Cost-of-living crisis: More Sheffielders predicted to be hit by rising costs and debt as council expands support

A meeting of the council’s strategy and resources policy committee (July 13) heard from James Henderson, council director of policy and democratic engagement. He said a Community Support Helpline has distributed £20m to support people in financial need through energy support schemes and other funds.

The council, working alongside voluntary organisations and faith groups, set up 173 Welcome Places last winter, offering places to visit without running up energy costs at home.

Mr Henderson said the council received £2.6m from the Shared Prosperity Fund over three years to support work to tackle the crisis. This includes £850,000 funding for voluntary, community and faith organisations, being managed by South Yorkshire Community Fund, who are distributing grants of up to £10,000 to support Welcome Places.

Other sums include £160,000 to Voluntary Action Sheffield to create a bid writer post to support all community organisations access funding opportunities and develop skills, £125,000 to Citizens Advice for a volunteer coordinator to train Welcome Places to access advice support and £1.24m to establish a team of 17 cost of living community development workers.

A report to the committee said: “Wages and benefits are not keeping track with inflation and the rising costs of energy and food bills. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research warned in February 2023 thatthe UK is suffering a ‘permanent’ reduction in living standards and that 2023 will feel like recession for seven million homes with one in four homes unable to pay energy and food bills.

Mortgage costs

“The Joseph Rowntree Foundation cost-of living tracker, updated in June 2023, found that nine in 10 low-income households on universal credit were going without essentials.”

Citizens Advice also predicts that the cost-of-living crisis will turn into a household debt crisis.

Rising mortgage costs are hitting both homeowners and private rented tenants as landlords raise rents in response.

The report says that longer-term work is also continuing to combat the wider causes of poverty and inequality.

Councillors approved the following measures:

• Invest £400,000 across the council’s six local area committees (LACs), ringfenced to address the cost-of-living crisis;
• Build on the Welcome Places model to support communities across the city;
• Arm frontline staff with the information they need to link communities with the right support when they need it;
• Make it easier for the people who need it most to access the £10.4 million Household Support Fund and other hardship support over the coming year;
• Improve access to food using £150,000 of South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority funding to support food banks and neighbourhood community pantries.

Coun Angela Argenzio praised the work that council teams are doing to help people, adding: “At this time of year we are getting requests from people feeling the pinch. The team have been incredible, they just need one email.”

‘Cliff edge’

Coun Zahira Naz said she helps at Darnall Food Bank, which focuses on supplying culturally-appropriate food for people that other food banks don’t supply.

She asked: “I have been made aware that staff within the council are calling the helpline because of their own personal struggles. What has been set up internally to help staff with the cost-of-living crisis?”

Deputy council leader Coun Fran Belbin said she is afraid that the situation is entering “a potential cliff edge where more drop off”. She said that voluntary sector groups are chasing short-term funding that could end up causing them more problems and they need help to get on a more sustainable footing.

Committee chair and council leader Coun Tom Hunt said: “The very term cost-of-living crisis implies that somehow this is natural, a part of everyday life.

“There’s nothing natural or normal about this – choices were made to get to this point. Choices were made to cut Universal Credit by £20 after the first set of lockdowns, choices are made to scale back support for businesses by government, choices are made not to tax the oil and gas giants in the way that they could be in order to help people with their energy bills.

“We as an authority have made choices to help people and we are taking further decisions today to do what we can to support people over this coming winter.”

To find out what help is available, go to https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/cost-of-living

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