Research by the Social Workers Union has found that hundreds of social workers have felt compelled to personally fund basic essentials for the people they support, including food, clothing and energy prepayment meter top-ups.
Three quarters of union members who were affected by the issue were unable to claim back the costs they incurred. More than a quarter said they were dipping into their own pockets every month, with over a third saying it had put their own finances at risk.
Despite most social workers attempting to access foodbanks, council support funds and local charities, seven in ten emergencies left no time to navigate complex or slow bureaucratic systems. The Social Workers Union has warned that the Government’s new Crisis and Resilience Fund in England, due to begin on 1 April, may not go far enough to prevent social workers continuing to plug these gaps themselves.
Asked why they had resorted to providing direct financial support to service users, one social worker told researchers: “There are often several forms to fill out to request financial support which are declined anyhow by managers. To save time – something we don’t often have – I’ve paid for items myself.”
John McGowan, Social Workers Union (SWU) General Secretary, has warned the findings expose a “broken support system”:
“It cannot be right that social workers are left to plug the gaps in a broken support system with their own money. The data paints a stark picture of a safety net riddled with delays and gaps. The true test of the new Fund moving forward will be to see if it means that local and national governments act urgently to ensure help is there when it is needed.”
The Crisis and Resilience Fund is due to be used by the Government to also provide support to households using heating oil, this has now been extended to include homes who are reliant on LPG gas after pressure from the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.
A spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented:
“These findings are a damning indictment of a support system that is failing people at their most vulnerable. When social workers are reaching into their own pockets to top up prepayment meters and keep someone’s heating on, that is not a gap in the system, it is a collapse.
“The new Crisis and Resilience Fund is a step forward, and the confirmation by Ministers that it will extend to households on heating oil and LPG in England is welcome. For the first time, some of the most exposed households, those off the gas grid and outside the protection of the energy price cap, will have access to emergency support.
“But the Fund will only work if it reaches people in time. Seven in ten emergencies left no time to navigate slow or complex systems. The Government must ensure the Fund is fast, accessible and properly resourced, so that social workers are never again left to pay for someone’s heating out of their own pocket.”