A Perfect Storm: How Must We Respond to the End of Temporary Protections?

In association with Citizens Advice Sheffield.

With furlough and other protections ending in September comes a likely crisis of recession, unemployment and increased precarity for thousands of people in the region. This event discusses the likely impact of those cliff edges in communities, alongside some of the potential solutions.

During the next few months, and certainly by the end of September, we expect to see the end of a raft of temporary protections put in place to support citizens during the pandemic. This includes the furlough scheme, an end to the eviction ban on renters, and an end to the uplift of £20 for those receiving universal credit, among many others.

Combine this with one of the worst incoming recessions on record - and the likely large-scale redundancies at the end of furlough as well as less well publicised pressures such as the deadline to apply for settled status if you are an EU national - and the conditions for a perfect storm, severely impacting the quality of life and health outcomes of thousands of people in the region, is apparent.

In this event we bring together speakers from campaign groups, public health, civil society and the local authority to discuss the need for new responses to the intersectional problems of spiraling poverty and their effect on health outcomes.

Poverty is said to be the cause of 50% of all mental health issues in the UK. Sheffield, often referred to as the low pay capital of the UK, reported in 2013’s Fairness Commission a difference of up to ten years in life expectancy between the south west and the north east of the city.

The additional cost of people experiencing poverty to the public sector according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation is £78 billion annually. The severe damage caused from the intersectionality between an increase in poverty and an increase in negative health outcomes cannot be ignored or understated.

This event seeks to consider the impact of this upcoming perfect storm, compounded by decades of under-investment in the region, alongside the Government's commitment to ‘level up’ the North, and create a space for discussing bold ideas and responses to the problems we face around poverty and their intrinsic relationship with health outcomes for thousands of people in Sheffield City Region.

Speakers:

• Mark Gamsu – Chair of Citizens Advice Sheffield & Professor at Leeds Beckett University
• Katie Schmuecker – Deputy Director of Policy and Partnerships, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
• Halima Mohamed – Chairperson of the African Women’s Health Group
• Debbie Mathews – Chief Executive, Manor & Castle Development Trust Ltd
• Clare Lodder – Chief Executive, Citizens Advice Sheffield
• Dr Daniel Edmiston – Co Investigator at the Welfare at a (Social) Distance