Welfare Rights Campaign in Tower Hamlets

43% of children in Tower Hamlets are living in poverty according to Trust for London. 7.7% of the working population are unemployed in the borough. Whether to claim universal credit or not would be a big question for a lot of people. In order to raise public awareness of universal credit in the local community, Universal Credit Action Network (UCAN), have organised a public meeting. You can hear from local campaigners and advice charities on the impact of welfare reform to the local community. If you are free on 18th December at 6pm, pop over at Brady Centre, Whitechapel. Refreshment provided!

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A debt free path for a mental health sufferer

It’s a well-known fact that individuals who suffer from a hampered mental capacity - be it mental health or learning difficulties - are most likely to be vulnerable in our communities. They are also more likely to be victims of miss-sold products and services by companies, even though organisations that are providing financial products and services have a duty under the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to take extra care towards these individuals. This is what the FCA has to say about vulnerable customers: ‘ The vulnerability of the customer, in particular where the firm understands the customer has some form of mental capacity limitation or reasonably suspects this to be so because the customer displays indications of some form of mental capacity limitation (see ■ CONC 2.10) But due to a culture of intensive selling to consumers, generated by employers placing and enforcing - often difficult and unrealistic - performance goals which are attached to tempting

(Part I) My presentation on universal credit and debt on Carers Day with Hackney Carers Centre (slides of the presentation included) brought to you by Hackney Council and Carers are the Bedrock

“Thank you so much for coming along, the ‘money’ workshops were by far the most popular, that was you and ‘Direct Payments” Lisa Taylor Carers Coordination Service Manager Hackney Carers Centre

Is Council Tax really Poll Tax? Where is the momentum for a new campaign?

‘I have not been able to pay my council tax for last four years. Bailiffs have lied to me to get money from me. I still can’t afford it!’ says Joanna Robinson on Money Matters show on East London Radio in March 2018. During the period 2016-17, bailiffs were used by councils on nearly 1.5 million occasions in order to attempt recovery of council tax arrears. As in Joanna's case, residents were summoned to court for being too poor to pay - accruing court costs, subjected to the ignominy and anxiety having to face enforcement agents, and already too poor to pay, further indebtedness. As I hear the horror stories of bailiff’s knocking on debtors’ doors under the new Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTRS), I am beginning to worry that the Scheme is really just a Poll Tax rehash. I was too young to remember what the Poll Tax was when it was first introduced in the late 1980s. My parents never spoke about it. In my work I started to notice from 2013 onwards that mo

Your Doctor Debt: Ripon Ray

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