I am passionate about fighting poverty and social inequality. It's one of the reasons I believe in aspiration and am a Conservative.
However, dependency and disempowerment sadly still exist and Fareham and Gosport's Basics Bank on Westbury Road is an example of how charities are helping those in need. I was kindly hosted by Phil Rutt, the Manager who told me all about the Basics Bank. I helped to sort tins with the team and met some of the users of the service.
Run entirely by local volunteers and sourced by donations, the Basics Bank is managed by the Friends of the Homeless, a Christian-based charity. It started in 1991 as a nightly soup-run in the local area for homeless people. A centre was opened in 1995 where people could get free meals and clothing everyday, which then developed into a 24hour direct access centre with 16 beds. In conjunction with Fareham charity, Two Saints, it started the Food Bank in 2003, providing short-term practical support to anyone in a crisis or an emergency situation.
They also provide a free Sunday lunch from 1pm -3.30pm at the X-Perience centre on the corner of Trinity Street and Osborn Road in Fareham, in conjunction with Christians Together.
Each food parcel provides a week's worth of food for people in a crisis. People may access the service through 25 referral agencies where they first obtain a voucher to be presented to the Food Bank. They are entitled to do this up to 4 times in one year. This is to prevent them from becoming dependent on the service and also ensures that the Food Bank can support as many people as possible. Referral agencies include: Fareham Citizens Advice Bureau, Health Visitors, Probation Service, Fareham and Gosport Family Aid and homeless charities. Their website is here: http://www.friendsofthehomeless.org.uk/
This summer's Budget introduced changes to our Tax and Welfare system by cutting taxes for working people so they keep more of what they earn. The personal allowance will rise from £10,600 to £11,000 from April next year – worth £80 to the typical taxpayer, and meaning they are paying £905 less than in 2010. The threshold at which the 40p rate is paid will rise from £42,385 to £43,000. This is the first major step towards our commitment to raise the personal allowance to £12,500, and the 40p threshold to £50,000 by the end of the Parliament.
The Budget also introduced a new National Living Wage. Britain deserves a pay rise so we will introduce a new compulsory National Living Wage for all working people aged 25 and over. It will start next April at £7.20 an hour and we expect it to reach £9 by 2020. It will mean two and a half million people get a direct pay rise. Those currently on the minimum wage will see their pay rise by over a third this Parliament, a cash increase for a full time worker of over £5,000. The changes will take the UK from having an average minimum wage to having one of the highest minimum wages in the OECD.
We are supporting the elderly, the vulnerable, and the disabled by keeping our commitment to protect pensioner benefits and keep the triple lock. The BBC have agreed that in future they will take responsibility for funding free TV licenses for over-75s. We are also not going to tax or means-test disability benefits.
I believe that those who can work should be expected to look for it and take it when offered. Therefore we are: replacing Job Seekers Allowance for 18-21 year olds with a new Youth Obligation so they are either earning or learning, and abolishing their automatic entitlement to housing benefit; changing the conditions for lone parents claiming out of work benefits to reflect the 30 hours free childcare this Budget introduces for working parents of 3 and 4 year olds; and reforming Employment and Support Allowance to help increase employment among those with health challenges, who are able to work – giving new claimants in the Work-Related Activity Group more support in to work, but not paying them the benefit at a higher rate than JSA.
Welfare spending needs to be balanced and the Budget puts working-age benefits on a more sustainable footing. We will freeze working-age benefits for four years to 2019/20 – addressing the issue of benefits growing faster than wages since 2008; focus Tax Credits and Universal Credit on those on lower incomes by reducing the levels at which they are withdrawn; reduce rents paid in the social housing sector by 1 per cent a year for 4 years – ending the ratchet of ever higher housing benefit and rents, and benefitting working tenants who pay their own rent; limit, in future, the support provided to families through tax credits or Universal Credit to two children – so all families thinking about having another child face the same choices; reduce the benefit cap from £26,000 to £20,000 in Fareham – so people don’t get more on benefits than working families; and require social tenants on higher incomes – above £30,000 in Fareham – to pay rents closer to the market rate so they aren’t subsidised by other working people.
Food Banks provide vital and wonderful support for those in a crisis and the reforms on welfare, tax and jobs mean that work is rewarded, millions of people are taken out of tax altogether and a balance of fairness and proportion is struck in public spending.
For the article in the Portsmouth News, see http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/tory-mp-praises-kindness-behind-food-b…