work is that if all you do is respond to poverty with food, you are keeping people below the poverty line. We have found that by working with households, mapping the need, and bringing together a multi-disciplinary team of advisors, advocates, people with skills that can help them emotionally, you're able to arrest and address the decline in that household, and actually remove some of the barriers that help people back into work.”

Anika Olaitun Omoli, the head of service at First Love Foundation, told the Committee that the organisation had seen a catastrophic increase in the number of clients who were struggling with housing debt. She said that 40% of her caseload was now made up of clients who were in desperate need of support for housing and debt issues.

“On my caseload today, with just three advisors, our caseload is represented by 40% of clients who are in desperate need of support for housing and debt issues.”

She also told the Committee that 70% of the clients that she worked with when she first joined the organisation were coming because they had been sanctioned by the Department for Work and Pensions.

“When I first joined First Love Foundation and we still had the Foodbank open, 70% of our clients were coming because they'd been sanctioned by DWP during the transition to Universal Credit.”

Councillor Francis asked about a grant that the Foundation had received from the Council.

“But you mentioned that you got a certain amount to enable you to continue the work for a month and a half, I think it was that you said something like that. So I just really wanted to know, was that a month and a, first of all, was that a month and a half's worth of advice work or advice work plus food parcels for residents? And what is it that you think Tower Hamlets Council can be doing to up its game in support of yourselves and others in the advice and food bank sector in the borough?”

Denise explained that the grant had been for £103,000 over three and a half years and that the organisation's monthly running costs were just under £30,000. She said that the grant did not cover the cost of helping all of the people that the organisation could help, and that the organisation was having to find other sources of funding.

Wapping Bangladesh Association

Atikur Rahman, from the Wapping Bangladesh Association, told the Committee that the Association had seen a 40% increase in the number of local residents seeking help with the cost of living in the last 12 months.

“We have seen in the last 12 months, advice service has seen an increased 40% overall in the number of local residents seeking help with the cost of living.”

He said that the Association was working with a consortium of four other organisations to deliver advice and information services, and that the consortium had received £70,000 from the Council's Household Support Fund.

Councillor Asma Islam asked Mr Rahman about the difficulties that the consortium was facing in delivering advice services with limited resources.

“My question is that because, like you gave an example of the consortium of the five of your organisation, your partner organisations, the grant gave more money to more organisations, but less of it, which has thinned out funding. How much of a real struggle is it? Because when you tell me five days you're providing this service and everyone's part-time and I know the staff, I know all of you, how difficult is it? Because I'm really surprised you're able to do five days a week of advice.”

Mr Rahman said that the consortium was relying on volunteers to help deliver advice services. He said that the consortium was open five days a week, and that it was trying to accommodate clients within one week.

Bow Foodbank

Steve Gilman, the Chair of Bow Foodbank, told the Committee that the Foodbank had seen a significant increase in the number of families using its services since December 2022. He said that the Foodbank was now seeing between 500 and 550 families a week, and that the majority of these families were struggling as a result of the cost of living crisis.

“Since we came to scrutiny in December '22, we've seen significant increase. We were then seeing around about 450 families a week. By the summer of '23 we were seeing 900, and if you include the children and other adults in households, that was probably over 2,000 people being supported each week.”

Dr Iram Ali, a Trustee of Bow Foodbank, told the Committee that the Foodbank was seeing more and more people who were in work poverty, and that the Foodbank was struggling to find services to signpost people to. She suggested that the Council could help by coordinating advice and support services across the borough.

“So one thing, so kind of coordination, borough wide coordination for all of advice and food services. And secondly we wanted to say that we would be happy to work with the council as a feedback mechanism in a more detailed way as to how council policies, local policies, national policies impact poverty in this borough. Because we are a front line organisation and we see directly the impacts of policy walk through our door every day.”

Councillor Asma Islam asked Dr Ali what the Council could do to help the Foodbank to prevent poverty. Dr Ali suggested that the Council could co-fund or fund a borough-wide coordinator for advice and food services.

“Just someone who quantifies it and looks at who's serving how many people. Who's serving the most people in Poplar? Okay, they've got Poplar. Who's doing the most in Bromley Bobbo? We're not anymore because we've now moved to Bethnal Green. Then we're going to move back to the Roman Road. Just someone who has those pieces together and then can call us in and say this is a gap we're seeing in the area you're serving. What do you think? What can you do?”

Councillor Francis suggested that the Council should continue to offer cash support to Foodbanks, and that the Council should consider increasing the funding for advice services in line with inflation.

“Finally the thing that I wanted to say is the National Council for Voluntary Organisations says, which represents all the voluntary sector in the country in some ways, says that contracts should be uplifted by the rate of inflation. And as we heard the contract for advice services was not uplifted in line with inflation, hasn't received any uplift at all and I would really encourage us all to think about whether that's a recommendation that we could put forward because that would mean that more people would get advice in this borough to challenge DWP, to challenge the housing association or whoever it might be.”

The Committee agreed to provide some written feedback to the Cabinet and the Mayor on the issues raised by the guest speakers, and to consider how the Committee could be used to better shape the Council's policies on cost of living and poverty.