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Read the latest news & blogs on how we are working to create a London free from poverty
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Retrospective on Remote Social Security Hearings
Prior to the national lockdown, Z2K’s Tribunal representation project largely revolved around client contact. From our initial meeting with clients at outreach sessions and appointments at our offices to scan their paperwork, to clients meeting their representative and ultimately attending the Tribunal with them on the day of their hearing.
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Legacy Benefits – a year of denial
A year ago, I was one of millions watching the Chancellor’s press conference outlining an emergency package for businesses and individuals affected by the lockdown. When he announced that the Standard Allowance for Universal Credit (UC) would go up by £20 a week, I remember being shocked.
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“I have given you an explanation on your Universal Credit payment, unfortunately it is not for me to comment or discuss your question on how you are to survive”
This was the response my client Sarah* received when she asked her Universal Credit case manager how she, her partner and 2 children were supposed to live on £73 for the entire month. Sarah had been hit by the benefit cap, a policy which has been in place since April 2013 and according to Child Poverty Action Group is now having a devastating impact on up to 250 000 households.
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Silence on the 2.5 million on legacy benefits from the Chancellor and the Leader of the Opposition
Ella Abraham responds to the Chancellor's budget, the inexcusable silence on the issue of those on legacy benefits not receiving the same £20 increase that those on Universal Credit have seen and why we need more from the Leader of the Opposition.
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Z2K’s response to the Budget
This budget fails to provide people on Social Security benefits and tenants in privately-rented accommodation with the stability and support they so desperately need right now.
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Why the £20 uplift in Universal Credit must be extended to those on legacy benefits
The past few months have seen organisations in the anti-poverty world coming together in a powerful campaign to challenge the Chancellor to keep the £20 a week increase in Universal Credit he introduced at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic.
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My experience of the hostile environment that is Universal Credit
I'm Carl, I'm 39, and I’ve been receiving UC for three years. Around the same time I started claiming UC I was diagnosed with degenerative disorder, a condition that affects the vertebrae and nerves in my back and gives me problems with chronic pain.
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Homeless families deserve better than council gatekeeping
I’ve been working in the advice sector from the days of the House of Lords case of Street v Mountford - too many years, some may say! And I thought I knew most of the tricks London Boroughs use to deny homeless people their legal rights. But its only when I came to Z2K and started dealing with Westminster City Council’s Housing Options Service on a regular basis that I realised I didn’t know the half of it.
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Ignore and refute: Government’s response to the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s Universal Credit report
At the beginning of the year, the Government responded to the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s report ‘Universal Credit: The wait for a first payment.’ This report contained extensive evidence from a range of stakeholders on the hardship Universal Credit’s (UC) design flaws, including the minimum five week wait for a first payment, is causing – as well as considered recommendations put forward by the Committee that could help alleviate these. The Government’s response was pitiful – it ignored and refuted the evidence, instead outlining how it will continue to push forward with policies that have very little regard for the people who depend on them for support.
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Universal Credit claimants need certainty, not ‘alms for the poor’
The extra £20 a week isn’t a bonus, writes Z2k chief executive Anela Anwar, it simply unwinds the Government’s own five-year freeze on working-age benefits.
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How the Government have continued to prop up a two-tier welfare state by ignoring 2 million people during this pandemic
The Government have refused to engage with the evidence that the almost 2 million people on legacy benefits, who are predominantly disabled, sick, or careers, need an increase in their income. This refusal means that too many legacy benefit claimants are left to choose between heating their homes, buying medication or putting warm food on the table.
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Making sure London’s Recovery Addresses Poverty and Inequality too
Z2K was really pleased to hear about the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan’s decision earlier this summer to set up the London Recovery Board to examine what needs to be done for the Capital to be a better place after the pandemic than it was before it started. With the dreaded second wave of Covid-19 now upon us that might feel like a huge uphill challenge or even a distraction. But the reality is that London is a deeply unequal city and that has to change in future, not least if the Mayor himself is to deliver on his own original 2016 promises.
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