Dr. Simon Duffy discusses the concept of vulnerability and the importance of careful support for individuals in vulnerable situations, emphasizing that vulnerability stems from societal treatment rather than inherent differences. He outlines effective support strategies, such as community development and fostering relationships, while critiquing current welfare reforms that disproportionately affect the poor rather than addressing root causes of financial crises. The document argues for a more humane approach to welfare, highlighting the need for advocacy and redesigning the system for equitable support.

1. Working with ‘vulnerable’ people
Dr Simon Duffy ￭ The Centre for Welfare Reform
￭ 29th April 2013 ￭ Churches Together in South Yorkshire

2. The word
‘vulnerable’
must be used
with care.

3. All of us are vulnerable.

4. Some of us may be somewhat
more vulnerable than others...
...but this is not because of our
differences.

5. It’s because of how
our differences are
treated by others.

6. Three questions:
1.What makes us vulnerable?
2.What is good support?
3.What is our current context?

7. 1. Vulnerability

8. The sources of ‘real wealth’

10. How vulnerability grows...

11. Lots of
‘services’
but do they
really help?

13. Being mindful of citizenship

14. There are eight degrees of charity, one higher than the
other. The highest degree, exceeded by none, is that of
the person who assists a poor Jew by providing him
with a gift or loan or by accepting him into a business
partnership or by helping him find employment - in a
word, by putting him where he can dispense with
other people's aid. With reference to such aid, it is said,
“You shall strengthen him, be he a stranger or a settler,
he shall live with you” (Lev. 25:35), which means
strengthen him in such manner that his falling into
want is prevented.
Maimonides

15. 2. Support

16. Five things:
1.Community development
2.Rights & freedoms
3.Peer support & facilitation
4.Community focus
5.Inner development

17. We have the gifts we need

18. We must be allowed to lead

19. Support is in relationship

20. Community is where we go

21. Trust restores the spirit

22. 3. Context

23. Three questions:
1.What is government doing?
2.Is the welfare state failing?
3.How should we respond?

24. ‘Austerity’ is not
the problem.

25. The financial crisis was not
caused by welfare spending.
It was caused by over-lending to
individuals to support excessive
house price growth.
It is a bubble politicians cannot
afford to burst.

26. Then did all the grants and the subsidies, the benefits and the
bargain offers pass over these poverty-stricken peasants when
Ingolfur Angerson's ideals came to fruition? What is one to say? It
so happens that it signifies little though a penniless crofter be
offered a grant from the Treasury towards the cost of tractors and
modern ploughs...
The fact is that it is utterly pointless to make anyone a generous
offer unless he is a rich man; rich men are the only people who can
accept a generous offer. To be poor is simply the peculiar human
condition of not being able to take advantage of a generous offer.
The essence of being a poor peasant is the inability to avail oneself
of the gifts which politicians offer or promise and to be left at the
mercy of ideals which only make the rich richer and the poor
poorer.
Halldor Laxness

27. Even if cuts are
necessary - there is
no need to target
cuts like this...

30. £72 billion of cuts

31. Most cuts fall
in two areas:

32. Child Benefit freeze
Abolition of Sure Start Maternity for second
and subsequent children
Change to CPI indexation of benefits Reductions in support for carers
Replacing DLA with PIP
Child Benefit clawback from higher rate
taxpayers
Time-limiting of contributory ESA Transfer of Social Fund to local government
Council Tax Benefit – 10% reduction and
localisation
Extension of JSA lone parents with a
youngest child aged 5-6
Housing Benefit cuts Household Benefit cap
Abolition of the Independent Living Fund Continued use of ATOS or others
Universal Credit Reductions in ‘Access to Work’ funding
Closure of Remploy services Abolition of the Child Trust Fund
Tax credit changes Abolition of the Health in Pregnancy Grant
Abolition of the Child Trust Fund Abolition of the ESA youth rules

39. Is this welfare
reform or a war
on welfare?

41. The current situation is complex
because many of us accept the
need for welfare reform...
...but reject the idea that these
changes are real reforms.

42. The current system is
confusing and damaging...

43. but it’s not too generous...

44. it’s not riddled with fraud...

45. and it’s not unfair to the rich.

46. It’s also highly centralised.

47. Campaigning for something:
www.campaignforafairsociety.org

48. Designing a better system
www.centreforwelfarereform.org