EXTRA SUPPORT - Children and families will get extra support this winter, with councils given new funding to ensure vulnerable households do not go hungry or without essential items.

£170m Covid Winter Grant Scheme to support children, families and the most vulnerable over winter

Holiday Activities and Food programme to be expanded, covering Easter, Summer and Christmas in 2021

Healthy Start payments set to rise from £3.10 to £4.25 a week from April 2021

Suite of measures represents long-term plan to help tackle poor health, hunger and education.

Building on the significant support given to the most vulnerable during the pandemic, a new £170m Covid Winter Grant Scheme will be run by councils in England.

The funding will be ring-fenced, with at least 80% earmarked to support with food and bills, and will cover the period to the end of March 2021. Local Authorities will receive the funding at the beginning of December 2020.

It will allow councils to directly help the hardest-hit families and individuals, as well as provide food for children who need it over the holidays. Local councils understand which groups need support, and are best placed to ensure appropriate holiday support is provided – which is why they will distribute the funds, rather than schools, who will continue providing meals for disadvantaged children during term-time.

The Holiday Activities and Food programme, which has provided healthy food and enriching activities to disadvantaged children since 2018, will also be expanded across England next year.

It will cover Easter, Summer and Christmas in 2021, and cost up to £220m. It will be available to children in every local authority in England, building on previous programmes – including this summers, which supported around 50,000 children across 17 local authorities.

Healthy Start scheme payments are also set to increase from £3.10 to £4.25 a week from next April, 2021.

This scheme supports pregnant women or those with children under four who have a low income and are in receipt of benefits to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. This will help people boost the long-term health of their children.

The Government has also pledged additional funding of £16m for food distribution charities, with conversations with FareShare and others ongoing as to how this is allocated.

Work and Pensions Secretary, Thérèse Coffey, said:

We want to make sure vulnerable people feel cared for throughout this difficult time and, above all, no one should go hungry or be unable to pay their bills this winter.

We know this has been a challenging time for many, and we have consistently supported the lowest-paid families, protecting 9 million jobs with furlough and boosting welfare support by £9.3 billion.

This package builds on that support, and by extending our successful Holiday Activities and Food programme, as well as funding a £170 million Covid Winter Grant Scheme, we are making sure families get the help they need.

The government has acknowledged that school holidays can be difficult for some families, with children at risk of missing out on healthy meals, activities, and learning opportunities.

For example, learning loss over summer accounts for almost two-thirds of the attainment gap between the richest and the poorest children by age 14.

For this reason, up to £220m is being invested in the Holiday Activities and Food programme, with disadvantaged children able to get healthy food and take part in fun enriching activities over summer, Christmas and Easter in 2021.

Ministers have also taken unprecedented measures during the pandemic to protect the most vulnerable, and put in place a strong package of financial support to support families and children.

This includes:

• Protecting millions of jobs and livelihoods through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme, which have been extended until March 2021
• Increasing Universal Credit and Tax Credits by up to £20 a week this year
• £63m for councils to provide emergency assistance to families, pensioners and the most vulnerable with food, essentials and meals
• Extending free school meals support to those eligible when schools closed during lockdown
• Increasing Local Housing Allowance rates for Universal Credit and housing benefit claimants, so it covers the lowest 30% of local rents – benefiting over 1 million households by on average £600 this year.

Local authorities understand which groups need support, and are best placed to ensure appropriate holiday support is provided – which is why the £170m Covid Winter Grant Scheme will be distributed by them, rather than schools, who will continue providing meals disadvantaged children during term-time.

Further information

• To place the Covid Winter Grant Scheme in context, the cost of providing free school meals to eligible children for two weeks is around £40m based on government data.
• The government has consistently supported the lowest-paid families, including by raising the living wage, ending the benefit freeze and putting another £9.3bn into the welfare system.
• The government remains committed to developing a food strategy that will support the development of a food system that is sustainable, resilient and affordable, that will support people to live healthy lives, and that will protect animal health and welfare.
• The £170m is for Local Authorities in England only. Devolved Administrations have received equivalent funding through the upfront funding guarantee we have provided, which was recently increased to £16bn for the year to support their Covid-19 response.

ABC Comment, have your say below:

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the start of National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) 2020. NAW 2020 includes a series of events held nationwide as thousands of participants celebrate the dynamic and evolving work of apprentices. 

This year’s events will focus on both traditional Registered Apprenticeship Programs and newly created Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs.

By engaging employers on the front end and providing needed supportive services to both apprentices and employers on the back end, D-RAP is helping to revitalize Detroit's economy. PLEASE see the video below. 

ABC Comment have your say below:

NATIONAL LIVING WAGE - Today, thousands of people will get a boost in pay as a new Living Wage rate comes into force.

 The real Living Wage, which is calculated independently of the Government, is a lifeline for people who work for the 7,000 accredited Living Wage employers in the UK. It’s based on what it actually costs to pay for everyday essentials like food and heating.

Real living wage increases to £9.50 in UK and £10.85 in London. The real living wage rates for 2020/21 have been announced as £9.50 in the UK, rising by 20p, and £10.85 in London, an increase of 10p.

ABC Comment, have your say below:

US Unemployment - In the week ending October 31, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 751,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's revised level.

The previous week's level was revised up by 7,000 from 751,000 to 758,000. The 4-week moving average was 787,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 3,250 from 787,750 to 791,000.

ABC Comment, have your say below:

 RENTERS - Protection extended during Covid-19 lockdown

Renters will be protected during the national restrictions, with no bailiff enforcement action, the Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has announced today (5 November 2020).

