By Alice Toomer-McAlpine
Over 280 people gathered in Manchester last week to launch the Greater Manchester Living Income campaign.
GM Living Income is a coalition of four organisations: national charity New Economics Foundation (NEF); Greater Manchester-wide Mama Health and Poverty Partnership; Our Agency CIC; and Middleon Co-operating, a community wealth building initiative aiming to make Middleton a co-operative town.
The campaign is calling for a pilot involving 200 Greater Manchester households that are currently on Universal Credit or with no recourse to public funds. The household would receive a Living Income for two years, guaranteeing they can meet their basic needs, alongside personalised support around training, careers and opportunities, as well as other barriers they may be facing.
The pilot would assess the impact of this support on the health, wellbeing, education, employment and community participation of those involved.
“Right now, many of us are one missed paycheque away from being in real trouble,” said Molly-May Smith, community organiser at NEF. “Our social security system sets people up to fail and benefits aren’t enough to afford life’s essentials. Over a third of children and young people in Greater Manchester are living in poverty.
“We’ve been organising people in Greater Manchester to build our power and develop a plan that ensures everyone has enough to live on and have access to genuine employment support, whether they are in or out of work.”
The event, at Friends Meeting house in Manchester, featured live choir and theatre performances, as well as speeches from members of the campaign.
Agatha Phiri shared her experiences of poverty, destitution and the Home Office’s hostile environment policy since arriving in the UK 16 years ago.
“None of this affected me until it started affecting my eight year old child,” said Phiri, who described being unable to afford clothes for her child and denied support from a children’s charity because there was “no box to tick” for her situation.
Phiri was later connected with local charity Support & Action Women’s Network (Sawn), who were able to give Phiri £200 to help her immediate situation.
“Finally, I was seen,” she said. “I was heard. I had a box to tick. That £200 wasn’t just money. It was dignity, it was hope – assurance that I can be visible in a system that sees asylum seekers, migrants and poor people as invisible.”
Today Phiri is self-employed and runs a support group for women living with HIV in Greater Manchester, citing the support she had received from Sawn as the catalyst – “I was empowered to give back to the communities that saw me”.
Labour/Co-op mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham also spoke at the event. He expressed his support for the campaign, stating that a living income “should be there for every single person, whoever they are, wherever they come from, in Greater Manchester”.
Burnham highlighted housing as the foundation of a secure life and criticised the current benefit system which he said “trips people up rather than helps people out”, as well the “burden of debt” many households have to deal with.
He called on the national government to “let us here in Greater Manchester rethink the entire benefits system”, and made a plea to philanthropists that could help get a Living Income pilot off the ground.
The GM Living Income campaign is now seeking funding for its proposal, and asking individuals to register their support online.
