Stockport Council - Withdraw plan to scrap the emergency Local Assistance Scheme

We, the undersigned note with extreme concern :

1) That Stockport Council has put forward a proposal to terminate the Stockport Local Assistance Scheme, in order to make a budget cut in 2019-20 of £486,000.

2) That the Scheme offers support to meet emergency needs, such as when someone has no food, clothing or gas and electric for their home and it provides practical support to persons moving on from temporary accommodation, through provision of furniture, beds and essential household items.

3) That the Council's proposal comes at a time when Professor Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, has reported that : "14 million people, a fifth of the population, live in poverty. Four million of these are more than 50% below the poverty line, and 1.5 million are destitute" and Stockport Foodbank states that 1 in 5 children in the Borough live in homes below the poverty threshold.

4) That the Council's proposal comes at a time when Universal Credit is being rolled out in Stockport, bringing with it all the well documented effects of increased hardship and increased debt.

5) That this proposed cut, hitting the poorest people in the Borough, comes just a few months after the Council declared a budget surplus of £4.7 million for the 2017-18 financial year.

6) That the Council's own Equality Impact Assessment on the proposal reveals that 36% of the awards from the Scheme, in the last 3 years, went to people in the Borough's poorest ward, Brinnington & Central, whilst only 0.4% went to people in the wealthiest ward, in Bramhall.

We, the undersigned believe that it is morally repugnant and wrong for the plight of the poorest people in the Borough to be worsened by this cut being targeted upon them.

We, the undersigned demand that the Council withdraws the proposal to terminate the Stockport Local Assistance Scheme and instead that the Council ensures that the Scheme continues and that the funding of it is increased where necessary as needs become greater.