Campaigning and community organising to build the capacity of people with lived experience of household debt to campaign for policy change.
Funding snapshot
- Programme area:
- Ending the poverty premium
- Amount:
- £150,000
- Length of grant:
- 3 years
The challenge
The cost of living crisis has forced more people into debt: 10 million are now overindebted. This is pronounced in London, where the need for debt advice is double the national average. Carers, women, people with disabilities and communities of colour are disproportionately affected.
In particular, council tax debt has surged – a 79% in five years. One in 10 Londoners are behind on council tax and Greater London councils account for a quarter of all council tax bailiff use in the country. The use of bailiffs is often aggressive, and adds hundreds of pounds in fees to people’s existing debts.
The project
We’re providing Debt Justice with core funding to support its work to campaign and organise to end the debt crisis. This work includes a campaign to end the use of bailiffs for council tax debt collection, and for the government to introduce a new duty of care that would direct local authorities to treat people in debt fairly.
The campaign will be led by people with lived experience of debt, combining research, advocacy, media coverage and public pressure to expose the harms bailiffs cause and showcase the effectiveness of alternative collection methods. Ultimately, the campaign will work towards changes that would lead to a substantial reduction in the poverty premium paid by Londoners facing council tax debt.
Our funding will also support the team’s work to expose the scale of the debt crisis in the UK, helping to build a body of evidence to lead to policy change.
