On Friday the National Audit Office published a report highlighting 69 cases of suicide by welfare claimants which may have been linked to problems with benefit claims.
Street Talk has worked with women who have been so desperate when their benefits were sanctioned, with no way to buy food other than to sell their body, that they have made an attempt on their own life.
We will add our voice to those already calling for a public inquiry into benefit-related deaths.
We were saddened this week to hear about the case of Errol Graham who starved to death in June 2018 after his benefits were stopped.
Assistant coroner Dr Elizabeth Didcock who heard the inquest into Errol’s death wrote in her verdict that the “safety net that should surround vulnerable people like Errol in our society had holes within it” — an inconvenient truth that, after 15 years of working with some of the most vulnerable and marginalized, we at Street Talk are all too familiar with.
Street Talk would urge the Department for Work and Pensions to learn from Errol’s case and improve our benefits system to work for the most vulnerable, and not against them as appears to have been the case here.
Street Talk has worked with numerous people who have missed out on their entitlement because they were too unwell to navigate a system that treats them with suspicion and hostility.
In one instance a woman’s benefits were sanctioned due to administrative error causing her to become homeless. Now living on the street, she was attacked and suffered a brain injury which lead to a permanent cognitive impairment. Even with our support it took 19 months to get her benefits reinstated and in the meantime her life had been tipped into a negative spiral as often happens when the most vulnerable are sanctioned.
All of us at Street Talk are shocked and disappointed that MPs voted 348 to 252 against the Dubs Amendment.
The Amendment to the Withdrawal Agreement Bill offered safe passage to the UK to those unaccompanied refugee children, in camps in Europe, who have family members in the UK. Without family to protect them, the children are extremely vulnerable, to traffickers and to sexual exploitation. Street Talk works with the victims of trafficking and women in exploitative prostitution, all of whom became vulnerable as children.
We know that there are children as young as seven alone in camps. By dropping our guarantee of their right to be reunited with their families, we are preparing to put those children in harm’s way. Street Talk will continue to support Lord Dubs in his courageous fight to take care of these most vulnerable children.
An online petition calling on the home office to protect the reunification scheme has already been signed by over 200,000.
Dear Friends,
Another turbulent year is drawing to its close. We might not be able to turn the political tide, but together we can reach out to some of those who find themselves on the margins, in the shadows of an unkind world. We are more grateful than ever for your loyalty to this tiny charity enabling us to work with some of the most vulnerable for another year.
Our exhibition, Witness to Courage, featuring the work of three Street Talk art therapists has opened today.
The show is open to the public every day 9am til 6pm from now through to 31 January at Resource For London’s Green Bean Cafe and first floor exhibition room, 356 Holloway Road, N7 6PA.
We’re delighted to announce that Street Talk has been shortlisted for the 2020 Maxie Richards Addiction Award, a national prize dedicated to grassroots charities effectively supporting individuals affected by addiction, awarded by the Centre for Social Justice.
The Pieces of London photo exhibition features the work from a photography project which was carried out in partnership with Hibiscus earlier this year.
The show is open to the public everyday between 9am and 6pm at Resource For London, 356 Holloway Road, N7 6PA.
Street Talk: Not Angry But Hurting, A model for therapy developed through work with women in street prostitution 2005 – 2018 is the title of a new book published by Free Association Books.
The book shares Street Talk’s adapted model for working with extremely vulnerable people. It is available from the publisher’s website, Waterstones online, or via Amazon.
We’re delighted to announce that Street Talk has received Special Commendation for Innovative Excellence from the British Psychoanalytic Council.
The award which celebrates “striking examples of ground-breaking work” was made as part of the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Now 2017 conference in London.
