Could you buy a new coat, socks, leggings or joggers for a local youngster?
Here’s how:
Pop items into a drop-off point (locations are listed at https://bit.ly/3opKjov) We also welcome pre-loved coats in good-as-new condition at our drop-off points.
Latest figures from Relationships Scotland show continued fallout from pandemic and cost of living crisis are having a negative impact on family life
Support for Scottish families seeking help to deal with relationship difficulties and family breakdown has increased by almost 40% in the last year, according to Relationships Scotland.
Relationships Scotland, the largest provider of relationship support in the country, has published its Annual Review highlighting the increase in support being offered to couples with relationship problems.
The figures for 2022/23 show that across the charity’s network of 21 member services, 86,000 hours of direct support were delivered, increasing from 62,000 the previous year. The figures also show the network provided support to over 14,400 people across the country, up from 13,850 in 2021/22.
Stuart Valentine, Chief Executive of Relationships Scotlandsaid: “There is no doubt the pandemic and the cost of living crisis have put a strain on families and relationships, and these figures are a stark reminder of how acute this strain is.
“This is a significant increase in hours of support across the whole country, and while it paints a worrying picture of the pressures being felt across the nation, we are encouraged that people feel they have somewhere to turn, and are seeking help to deal with these issues.”
The Relationships Scotland network has a strong focus on early intervention and prevention, working with families as early as possible to support them to look at the issues they are facing and helping them avoid problems spiralling. The work of the 21 member services across the country is supported by around 900 people, including over 400 volunteers.
Stuart Valentineadded: “The importance of positive and resilient relationships can not be underestimated, with the damage caused by relationship breakdown estimated to cost the Scottish economy around £3.5b each year.”
Millions of people across the country are set to receive significant cost of living support ahead of winter, with the second instalment of the cost-of-living payment – worth £900 in total – landing directly in bank accounts from today
Significant cost of living support to come into effect from today as millions of households set to receive second £300 payment
Comes as £2 bus fare cap in England extended with millions of people also set to benefit from lower travel costs
Prime Minister continues to support families with the cost of living ahead of winter as we are on track to halve inflation
Millions of people across the country are set to receive significant cost of living support ahead of winter, with the government freezing bus fares in England and the second cost-of-living payment – worth £900 in total – landing directly in bank accounts from today.
The bus fare cap had been due to rise to £2.50 but the government is keeping the fares down at £2 until the end of next year to help millions of people make significant savings on their travel costs. The fare cap has helped cut bus fares in England outside London by 7.4% between June 2022 and June 2023, with even bigger savings in rural areas where fares have dropped by almost 11%.
This government says the extension is only possible due to the redirected HS2 funding as part of the Network North plan and takes the total government investment to keep bus fares down to nearly £600 million – with over 140 operators signing up to continue offering the cap across more than 5,000 routes.
Over 8 million households across the UK will also receive the second of up to three payments from today, totalling up to £900 through 2023/24 with a further cost of living payment due to be made to eligible households by next Spring.
These payments are entirely tax-free, will not count towards the benefit cap, and will not have any impact on existing benefit awards. Those who are eligible will be paid automatically and do not need to apply for the payment or do anything to receive it.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “I know that winter can be a particularly challenging period for many families across the country. That’s why we have put in place a package of immediate support for vulnerable households over the coming months.
“We are lowering travel costs through the bus fare cap, which we are able to do because of our long-term decision to cancel phase 2 of HS2. We are also providing an extra top up to help pay energy bills and direct payments to cover the cost of day-to-day essentials.
“But the best way to put more money in the pockets of hardworking people is to focus on the long-term decisions that will help not only them, but future generations too. We’re on track to halve inflation which will help people’s wages go further, and we’re growing the economy to create better paid jobs and opportunities across the country.”
The government is also committed to helping vulnerable households across the UK with their energy bills over winter. Winter Fuel Payments – boosted again this year by an additional £300 per household Pensioner Cost of Living payment – will provide pensioners with up to £600 to help with heating costs over the colder months.
On top of this, nearly three million low-income households are also eligible for a £150 rebate on their winter electricity bills through the Warm Home Discount. From tomorrow (1st November) Cold Weather Payments will also come into effect to provide eligible households £25 extra a week when the temperature is zero or below for more than seven days across the UK.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: “Buses are the most popular form of public transport and help people across the country get to work, attend medical appointments, and see loved ones – that’s why we are extending the ‘Get Around for £2’ scheme all the way to 31 December 2024.
“Extending the £2 bus fare cap has only been possible with the redirected HS2 funding secured by this Government making the right long-term decisions for a brighter future, delivering immediate benefits and helping people save money.”
Mel Stride, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said: “Tackling inflation is the best way to boost people’s incomes, but as we work to halve it, we are protecting the most vulnerable households from high prices with this latest Cost of Living payment.
