Examination of Witnesses (Questions 680
- 683)
TUESDAY 12 JUNE 2007
REVEREND GRAHAM
K BLOUNT AND
MRS EILEEN
BAXENDALE
Q680 Mr Walker:
Maybe we should be identifying best practice and seeking to replicate
things such as the excellent work done in Dundee across other
communities?
Mrs Baxendale: Yes.
Q681 Chairman:
Do you believe that campaigns like Debt on our Doorstep
have been successful? In your view what needs to happen next to
help break the spiral of debt and poverty?
Reverend Blount: Having co-ordinated
Debt on our Doorstep in Scotland I want to believe that
it has been successful. I think it has been successful to the
extent that public awareness and political attention on the problems
of over-indebtedness is quite considerable. Debt and poverty feed
on each other in a very destructive way and I think that is increasingly
recognised. I think we need to look very hard at the provision
of small amounts of affordable credit for people in dire need.
The Social Fund has a part to play in that; the Credit Union movement
has a part to play in that as well. I think indebtedness is one
of the most powerful ways in which people become increasingly
trapped in poverty.
Q682 Chairman:
What do you think are the two most significant things that the
Government can do to alleviate poverty? One solution each: one
from you and one from Eileen.
Reverend Blount: I would go back
to what I said—small amounts of affordable credit and the
Social Fund working as it was set up to work.
Mrs Baxendale: I think it is fair
enough for you to ask the question. I think that child poverty
is very significant and although it is a universal benefit I think
raising the level of child benefit and equalising it for all children
in the family would make a difference and that would be a measure
that is not complicated, obviously it would cost, but I think
that would make a significant difference to families in poverty.
Q683 Chairman:
Can I thank the witnesses for their attendance today. I am sure
your evidence will be very helpful for us when we compile our
report and make recommendations to the Government to tackle poverty.
Before I declare the meeting closed, would either of you want
to say anything in conclusion perhaps on areas which we have not
covered during our questioning?
Mrs Baxendale: Perhaps just for
completeness briefly, in my submission I talked about rent deposit
guarantee schemes and the fact that they should be increased.
To update you on that, there are now rent deposit guarantee schemes
in every local authority in Scotland, so although they could do
with greater funding, they are in place. I would not want my submission
to be misleading.
Reverend Blount: I think to recognise
the diversity of poverty because it is about people and the need
to listen to their experience and let that shape policy. We would
not be sitting here discussing the problem of racism and not talking
to people who are black and experiencing it, but somehow we seem
to be able to talk about poverty and rarely talk to people with
direct experience of it.
Chairman: Thank you once again.
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