Charitable and Voluntary Sector

Lord Faulkner of Worcester Excerpts

Thursday 30th April 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Pitkeathley (Lab)]

My Lords, I do not need to tell any Member of your Lordships’ House that charities are the eyes, ears and conscience of society: they mobilise, they provide, they inspire, they advocate and they unite. I have worked in or with the sector for most of my long working life, and I chaired the House of Lords Select Committee on Charities. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Addington, for bringing about this debate and congratulate him on its extremely significant timing.

When my Select Committee reported in 2018, it was recognised that we were living in a time of profound change and that the environment in which charities were working was altering dramatically. How much more is that the case now? We should never forget that charities are not, and should not be, in existence to preserve themselves. Their only reason for existence is to serve the individuals and communities that they were created to serve. Those communities, such as the poor, the sick and the disadvantaged, are more in need than they have ever been—perhaps since the beginning of the welfare state—as a result of Covid-19.

The £750 million pledged by the Government is very welcome but it is nowhere near enough to reflect the money that charities have lost. For years, charities have been urged to diversify their income streams and to find new ways of financing their work, but now those very ways—their shops, their social enterprises and their partnerships with businesses—are all under threat.

What changes will the Government make to existing support measures for businesses, to make them more suitable for charities? Will the Government understand the urgent need for immediate support for charities, which are already running through whatever reserves they have and may well close entirely? Indeed, many would have done so already if it were not for the committed staff and volunteers on whom the sector depends.

Also, thinking beyond today, will the Government commit, through DCMS and the Treasury, to continue to work closely with charities and their representatives to ensure that this sector, which I do not—[Connection lost.]

[The Deputy Speaker (Lord Faulkner of Worcester) (Lab)]

I call the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Low of Dalston (CB)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as a vice-president of RNIB.

I want to say a word about advice services, which are often the gateway to charitable help. Many free advice organisations are facing imminent collapse. The Advice Services Alliance, the umbrella body for advice services and of which I am a patron, says that many advice sector organisations are

“struggling to keep services going”

when faced with increased costs from remote working while anticipating unprecedented demand. Many advice services have provided face-to-face services and there is a paucity of good remote working facilities at the local level. Many agencies cannot afford them; in any case, many clients seek face-to-face advice because they are unable to access online services.

The backbone of the sector’s workforce consists of volunteer advisers, but many of them are themselves in high-risk groups, and staff capacity is rapidly falling due to self-isolation and remote working. An estimated 9 million people have been furloughed, 950,00 previously financially independent people are turning to benefits, and 12.8 million households have less than £1,500 in savings and cannot meet rent or mortgage payments or repay loans.

This is where people turn to the advice sector. In many cases, it carries out work that saves the Government and the taxpayer money by preventing problems escalating. We are already seeing the impact of lockdown on levels of domestic abuse. This will get worse as advice agencies struggle. Other needs for advice on things such as debt will soon reach unmanageable levels.

In 2013, I chaired the commission on the future of advice and legal support. It called on the Government to come up with a national advice strategy and provide £50 million a year to support the advice sector. I call on the Government to revisit this issue and provide this regular cash injection now to help those most in need. Enabling everybody who needs it to access advice must be a key part of the Government’s strategy for the country’s recovery. We cannot predict the virus but we know what the advice needs will be. I urge the Government to act now.

[The Deputy Speaker]

Before I call the next speaker, I should alert noble Lords to the fact that, just after 2 pm, the Chair will be taken by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff. I call the noble Lord, Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate.