The scrapping of the £174m local welfare provision grant to councils is ‘another blow to people already exposed to the impact of welfare changes’, a council leader has warned.
Barnsley MBC leader Sir Steve Houghton hit out after the axing of the grant from 2015 was discovered in the small print of last week’s local government financial settlement.
Councils are free to allocate the grant according to local priorities and it is predominately used to help those in crises with benefit payment problems or for vulnerable people leaving care, prison or faced with homelessness.
Sir Steve said: ‘The announcement, hidden in Wednesday’s local government financial settlement, is another blow to people who are already exposed to the impact of welfare changes and are becoming ever more reliant on council services.
‘This latest cut will take funding away from people who need it in times of crisis and is a further pressure on councils in deprived areas trying to provide for their most vulnerable residents.’
A spokesman for the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities added: ‘Analysis by Sheffield Hallam University has shown that 2015 is also the year that the impact of welfare reform will be hardest felt, which is likely to increase the reliance on food banks in the very year that funding provided to support them will be taken away.’