“Thousands of Work Coaches based in Jobcentres across the country are on hand to help people find work or enhance their skills, and I encourage anyone wanting to strengthen their finances and unleash the benefits of work to contact their local Jobcentre to see what help is available.”
Taken together, these measures build on the significant cost of living support already provided to eligible households throughout last year – now worth an average of £3,300 per household over this year and last.
The government says it has also gone further by:
Increasing benefits in line with inflation, meaning more than 10 million working age families will see an average increase of around £600.
Maintaining the Triple Lock earlier this year to give around 12 million pensioners the largest ever cash increase to the State Pension.
Extending the Household Support Fund for another year in England to help families with essential costs with £1 billion of extra funding.
Increasing the National Living Wage by its largest ever cash amount for 2 million workers – worth over £1,600 to the annual earnings of a full-time worker – and committing to increase it to over £11 an hour from April 2024.
Cutting fuel duty by 5 pence and freezing the increase, worth £100 to the average driver this year.
Covering up to 85% of childcare costs for working households on Universal Credit, up from 70% under the legacy system – currently worth over £19,500-a-year for families with two or more children.
The government says it has ‘a strong record on supporting the most vulnerable and lifting households out of poverty’, with the latest data showing there were nearly 1 million fewer workless households since 2010 and 1.7 million fewer people in absolute poverty after housing costs over the last decade.
They maintain the best route out of poverty is through work, ‘which is why we’ve introduced a package of measures worth £3.5 billion to break down the barriers for people to find jobs and fulfil their potential. This includes our flagship Universal Support scheme which will get thousands more people into jobs with a personal adviser providing wraparound support for up to a year while they find their feet.
‘We encourage people in need of additional support over winter to check their eligibility through our Help for Households website for the various cost of living schemes that are place.’
Family mediation experts offer advice on choosing a relationship counsellor
As the cost of living crisis puts pressure on relationships, experts encourage people to reach out for help before relationships break down completely.
Relationships Scotland, the largest provider of relationship support in the country, is offering advice to anyone looking to embark on counselling. The leading family mediation experts say there are five key questions to ask before choosing a relationships counsellor.
Stuart Valentine, Chief Executive of Relationships Scotlandsaid: “Making the decision to seek help to deal with relationship issues is not easy, it can be a daunting process admitting you need help, let alone navigating the many different options available.
“Relationships Scotland strives to offer couples and individuals a safe space to discuss their concerns and our five step guide aims to make taking the first step as easy as possible.”
Relationships Scotland says anyone thinking about counselling should ask the following five questions:
Are they trained to work with relationships?
Before you begin counselling it is important to establish the level of your counsellor’s training and their experience. In recent years it is usual for a counsellor to do either a one-year full time or a two-year part-time course. It is also important to find out what areas of relationships the counsellor can work with. It is especially important to check that the counsellor is qualified to work with couples, if you hope to go to counselling with your partner.
Is there someone checking that they are working to the right standards?
Relationships Scotland counsellors are required to undertake a minimum number of hours of casework per year. They are also required to participate in clinical supervision with a supervisor who is experienced in couple work. This helps ensure that all of counsellors are properly trained and supported in their work.
What will they do with the information I give them?
Your counsellor will discuss confidentiality with you and where there might limits on this confidentiality, such as when someone might be at risk. This is to ensure your safety and the safety of others.
Where will I see the counsellor?
Relationships Scotland has over 200 counsellors covering the whole of mainland and island
Scotland. Face-to-face and online appointments are available and there will be a service covering your area.
Will there be a charge?
All Relationships Scotland affiliated local services that provide relationship counselling receive some funding from the Scottish Government. This does not cover all the costs, however, and so some services may ask for a donation or may make a charge, depending on income.
If you are on low income, please let the service know and they work with you to make sure you receive the support you need.
Stuart Valentineadded: “Relationships Scotland understands the importance of positive and resilient relationships and the damage which relationship breakdown can cause if not handled properly, especially for children.
“We want to make counselling as accessible and as helpful as possible for anyone needing this type of support.”
Aldi is calling on local charities, community groups and foodbanks in Edinburgh to sign up now to receive surplus food donations over the festive period.
In partnership with community giving platform Neighbourly, the supermarket’s UK stores partner with good causes across the country to donate surplus food year-round.
With all Aldi stores set to close on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, the holiday season provides an opportunity for even more charities to benefit from the successful partnership.
Local charities will be paired with Aldi stores in Edinburgh this Christmas and can collect fresh and chilled food products nearing the end of their shelf-life – with the supermarket pledging to donate over a million meals over the Christmas period.
This month, Aldi hit its 40 million meals milestone since partnering with Neighbourly back in 2019.
Liz Fox, National Sustainability Director at Aldi UK, said:“We know that many communities up and down the country continue to feel the impact of the rise in living costs. That’s why we are committed to ensuring that the communities we provide for always get the support they need.
“We’re proud to hit our 40 million meal milestone with Neighbourly. This is a huge achievement and motivates us to go further and supply even more meals to local charities.”
Steve Butterworth, Chief Executive Officer at Neighbourly, added:“Christmas can be a challenging time for some families, and we expect many more will depend on the services of local charities this year.
“We’re sure there are lots more groups out there that could use the extra help that businesses like Aldi provide, so we encourage them to sign up.”
Any groups that are interested in collecting unsold food at Christmas that are not currently working with Neighbourly can get in touch with them at:
Customers also have the opportunity to donate any food or household products to local causes all year round through community donation points in all Aldi stores.
Consultation on new benefit to help with fuel costs
Views are being sought on the introduction of the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment, a new benefit to replace the UK Government’s Winter Fuel Payment in Scotland.
The Scottish Government has previously committed to delivering the new payment on a like-for-like basis with the existing benefit. It will help more than a million pensioners with heating costs in the winter.
The consultation document sets out proposals for implementing the new payment when it is introduced from the winter of 2024 and asks for responses, which can be submitted until 15 January.
The public’s views on issues such as who should be eligible, the timing and format of the payment and the likely impact of the benefit, are being sought – as well as further evidence about issues specific to people who are off the gas grid.
Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “Pension Age Winter Heating Payment will seek to safely and securely transfer responsibility for the delivery of Winter Fuel Payment to the Scottish Government, ensuring that more than a million pensioners currently eligible for Winter Fuel Payment continue to receive this support.
“This will be an investment of around £180 million in 2024-25 to help older people with the costs of heating their homes throughout the winter.
“Working with individuals and organisations with experience of the benefits system is central to our approach to developing the devolved social security system in Scotland.
“We are now looking for the public’s views, as well as those of relevant experts and organisations – through this consultation – to finalise our policy on this important benefit.”
The UK has seen a “shameful increase” in destitution, though Scotland has had “by far the lowest” rise in the numbers, a new report has found.
Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) found that across the UK, there were an estimated 3.8 million people suffering from destitution – with this including more than one million children.
According to the report, rising levels of destitution mean almost two-and-a-half times as many people are suffering as there were in 2017, with nearly three times as many youngsters affected.
Rates of destitution – where people are not able to afford to meet their basic needs to stay warm, dry, clean and fed – were highest in the London borough of Newham, it found.
While Glasgow City Council was ranked 26th in the 30 local authorities with the worst rates of destitution, it had dropped 16 places from the previous report in 2019.
The report found that at a regional level, London had the highest destitution levels in 2022, followed by the North East and the North West of England, and then the West Midlands.
The regions in the south of England had the lowest rates of destitution, with both Wales and Scotland having rates comparable with the Midlands.
While destitution had increased in all regions of the UK over the period 2019 to 2022, the report found Scotland’s position had improved “with by far the lowest increase since 2019”.
It added: “This may be indicative of the growing divergence in welfare benefits policies in Scotland, notably the introduction of the Scottish Child Payment.”
The benefit, which was introduced in Scotland in 2021, gives £25 per child under 16 a week to eligible low-income families.
The report, the fourth in a series by the JRF, with research carried out by Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University, found overall “there has been a shameful increase in the level of destitution in the UK”.
It highlighted the “growing number of people struggling to afford to meet their most basic physical needs to stay warm, dry, clean and fed”, insisting there was now an “urgent need for action”.
Stating that the problem has “been increasing at an alarming rate since 2017” the report added: “Around 1.8 million households were destitute in the UK at some point over the course of 2022.
“These households contained around 3.8 million people, of whom around a million were children.”
It found that as in previous studies, food was the most common essential that people struggling with destitution lacked in 2022.
But with energy bills having risen rapidly, heating was the second most common thing for people to struggle with, followed by clothes and toiletries.
The report calls on the UK Government to introduce an “Essentials Guarantee” into Universal Credit payments, ensuring that the basic amount people receive covers all basic needs “such as food, energy, toiletries and cleaning products”.
Doing this “would have a significant impact on destitution”, the report says.
However, Chris Birt, associate director for the JRF in Scotland said governments at both Holyrood and Westminster needed to “step up” to deal with the problem.
He said: “The UK is a country with dramatically increasing destitution, where millions of people can’t afford heating or can’t afford the basic essentials like clothes or food. In a country this wealthy, that is outrageous.
“But this needn’t be the case, destitution in Scotland is rising much more slowly than in other parts of the UK with the Scottish Child Payment and local welfare support offering some protection.
“Despite this, there is no cause for celebration when destitution numbers aren’t falling.
Mr Birt continued: “It is time for both governments to step up to this challenge that years of failed government policy have caused.
