Tameside, which is situated to the east of Manchester, has a child poverty rate that is above the national average and rising, as well as a lower life expectancy than is the average for England. Tameside was selected as the first pathfinder area to trial the introduction of universal credit (UC) from April this year. According to advice services in Tameside, the introduction of UC has had little impact on the demand for their services so far, but life for many of their clients has become more difficult.

Currently, only newly unemployed single people, with no children and who are fit for work, claim UC in the Tameside pathfinder area. Local advice services say that these claimants are far less likely to need help than people who are deemed long-term unemployed, people with families and people with disabilities. Tameside Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), which has its main base under the gaze of Sir Ralph in the council reception area, reports that to date only a few clients have needed assistance with UC claims. It points out, though, that people who have recently been in work are much more likely to be computer literate, and are therefore able to cope with filling in the new, online forms. The CAB fears that the problems will hit when UC is rolled out to everyone.

Despite few enquiries about UC, waiting times for Tameside council’s in-house, specialist welfare benefits team are increasing and the demand for the Citizens Advice Bureaux service has seen a dramatic leap since 1 April. Like many areas of the country, benefit changes such as the bedroom tax, contributions to council tax and the abolition of the social fund are leading to a surge in demand for advice. Tameside CAB is seeing an increase in the number of claimants who have experienced a benefits sanction: they are passing through the bureau seeking help with the forms to apply for a loan from the council, as locally the government crisis loan system was replaced from April with the Tameside Support for Independent Living scheme.

According to advisers, the local jobcentre appears more willing to impose benefits sanctions as it can now pass on claimants to the council to deal with the immediate crisis which this causes. Clients can move seamlessly from the CAB, where they receive help filling in the loan forms, to the Cash Box Credit Union Ltd, which administers the independent living fund on behalf of the council and is located a few yards from the bureau in the reception area. The closure of the social fund has also increased the demand for help from the local food banks. Applications for the Tameside CAB food bank had previously been running at 10–15 per month, but increased to 75 applications in May.

In Tameside, and in other areas of the country, advisers have reported to LAG that councils are now pursuing benefit claimants for the contributions to council tax they have had to pay since April. Tenants are also being forced out of properties if they have a spare bedroom or are running up rent arrears, which means that the first evictions because of under-occupancy must be nearing. From 1 April, Tameside suffered a big reduction in the specialist legal help services paid for by legal aid. For Tameside CAB, this meant a cut of over 1,400 cases, which included all of its specialist benefits advice service. This led to many people having to cope with the impact of changes in the benefit system without the legal advice they needed. LAG understands that locally the judges are already reporting an increase in badly prepared and unrepresented social security tribunal cases.

LAG is not saying that life in the borough is as bad as it was in medieval times, but since April the lives of many people on low incomes have become more miserable. The evidence from the advice services based in Ashton is that despite some credible innovation led by the local council in advice and support services, the ability of ordinary people to enforce their rights has taken a backward step and that this is a pattern which is being replicated in every part of the country.