Deadline date for Letters in the June issue is May 1 st Milking the Social Fund Dry
| Published date | 01 March 1988 |
| Date | 01 March 1988 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/026455058803500122 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
38
LETTERS
•
Deadline
date
for
Letters
in
the
June
issue
is
May
1
st
Milking
the
Social
Fund
Dry
Weare
all
aware
that
in April
1988,
the
Social
Fund
will
be
introduced
with
single
payments
and
urgent
need
payments
being
replaced
by
loans
repayable
out
of
weekly
benefits
and
that
probation
officers
and
social
workers
will
be
t
expected
to
decide
who
should
receive
such
~
loans.
At
the
time
of
writing,
many
of the
details
~
about
the
fund
have
yet
to
be
fumlised,
but
ê-
doesn’t
the
social
fund
sound
like
a
good-bye
to
Beveridge, a return to the Victorian mentality
of
the deserving
and
underserving
poor
and
a
cost-
saving
exercise
of
monetarism,
conveniently
reducing
public
expenditure,
while
forgetting
the
causes
of
this
underlying
poverty?
Whilst
those
Agencies,
including
the
Proba-
tion
Service,
who
are
going
to
act
as
brokers
for
the
deserving
and
underserving
poor,
don’t
seem
to
have
taken
the
Social
Fund
particularly
seriously,
other
organisations
seem
more
aware
of
the
potential
benefits
of
the Social
Fund,
highlighted
in
an
article
’The
Television
Licence:
Prosecution
and
Poor
Households’
(Howard
Journal,
Vol
26
No. 1,
February
1987),
which arose
out of a
study
commissioned
by
the
BBC
on
the
impact
of
the
television
licence
on
poor
households.
The
aim
of
the
study
was
to
see
how
the
BBC
could
ensure
that
it
receives
its
licence
fee
from
poor
households
who
probably
cannot
afford
to
pay
the
sum
required.
The
article
suggests
the
development
of
a
code
of
practice
that
includes
the
spectre
for
those
evading
households
in
hardship
being
offered
’a
repayment
plan
which
provides
provision
for
thepayment
of
the
present
licence
as
well
as
the
payment
for
the
next
licence’ and
how
could
this
be
enforced?
Behold! -
the
Social
Fund!
The
article
goes
on
the
explore
the
possibili-
ties
ofthe
Social
Fund
for
the
BBC’s
advantage.
Pointing
out
that
one
significant
element
of
the
Social
Fund
will
be
the
granting
of
loans
for
intermittent
expenditures
which
clients
find
it
difficult
to
budget
for.
Loans
will
be
recovered
by
regular
deductions
from
the
various
state
benefits.
If
a
claimant
needs
to
buy
a
television
licence
he
can
ask
the
Social
Fund
for
a
loan.
A
cheque
could
then
be
sent
by
the
DHSS
directly
to
the
National
TV
Licence
Records
Office
or
given
to
the
claimant
to
forward.
The
DHSS
would
then deduct
£ 1.12
per
week
from
the
benefit.
Since
this
article
appeard
in
the
Howard
Joumal
it
has
been
decided
that
the
Social
Fund
cannot
be
used
for
paying
TV
licences.
How-
ever,
the
principle
still
remains
the
same.
While
welfare
agencies
can’t
make
up
their
minds
about
the
Social
Fund,
organisations
such
as
the
BBC,
and
why
not
the
Gas
and
Electricity
Boards,
are
devising
policies
to
use
the
DHSS
as
a
clearing
house
for their
debts.
A
spin-off
could
well
be
that,
for
example,
the
Gas
Board
instead
of
widening
its
own
repayment
system,
can
not
tighten-up
and
encourage
people
to
go
directly
to
the
Social
Fund.
In
this
way
the
Social
Fund’s
s
limited
reserves
couTd
all
get
used
up,
so
that
when
someone
wants
an
item
that
was
once
previously
available
under
single
payments,
such
as
bedding
for
a
samll
child,
sorry
no
luck.
So
isn’t it
time
we
woke
up
and
starting
paying
more
attention
to
this
erosion
of
civil
rights
for
claimants
and
its
possible
impact
on
our
working
practices?
We
believe
we
should
not
be
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