Rotherham Council aiming to expand voucher scheme for needy families
Published date: 01 February 2013 | Published by: Gareth Dennison
A SCHEME which helped struggling Rotherham families pay for their shopping over Christmas could be extended throughout the year.
Rotherham Borough Council loaned £80,000 to Laser Credit Union and Voluntary Action Rotherham to hand out in vouchers which could be used at the Pak Supermarket, Wellgate, over Christmas.
The project helped 140 people in 11 days and council leader Cllr Roger Stone said : “It was very successful as far as we’re concerned. We are looking at the ways and means of extending that when we take over crisis loans from the DWP.” Read on…….
Success then, for this rapidly arranged scheme and as the council will take over crisis loans, it is bound to be rolled out throughout the borough. The concerns raised about the sole supermarket delivering the redemption side of the scheme, were it’s central location. This might well have had acted as an an impediment to access, as the borough is around 20 miles across at it’s widest point, and many just could not get to Wellgate!
Congratulations, for a change, go to Roger Stone, Laser Credit Union, Voluntary Action Rotherham and the PAK Supermarket!
Rotherham Politics 
Whilst the extension and expansion of the scheme is to be welcomed; I’m not sure that the original Christmas scheme should be considered an unqualified success
The loans were of £50 for single people and £140 for families. Assuming that the 140 people helped. represent 140 families, then the amount distributed was £14,000 – only 17.5% of the £80,000 made available by the council. (Assuming I’ve got my sums right 🙂 )
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The telling comment from Roger is ‘when we take over crisis loans from the DWP’ ! They also take over the funeral grants to the poorest. Given they have ‘outsourced’ the crematorium and it has the highest costs in the area it seems to me that RMBC don’t give a toss as long as they ‘look’ to be caring.
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The use of language can be very telling of hidden truths ! “Take over ” indeed- is there anything left that is not in the control of RMBC ? We”ll be lining up for our chip and pin implants soon.
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