“This is particularly acute for the UK Government and all the parties that are bidding to run it after the next election – they must come through for the Scottish people by embracing the Essentials Guarantee.
“The Scottish Government can also do more and will need to show it is willing to turn the tide on destitution in its forthcoming budget.”
Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said that this year and last year the Scottish Government had “allocated almost £3 billion to support policies to tackle poverty and to protect people as far as possible during the cost-of-living crisis, especially those are most impacted”.
She added that as of the end of June, the Scottish Child Payment was providing 316,000 children with support worth £25 per week, with the Scottish Government also making £83.7 million available through Discretionary Housing Payments to “mitigate UK government welfare cuts”.
Ms Somerville said: “We estimate that 90,000 fewer children will live in relative and absolute poverty this year as a result of our policies, with poverty levels nine percentage points lower than they would have otherwise been.
“We continue to urge the UK Government to introduce an Essentials Guarantee to ensure people can afford life’s essentials and ensure vulnerable people are properly supported.”
An NSPCC spokesperson said: “Everybody, of any age, deserves to live with dignity. These shocking figures are a stark wake-up call about the increasing number of children facing the physical and emotional hardship of living in extreme poverty.
“Evidence shows that poverty can result in families, through no fault of their own, struggling to meet their child’s most basic needs so they can grow up in a happy, healthy and safe environment.
“Governments in the UK need to act now to address these spiralling levels of poverty and turn the tide for families who desperately need help.
“This means concerted action to reduce child poverty as well as significant investment in children’s services so families who are struggling get timely and meaningful support.”
One year on from the merger that created Home-Start Edinburgh, 17% more families have been supported thanks to increased reach and efficiency within the charity.
Home-Start Edinburgh is Edinburgh’s family charity. It was formed one year ago through the merger of two well-established charities, Home-Start Leith & North East Edinburgh and Home-Start Edinburgh West and South West. The merger has expanded the volunteer-based charity’s services to cover all of Edinburgh. Meanwhile, demand for its services has increased.
Home-Start Edinburgh’s team of dedicated volunteers support families with young children who are struggling to cope for a variety of reasons. This can include isolation, mental or physical illness, crisis or bereavement, post-natal depression, and poverty.
Volunteers often have parenting skills themselves and can offer peer support. They listen to the problems a family is facing, provide practical help, and put in place plans to build family resilience, helping to ensure the child or children have the best start in life.
In addition to in-home support, Home-Start Edinburgh runs regular groups and social events for the parents and children it supports, which help them build wider support networks. The charity also helps families purchase essential items when they are facing hardship.
The merger has expanded the reach of the charity to cover the South East of the city, and demand for its services has increased across all areas of Edinburgh. Throughout the last year, it has supported 313 families and 404 children.
Commenting on the first year of operation, Home-Start Edinburgh CEO Eliza Waye said: “I am pleased that one year on we have already seen a substantial increase in the number of families we are able to support, thanks to our dedicated and compassionate volunteer community.
“However, the need continues to outstrip our capacity, particularly as we now service the entire city.
“We have seen more families who need our services because low employment, increased financial pressures, and the lack of suitable housing options, which leads to additional stress and difficulty when you have young children.
“We have also seen an increase in needs from the growing refugee and migrant community, and more families with complex needs. As the needs continue to grow, so must we as a charity. In the coming year we are focused on growing our volunteer community and increasing our funding, helping us meet this critical need.”
Ben Macpherson MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith attended the launch of the charity, which is headquartered in his constituency, one year ago. He said: “As the local MSP, I know from my casework how Home-Start Edinburgh is able to offer a helping hand with its range of services and support for those who need it.
“During a difficult period with the cost-of-living crisis, in the first year of their merger and re-launch, it is good that Home-Start Edinburgh has been able to help more families in our communities.
“Home-Start began its Edinburgh presence in Leith in 1986 and I am glad that the charity has expanded, so that families in all parts of the city can now benefit from their services. Please get in touch with them if you think you may be able to help. Also, thank you to all donors and volunteers for supporting Home-Start’s impactful work.”
Ester Mateo received support from Home-Start Edinburgh and is now training as a volunteer. Ester said: “Home-Start supported me when I moved into a new area with young children. They helped me find activities for my kids so they could make new friends and feel less impact from the change.
“I knew that my volunteer would always be there when I needed help or advice. I’ve now applied to become a volunteer – this has given me a sense of purpose and achievement and I hope to help others.”
Pop items into a drop-off point (locations are listed at https://bit.ly/3opKjov) We also welcome pre-loved coats in good-as-new condition at our drop-off points.
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Save the Date: November 4, 2023
Where: McDonald Library, The Nelson Hall
Address: 2-8 McDonald Rd, Edinburgh EH7 4LU
