Welfare programmes have been cut back by 20%

The social services across the UK have been greatly reduced over the last five years, and further cut backs are now planned for following years and throughout the end of the decade. The reduction in welfare schemes from local councils, housing benefits, and other programmes is being felt by hundreds of thousands of families on a low income.

The reductions are occurring as part of the central government’s austerity policies. In total, council’s have about £18bn less to spend for safety net programmes as a result of these Conservative policies. This is a reduction of almost 20%. To make the situation even more dire, over £9bn more will be cut from the programmes in the next five years.

Impact to welfare and social service cutbacks

Hundreds of thousands of people have been effected. It is estimated that 150,000 pensioners have had a reduction in their entitlements. Tens of thousands of children from families on a low income or poverty are also have their assistance cut back, and some are even going homeless. Each parent of a child now has about £600 less from welfare to spend on essential living expenses or bills.

Children also also being forced to live in hostels at an increasing rate. This is due to the fact that councils have less cash to spend on housing or deposit schemes. The number of local authorities that are struggling to provide housing to children has increased over 700% since 2010.

The disabled are also being faced with cutbacks. Many local authorities will now longer provide the basic care they need, such as for washing. Instead the person needs to seek other support, often from family members or charities.

Local Councils, which sometimes help many of these people that are in a financial hardship, have had their budgets cut in other ways as well. They no longer have as much central government funding to pay for their operations, ranging from road sweeping to even keeping the offices full staffed. The local welfare, which is also run by over 300 local authorities, also have less resources to help families pay their bills or buy food in a crisis.

While some government agencies have merged services and tried to increase efficiency, the 20% reduction in their funding has been difficult to deal with. The result is that the assistance programmes have been reduced. This means more people are threatened with homelessness or can’t get a grant from welfare for paying their heating costs during the cold months.

Experts say the benefits that were being provided across the UK were not sustainable. In fact, some people say the tax rates (which are closer to those in the US) do not support a welfare system that may provide as much support as those in France or Germany. The numbers just did not add up, and something needed to change after the Labour’s rapid increase in welfare fro earlier in 2000.