Measures, including the pause on evictions starting in December, mean evictions will not be enforced until the 11 January 2021 at the earliest, supporting individuals and families who have found themselves in financial difficulty through no fault of their own. 

The only exceptions to this will be the most egregious cases, including where tenants have demonstrated anti-social behaviour or are the perpetrator of domestic abuse in social housing, and the landlord rightly would like to re-let their property to another tenant. 

This builds on protections announced earlier this year, including 6 month notice periods meaning renters now served notice can stay in their homes until May 2021, with time to find alternative support or accommodation.

• Evictions will not be enforced whilst national restrictions are in place
• Evictions will not be enforced by bailiffs until 11 January 2021 at the earliest, except for the most egregious cases such as anti-social behaviour
• Six month notice periods still in place until at least the end of March 2021, except for most serious cases

Courts will remain open through the new national restrictions. Court rules and procedures introduced in September will ensure protections for both tenants and landlords. These include the strict prioritisation of cases, such as those involving anti-social behaviour and other crimes. 

These protections are on top of the unprecedented package the government has put in place to help communities through the pandemic, including support for businesses to pay staff salaries and strengthening the welfare safety-net with an over £9 billion boost to the welfare system.

Housing Secretary, Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said:

We have already taken unprecedented action to support renters during the pandemic including introducing a 6 month notice period and financial support to help those struggling to pay their rent.

We are now going further by protecting renters from eviction during the new national restrictions and throughout the Christmas period – with a pause on bailiff activity other than in the most serious circumstances, such as anti-social behaviour or fraud.

Striking the right balance between helping tenants in need while ensuring landlords have access to justice in the most serious cases.

For those renters who require additional support, there is an existing £180 million of government funding for Discretionary Housing Payments for councils to distribute to support renters with housing costs.

Whilst national restrictions apply, the only circumstances where these protections do not apply are illegal occupation, fraud, anti-social behaviour, eviction of domestic abuse perpetrators in social housing; where a property is unoccupied following the death of a tenant. We also intend to introduce an exemption for extreme pre-Covid rent arrears.

ABC Note: According to the Resolution Foundation: worryingly, both private and social renters are now more than twice as likely than mortgagors to have lost their job (8 per cent of private renters and 7 per cent of social renters, compared to 3 per cent of mortgagors), a finding that is consistent with our recent work showing younger and lower-paid workers (who are more likely to be renters) are bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 jobs crisis.

ABC Comment, have your say below:

FURLOUGH SCHEME - Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced in the past hour his plans to extend the furlough scheme to 31 March 2021 in order to "give businesses security through the winter."

Full details are to be published on 10 November which will include:

o             Anyone made redundant after 23 September can be rehired and put back on furlough.

o             Employees can be furloughed even if they have not been before.

o             The scheme will pay up to 80% of a person's wages up to £2,500 a month - this is more generous than what was paid up to August.

o             The scheme will be reviewed in January 2021.

o             Flexible working under furlough will continue.

o             The Job Support Scheme and the Job Retention are on hold.

It is likely that many employers will wish to revise their current redundancies plans in light of this extension - I hope so.

This welcome news unfortunately reflects the concern that the new national lock down could continue beyond 2 December.

ABC Comment, have your say below:

UNIVERSAL CREDIT - Will Quince, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions has made this statement in the Houses of Parliament:

'The Government introduced a package of temporary welfare measures worth around £9.3 billion this year to help with the financial consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This included the £20 weekly increase to the Universal Credit Standard Allowance rates as a temporary measure for the 20/21 tax year. 

There are no plans to extend this to legacy benefits.'

ABC Comment, have your say below:

POLITICAL EMPLOYMENT - Over 16,000 people were employed in the US political organizations industry in March 2020.

Political organizations employment has been rising since early 2019. It has been above 10,000 since July 2019, which is the first time it has passed that level during a month in a year without any normally scheduled national elections.

ABC Comment, have your say below:

MINIMUM INCOME FLOOR - To remain suspended.

The Minimum Income Floor (MIF) for self-employed Universal Credit claimants will remain suspended until the end of April 2021, extending a vital lifeline for hundreds of thousands of people, Thérèse Coffey, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announced today (3 November 2020).

The further suspension means self-employed people will continue to receive crucial financial support from Universal Credit based on their current actual earnings – providing additional protection for those who see a drop in earnings due to the impact of Covid 19.

Work and Pensions Secretary, Thérèse Coffey said:

“This Government has taken decisive action throughout the pandemic to support the self-employed and is continuing to do so.

“We have always been clear that easements would be reviewed as public health guidance and the national working environment changes. Extending the Minimum Income Floor suspension ensures these workers have security from the welfare safety net throughout the winter.”

The temporary suspension was initially introduced in March 2020 as part of the Government’s coronavirus support measures.

The existing regulations suspending the Minimum Income Floor expire on 12 November 2020.

ABC Comment, have your say below:

COLD WEATHER HEATING HELP - The Government says its Cold Weather Payment scheme will begin again on November 1.

Rules say you will get a payment if the average temperature in your area is recorded as (or forecast to be) zero degrees celsius or below over seven consecutive days.

You will get £25 for each seven-day period of very cold weather between November 1 and March 31.

You may get Cold Weather Payments if you are getting:

• Pension Credit
• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Universal Credit
• Support for Mortgage Interest

In the case of Universal Credit, you must NOT be employed or self-employed in order to qualify, and one of the following must also apply:

• you have a health condition or disability and have limited capability for work (with or without work-related activity)

ABC Comment, have your say below: