Social security

The social security system should be a safety net for people on low incomes or those with disabilities, mental or physical health challenges, or other complex issues. Changes to this system have led to it failing the people it was designed to serve.

Record numbers of people are turning to food banks and charities as they can’t afford food or other essentials. The system’s limits, deductions and sanctions are often pushing people deeper into poverty, and navigating the system can take a toll on people’s wellbeing and mental health. We are pushing for changes to be made to the social security system to ensure that it is fair, effective, and adequately supporting people in the ways they need.

As more people are being pushed into poverty by the cost of living and lack of support, the small charities we partner with are under increasing pressure as they try to plug the gaps in welfare support. For years, we have been hearing from hundreds of our charity partners about how demand for their services is increasing and people are coming to them with more complex needs. We use this feedback and evidence from charities to make the case for change with government and other decision-makers, as well as equipping charities themselves to influence change at a local and national level

Supporting charities to influence nationally and locally

We want to make sure the social security system works better for people facing the greatest challenges. We are focused on influencing change in these key areas:

• Ensuring benefits are not taken away unfairly
• Improving access to disability benefits through appropriate and improved assessment processes
• Reducing the impact of sanctions and deductions
• Increasing the availability of support for people facing crisis or destitution, including people with no recourse to public funds

Through our national influencing programme and local collaborations programme, we’re funding several organisations working to influence change in several areas.

Campaigning against sanctions

• Carers UK is influencing national policy and practice around the main carer’s benefit, Carer’s Allowance. This project aims to reduce the number of carers who face overpayments by unintentionally going over the earnings threshold for Carer’s Allowance and being subject to debt recovery.
• Central England Law Centre and Public Law Project are working on an action research project, collaborating with people with lived experience of benefit sanctions and community organisations, with the aim of addressing concerns about discrimination, bias and transparency in sanction decision making.
• Gingerbread, together with Home-start Lambeth and Himmah, are exploring the economic and psychological impact of Universal Credit sanctions on single parent families, and campaign with those effected to #ScrapTheSanctions reforming the ineffective social security system.

Ensuring that people facing complex issues can access the benefits they need

• Homeless Link and NACCOM will continue to work together to influence national legislative and process change to ensure everyone with No Recourse to Public Funds has increased access to the accommodation, support, and immigration advice they need to prevent and end their homelessness.
• is committed to alleviating unpaid carer poverty, influencing decision-makers in England and Wales to ensure unpaid carers are consistently recognised as a priority group for discretionary funding.
• Expert Link are supporting people with lived experience working with decision makers to improve access to accommodation, benefits and crisis support for those experiencing multiple disadvantages.Rethink Mental Illness is working with experts by experience of severe mental illness to codesign, campaign for and influence needed improvements to work capability assessments and conditionality for benefits.
• Z2K (The Zacchaeus 2000 Trust) aims to increase incomes through improved access to health and disability benefits by working with experts by lived experience to effect change.

 

Universal Credit

Universal Credit has presented a number of challenges to charities we fund and their clients. From difficulties with the digital process to the five-week wait for first payments, charities are providing more and more support as people struggle to access the benefits they need.

We draw on the insight we’ve gained from working with charities on welfare issues to respond to consultations on issues such as the five-week-wait for the first payment of Universal Credit: Work and Pensions Select Committee – Universal Credit: the wait for a first payment.

To look at the challenges around Universal Credit in more depth, we co-funded Bright Blue’s Helping Hand report focused on improving Universal Credit. Charities we fund fed evidence into this report, with a focus group also providing further context and challenge. We and Bright Blue have shared this with the government and are pushing for more changes to address the challenges in the system.

The charities we support have also raised concerns over welfare deductions and their impact on people facing complex social issues. These deductions are impoverishing individuals and families against a backdrop of low incomes, rising living costs and widening inequalities during Covid. In May 2022, we published a report to bring together a range of evidence and research to highlight the issue and present a case for reform. 

 

Campaigning against deductions

The amount that people receive through benefits like Universal Credit is low already, but many people receive even less than the standard allowance due to deductions. This is when money is taken out of benefit payments to pay off debt owed to government from advance payments, errors, historic overpayments, or utility or rent arrears. They are primarily the result of Government policy, not individual behaviour, and are imposed without understanding of the individual’s circumstances. This leaves many people struggling to afford essentials like food and energy. These deductions are impoverishing individuals and families against a backdrop of low incomes, rising living costs and widening inequalities.

This is an area where Government could take action to make a difference. We produced a report bringing together a range of evidence and research to make the case for change. We’ve given evidence to the Work & Pensions Select Committee and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Universal Credit. MPs have backed our calls for change and we’ll continue to advocate for change in this area.

 

Previous projects

From 2020 to 2024 we funded several projects aiming to influence the following challenges in the social security system:

1. Ensuring people of working age can access the benefit support they need
2. Ensuring these benefits aren’t taken away unfairly, to prevent people from needing crisis support
3. Ensuring people of working age who do fall through the gaps can access crisis support
4. Being able to respond to opportunities to improve access to, and the help available from, welfare support and challenge unfair practices

Some key achievements included:

• Expert Link, led by people with experience of multiple disadvantages, delivered training to work coaches across London and the South East to improve their understanding of homelessness. Members also developed training videos on homelessness for all work coaches nationally.
• Z2K led a national campaign calling for reform of the disability benefit assessment process
• Public Law Project improved the evidence base and policy engagement around benefit deductions and sanctions
• Money and Mental Health Policy Institute led a campaign on improving support for people with mental health problems to manage their Universal Credit account.
• Homeless Link and NACCOM developed a ‘roadmap’ for local authorities to develop more inclusive homelessness solutions for people with no recourse to public funds

Read more about the work we funded through that programme