Post-Brexit failure to replace European Social Fund would be disastrous

Grateful thanks to South West Skills Newsletter

In a short report the Work and Pensions Committee says any gap in payments between the existing European Social Fund and a new fund would be disastrous. It also says the UK has a rare opportunity to “create a truly world-leading successor” to the European Social Fund “that is the envy of Europe” – but it must act fast.

Read the report summary
Read the conclusions and recommendations
Read the full report: European Social Fund

Gap in provision would be disastrous

The consequences of a gap in provision – for providers, for local areas, and for individuals – would be “disastrous”. The ESF provides £500 million a year dedicated employment and skills support funding for people and communities poorly served or neglected by “mainstream” support into, and in, work.

As good as some of the present provision is, it is delivered in siloes and is not designed to meet individuals’, families’, and communities’ total needs. The successor fund must act as a transition to a proper Mark II system which allows communities’, families’, and individuals’ total needs to be catered for and not restricted by arbitrary definitions of help.

Recommendations

The Committee calls on Government to:

• Ensure funds are available so there is no gap between existing and new provision
• Establish a new arm’s length body, to dovetail grants to existing funding streams so programmes can meet effectively all of their participants’ needs
• Retain a separate fund within the UKSPF for employment support for disadvantaged groups and communities
• Ensure flexibility of local funding mechanisms for both longer-term and short-term programmes; and
• Cut bureaucracy for providers, in getting money to projects that work or to new projects that show entrepreneurial skills

Historic opportunity for effective reform

Rt Hon Frank Field MP, Chair of the Committee, said:

“We now have an historic opportunity to create a truly fit-for-purpose successor to the ESF.
The Government must act quickly so that those excellent existing suppliers are not bankrupted.
Effective reform here offers the Government an important new chance to begin to fill our skills gap from the community upwards, instead of having a top-down approach.”

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Government told it must face significant Universal Credit problems

staff writers at Ekklesia: a new way of thinking

Responding to the report on Universal Credit by the Work and Pensions Select Committee, which warns that the new benefits system could push low-income families into debt, Trades Union Congress General Secretary Brendan Barber has declared that, “The concerns raised in this report must not be ignored”.

He followed a host of NGO and charity experts, who say that the government must not run away from the difficulties the simplifying Universal Credit - welcomed in principle but feared in detail and practice by many – entails.

The report was launched in the House of Commons on 22 November 2012 by the Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, Dame Anne Begg MP.

“It is deeply disturbing that some local authorities are already warning that the new monthly payment system could force some low-income families to turn to pay-day loan companies and loan sharks in an attempt to get by,” commented the outgoing TUC chief.

Mr Barber continued: “Ministers must also ensure that vulnerable people can access the new system. Moving the claims process entirely online seems like another potential recipe for disaster that could leave many applicants unsure about how to apply for their payments. Universal Credit is supposed to be about simplifying the benefits system not making it more complicated.

Continue reading (also contains a link to the report)

Hazel’s comment:
Many people on benefits do not have regular access to the internet and in this neck of the woods (Kettering in Northamptonshire) it costs £1 for 20 minutes at the public library. Put that on top of the difficulties of trying to budget monthly and I fear for many local families.

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