Plymouth aims to protect most vulnerable

Plymouth is putting in place plans to help support vulnerable residents as the city prepares to lose around £60million in welfare cuts.

The vast majority of benefits are administered at a national level and Plymouth City Council does not have any control over. But the Council has today agreed its Welfare Support Framework to agree a consistent approach to how to administer the 3% of welfare it is responsible for, and ensure that help is targeted at those who are in most need.

In addition the Council is working to ensure vulnerable people are signposted to appropriate services such as free debt advice, signposting for credit unions and working with partners in the voluntary and community sector and in social housing providers are just some of the ways the council is planning to help the 20% most vulnerable residents in the city.

Councillor Chris Penberthy, Cabinet Member for Cooperatives & Housing for Plymouth City Council said: "We are trying to do all we can to mitigate the effects of the savage Government cuts which are already affecting the poorest and most vulnerable people in Plymouth and will only be exacerbated by further welfare reforms.

"Unfortunately we are very limited in terms of what we can do to influence welfare policy and spend - the Council only directly administers around 3% of total welfare spend in Plymouth with the majority decided by DWP and HMRC – with around 43% of benefits spend being on pensions and 28% of spend on housing benefits. However we are trying to help people as much as we possibly can who are in genuine need.

"We particularly want to protect our most vulnerable residents such as the elderly, the disabled and children. We are extremely concerned that welfare reforms will lead to further homelessness, increased inequality and child poverty, and will have a detrimental effect on around one in five residents.”

The paper was agreed by Cabinet on Tuesday 8 March 2016.