Full holistic financial support

Aim

Support 100 Orthodox Jewish families in Westcliff-On-Sea who are suffering from poverty, which has worsened due to cost of living increases.

The annual inflation rate in the UK rose to 10.1% in September of 2022, returning to the 40-year high hit in July and surpassing market expectations of a 10% rate.
 The largest contribution to the increase was from food (14.8% vs 13.4% in August), namely oils and fats and dairy products. Consumer costs also grew sharply for housing and utilities (20.2% vs 20%), amid soaring prices for electricity, gas, and home fuels.

Changes and cuts to the welfare system cause problems for families already struggling.

A total of 9.7 million adults experienced food insecurity in September 2022, the Food Foundation reports. Over half (53.8 percent) of universal credit claimants faced food poverty in the last month. One in four households with children experienced food insecurity in September 2022 – affecting four million children

Westcliff Kollel is currently supporting Orthodox Jewish families in Westcliff-On-Sea who are suffering from poverty, which has worsened due to cost of living increases.
 

1 in 4 children in Westcliff-On-Sea lives in poverty. Many parents do not work or are economically inactive due to long-term sickness.

 We aim to continue to provide support to families facing financial difficulties, most of these families are large with multiple siblings struggling to feed their families and prevent anxiety, stress, and depression. 39% of our Orthodox Jewish Community have a low income in relation to family size (on average a typical household have 9 people). Over 75% receive government benefits.

Westcliff Kollel urgently needs to continue to support these families.

This project will offer:

• Benefits advise financial coaching and debt advice.
• Short-term support until they get financial support and back on their feet with crucial food packages with essential food and toiletries as well as necessary items such as nappies baby food and formula milk delivered to those living in poverty. 
• Support to access training, job coaching, etc., or anything that will improve their job prospects.  

We expect to send around 100 packages per month to help support their families.

 Our project will meet people’s immediate needs as well as offer longer-term support, benefits advice and financial coaching service that will help users gain a wide-ranging and long-lasting financial management plan.

This project successfully funded on 9th December 2022