Finance chief Satnam Gill

THE Town Hall’s finance chief has warned there is not a “bottomless pit of money” to fund crisis payments for people in severe financial difficulty in the borough.

Labour councillor Satnam Gill has suggested the council may have to turn to charities and donations to help foot the bill if a second coronavirus wave hits.

Resident Support Scheme (RSS) crisis payments usually cost the local authority around £12-14,000 in an average year.

But a report presented to a council scrutiny meeting yesterday (Thursday) revealed £152,949 had been paid out so far this year.

To help cover the costs, the council has accepted £25,000 from the Cripplegate Foundation, and £5,000 from Cloudsley to support families who have no recourse to public funds.

The council extended eligibility for crisis payments at the start of lockdown to include people waiting for their first Universal Credit payment.

The number of claimants skyrocketed from 13,556 to 28,579 between early March and the first week of September.

Cllr Gill told the Tribune he was “very concerned” about the ending of the furlough scheme, with 27,800 people still on the scheme in Islington, of whom more than 10,000 worked in the distribution, hotels and restaurant industries

“That’s quite a lot of people who could be looking for new jobs at the end of the furlough scheme next month,” he said.

“When people go on Universal Credit there’s a long period when they have no money,” he explained.

“Quite often, people are so desperate because they can’t pay bills or pay to feed themselves, and that’s when they turn to the support scheme for crisis help.

“But we don’t have a bottomless pit of money for crisis payments. It’s quite possible that the crisis fund pot of money will be overwhelmed.

“If a second wave comes, then we will be in a very challenging situation.

“We will be asking the government to give us some money towards it, and if that doesn’t work then I suppose we will go around asking charities, organisations and the people of Islington.”

Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn told the Tribune: “I worry particularly for young people who have either been furloughed and are now losing their jobs or have never had a permanent job.

“Now it’s going to be hard to get any roles.” He added: “The winding up of the furlough scheme is premature and a mistake. There are almost 28,000 people in the borough who could soon be joining that list claiming Universal Credit.

“I would absolutely support continuing the ban on evictions, and for a rent freeze at the very least. “Central government needs to step up and support the council.”