MP lavishes praise on community workers

Everyone likes to be appreciated, a warm word of kindness here and there goes a long way!  We are pleased to announce that the Brighton Unemployed Centre and Families Project was officially acknowledged earlier this month by local MP Caroline Lucas for all the tireless effort we put into our community support projects and the assistance we provide to people in crisis.  She said: “I know that you are on the frontline, helping people claim whatever assistance they are entitled to, signposting to food projects, mental health support and giving huge amounts of time and energy to help those who are most vulnerable in our community.”

 

She vowed to back up her words with action, declaring “I will continue to do what I can to help the constituents who contact me, and that in Parliament I will continue to urge the government to reverse its cruel welfare cuts”.  At the Brighton Unemployed Centre and Families Project we witness the various impacts of people not having enough money and we work to mitigate these circumstances of genuine hardship in the best way we know how.

 

We, at the Brighton Unemployed Centre and Families Project were proud to be singled out for praise, but as Caroline points out we are one community project amongst a “fantastic network of people working to offer community advice and anti-poverty support”.  This means if we are limited in what we can do to help with what you are going through, we will always do the best we can to help you find a service that is more specialised and suited to you at this particular time.  We are proud to be working in your interests and hopefully can continue to do so for a long time to come, but it is always nice to be recognised for it as well!

The Centre Cooks

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Would you like to learn more about cooking vegan food? "The Centre Cooks" is our booklet of tried and tested recipes that we use in our kitchen here at BUCFP. Written and brought together by Food Project volunteers it is a little collection of handy tips to make your vegan diet healthy, tasty and full of variety.

You can get a copy for £5 which includes postage, to find out more or to order your copy, please contact Carol, the Food Project Coordinator on 01273 671213 or bucfp.food.project@gmail.com

Remembering Chloe and Alan.

Over the period the Centre has been closed we have received some sad news, Alan Thrower, who has been teaching Japanese at the centre for over 20 years sadly passed away on Wednesday 18th August, following a heart attack.

One of his dedicated students, Jason, informed us of this and he arranged a small drink to say farewell.

His funeral will be in his hometown of Kettering on the 14th September.

We would like to pass our condolences and fondest wishes to his family and he will be very much missed on a Thursday morning.

Also during this time one of our long attending Centre users Chloe Bishop also passed away in January this year, following an epileptic attack. Chloe had enjoyed many activities in the Centre, the sewing group, art class and our trips out, she was only 33.

Her family are arranging a memorial for Chloe on 26th September between 2-5pm, if you would like to attend please contact the Centre on 01273 601211 to express your interest .

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Statement on planned £20 cut to Universal Credit.

BUCFP supports making permanent the £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit.

If the planned cut to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit goes ahead in October:

  • 140 constituencies would see more than one in four of all families (with or without children) affected, including 36 Conservative seats.

  • On average 21% of all working-age families (with or without children) in Great Britain will experience a £1,040-a-year cut to their incomes on 6 October.

  • Over 400 constituencies are set to see over one in three working-age families with children hit by the cut.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published the following report on the impact of this cut to constituencies across the country, a copy of which can be found here:

https://www.jrf.org.uk/universal-credit-cut-impact-constituency

"Our analysis has shown that 6 million low-income families will lose £1,040 from their annual income, creating serious financial hardship and leave 500,000 people to be swept into poverty - including 200,000 children. Families with children will be disproportionately impacted and worryingly, 6 in 10 of all single-parent families in the UK will be impacted.

The Government is rightly saying that it wants to support people back into work as we emerge from the crisis. But working families make up the majority of families who will be affected.

Politicians of all parties have warned against this cut and called for the investment to be made permanent, including Labour and SNP leadership, all six previous Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions since 2010, the Work and Pensions Committee, the Lords Economic Affairs Committee, the Conservative Northern Research Group and the Conservative One Nation Caucus."

Writing in support of maintaining the £20 uplift, our own MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle has stated:

"Lloyd agrees with you that UC should not be reduced at this time. If the reduction does go ahead, as the Government plans, it will cost six million families an estimated £1,000 a year and support for those out of work will be left at its lowest level in decades. For these reasons, Lloyd supports maintaining UC at its current levels until it can be replaced with a new social security system which provides a proper social security safety net and has dignity and respect at its heart.

In the meantime, Lloyd wants to see urgent reforms to UC and the current social security system. These include an end to the five-week wait for a first UC payment and for UC advances to be converted into grants instead of loans. In addition, Lloyd believes the UC savings limit, the benefit cap and the two-child limit for UC and Tax Credits should be abolished.

More widely, Lloyd supports uprating all six legacy benefits by £20 a week in line with UC. Taking all of these steps would provide immediate support those affected by coronavirus including many people who, as you say, have kept our country running during the pandemic"

The Trussell Trust, food bank network, has been running the following #KeepTheLifeline campaign, which can be found here:

https://www.trusselltrust.org/keepthelifeline/


- BUCFP, Welfare Rights Group.

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