Levelling up isn’t working
Date and time
Location
Online event
Levelling up isn’t working – how do we locally prevent and reduce poverty across Greater Manchester?
About this event
EVENT WILL BE HELD ONLINE - This event will now be held online using Zoom due to the high temperatures forecast for Tuesday.
Join us on Tuesday July 19th for an event examining the findings from our Greater Manchester Poverty Monitor 2022 which show the alarming rates of poverty across our city region. Key findings include that, 25% of children across Greater Manchester live in poverty and that 181,588 households are experiencing fuel poverty. This data shows that the Government’s levelling up agenda is failing our city region.
The event will focus on how, far from levelling up with the rest of the country, many areas of Greater Manchester are falling behind the rest of the UK. The main drivers to help people out of poverty lie with central government but until they act, we must continue to do all we can locally to support people on low incomes.
The panel discussion will examine how maximising household income is the key way to prevent and reduce poverty across Greater Manchester. Focusing on what we can collectively do locally to boost household income and financial resilience by:
• supporting efforts to increase benefit take up (we estimate hundreds of millions of pounds in benefits are going unclaimed in the city region each year),
• improving local referral and signposting systems,
• advocating a ‘cash first’ approach (in place of vouchers or in-kind support), which gives maximum dignity, choice and control when accessing local welfare support,
• identifying ways in which access to affordable credit can be increased to stop people getting into debt and support people that are.
Panel members include:
• Professor Sarah Marie Hall, The University of Manchester.
• Maria Marshall, Project Manager at The Independent Food Aid Network.
• Steve Hughes, Chief Operating Officer at Citizens Advice Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale, and Trafford.
• Tom Lloyd Goodwin, Director of Policy, and Practice at the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES).