UC topping up low wages says community worker as Foyle Foodbank becomes Foyle Network Foundation - video Dailymotion

Derry Journal

UC topping up low wages says community worker as Foyle Foodbank becomes Foyle Network Foundation

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00:00 Today we're launching our re-branded Foyle Network Foundation.

00:04 This has been some of the work done over the past two years.

00:08 We've listened to people, we've listened to people who use our service, people who refer to our service.

00:13 And for some, Foodbank can be seen as a barrier, nobody using our service.

00:18 But also we're so much more than a foodbank now, we provide so many more services.

00:24 We work in partnership with others to be able to do that.

00:27 With the support of Trussell Trust, they provided some funding and we engaged Graze,

00:33 who came out and met with all our user groups, ourselves, our staff, our volunteers,

00:41 looked at if that was the case, went out to market to look at it,

00:47 and we're delighted that in the process everybody's bought on and we have a brand new name and brand

00:53 that we are launching today at our annual general meeting.

00:56 I imagine that it's probably identified that the need that's out there, it's not just food,

01:02 it's consumables, there's electricity, we've seen school uniforms, we've seen all these things.

01:07 Is that something that's been fed back into you?

01:09 Yes, so we provide more than food.

01:11 So even at our centre, in terms of practical support, we provide toiletries, household cleaning items,

01:17 pet food, along with the food package.

01:20 But alongside that we have a financial inclusion project,

01:23 and everybody that comes to our service will meet with one of our team

01:27 and they will look at what's going on for the person, what has brought them to our point.

01:31 We can provide all our financial help and support around the person,

01:35 but then what we do then is we make referrals out.

01:38 So we refer to particularly the four advice services in the city,

01:41 and we work with the three credit unions, and then we can also bring in grants,

01:46 electricity, fuel, energy for people, so it's that full wraparound support.

01:50 We work with other charities such as St Paul's and De Paul, who will help us if somebody needs furniture.

01:56 We work with some of the groups around clothes and things like that, so it's a whole package.

02:00 We don't do it all ourselves, the key to this is working in partnership with others

02:04 and bringing that support to the person.

02:07 And just at this moment in time, what's the level of need in the city?

02:12 The level of need is very high.

02:14 We've seen it recently, over the winter there,

02:17 we had a voucher scheme in partnership with Council and others,

02:21 and it was for people who were working on the threshold,

02:25 but when we went out to contact most of those people, they'd been topped up with Universal Credit.

02:30 So the salaries are so low in this town.

02:33 We have a benefits system that's not fit for purpose.

02:36 We have two years of high costs, rent, mortgages, food, clothes, everything has went up.

02:42 Home energy, we haven't seen that come down.

02:45 So we have continued to see that need there,

02:48 and there's so much unmet need because we know people haven't come forward.

02:51 Is that a difficulty to break down?

02:54 There's a sense of pride that people have,

02:57 that sometimes they'd be too proud to come forward when it comes to claiming things,

03:02 when it's there, it's a service that should be available.

03:05 Yes, and that's part of our change in our name.

03:07 We have eight members who have used our service who are now on a participation form,

03:12 and they help us shape our work, and they have identified how we can make it better,

03:17 easier for people to come through to us.

03:20 So it's vitally important that we listen and we implement that, we understand.

03:25 But what we can do, it's not just always about food.

03:28 Today we're actually sharing some of our success over the last year.

03:33 We have maximised people's income in the past six to eight months by over £100,000.

03:39 But that was in partnership with the advice services,

03:42 so that was people coming in to us who were entitled to benefits,

03:45 didn't know how to go about it.

03:47 We made the referral out to the advice service, they supported them through that process.

03:51 So that's what we can do as well, so it's more than food.

03:54 It's making a difference, and I was looking at figures there only at the end of last week.

03:58 Universal credit claims, the amount of people that are working,

04:01 there's thousands of people locally here who are actually claiming universal credits as well.

04:07 It's for working people.

04:09 Yeah, and that has highlighted to us,

04:12 and it's something that we have spoke to our other partners about that we need to look at going forward,

04:16 is that the wages are so low in this city.

04:19 Too many people have been topped up by universal credit, and that needs to be addressed.

UC topping up low wages says community worker as Foyle Foodbank becomes Foyle Network Foundation

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