IFSW Europe e.V – 2012 Delegates Meeting – Armenia
Agenda Item 4.3
Final report from the Executive Committee on the Project: The Social
Consequences of the Financial Crisis
In 2007 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) officially declared a global recession
and the European Economic Recovery Plan was launched in 2008.
From the onset of the crisis IFSW Europe member organisations expressed concern
over the capacity of social workers to respond to increasing numbers of people
requiring their services at a time when in many countries the resources to provide
these were being drastically reduced.
At the 2010 Delegates Meeting in Malta the Federation launched a special project to
quantify the impact of the financial crisis on social services and communicate this to
European policy makers from a clear evidence base.
This report summarises our findings and the action we have taken to promote
dialogue between members and to present our concerns to opinion formers and
policy makers.
In the challenging times that have followed the recession it has become abundantly
clear that austerity measures introduced in many EEA countries have impacted more
severely on those individuals and groups who were already the most disadvantaged
and excluded.
Our findings
Dialogue across Europe identified the following social issues which were seen as a
direct result of the financial crisis:
 Poverty, particularly child poverty, is increasing
 Income disparity is increasing
 More children are being taken into state care
People are in pain and
are dying earlier because
they can’t afford to travel
to the hospital for their
treatment
 Social problems such as prostitution, drug and alcohol
addiction are increasing
 Homelessness is increasing and more people are living in poor quality
transient accommodation
 Criminal behaviour is increasing, particularly youth crime
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 Begging is increasing – particularly the number of children begging – and this
appears to be becoming more organised by criminal gangs
 Labour exploitation is increasing (people working with few rights and low
wages)
 Child exploitation is increasing (particularly in relation to children working)
 Disparities in health and wellbeing are becoming more obvious
 Mental illness and distress is on the rise
Children are begging – not
to provide support for their
families – but because they
are working for mafia like
gangs
People are becoming poorer
but they see the rich
becoming richer and that
creates anger and conflict
and leads to increased social
unrest and crime
People are hungry.
They do not have
enough to eat and
the queues at food
banks are lengthy
As a result of this increase in social problems, the dialogue identified that people are
seeking more support from social welfare and social work services. However, the
support available is decreasing. For example, our dialogue identified that:
 Financial welfare support is decreasing (in terms of both the amount available
and the length of time the support can be claimed)
 Less services are available – both in terms of state services and those
provided by NGOs
 Many of those services which remain are
levying charges or requiring financial
contributions from service users
 Financial support which has been available
to support the development of services in
poorer countries has been cut
Basic services cannot cope
with the increase in need,
services are slowing down and
are only available in situations
of extreme crisis
Social workers, specifically, have been affected
by this decrease in services. For example, our dialogue identified that:
 Social workers have experienced significant cuts in pay
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Caseloads have been increased by 50%.
Wages are low and there is a delay in
them being paid.
 Social workers have experienced
very significant rises in workload
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 Working conditions are deteriorating
 Stress and burnout is increasing
 Redundancies are being made
 When workers leave they are not being replaced and periods of maternity
leave and prolonged sickness absence are not being covered
Salaries for some social
workers are very low and
the cost of living
necessitates having several
jobs which may compromise
the quality of service.
Social workers are
operating beyond
their maximum –
capacity and are
more likely to make
mistakes
The unbreakable cycle?
Social problems are increasing
Social services are decreasing
And clearly a cycle is being created
INCREASING SOCIAL
PROBLEMS
DECREASING SOCIAL
SUPPORT
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Politicians and other decision makers are largely sheltered from the immediate and
longer term consequences of decisions to limit expenditure on care services for
people at times of crisis. Unlike social workers they do not come face to face with the
avoidable suffering that can occur not only for the individual denied a service but
also for other family members and unaware of the lifelong impact this may have in
some cases. Social workers have first-hand knowledge of such distressing situations
and a duty to convey their concerns to those in positions of power.
Our Action
The responses we received to questionnaires distributed to member organisations in
2010 were carefully analysed and considered at workshops held in Croatia and
Ireland in the early part of 2011.
Our concerns about the impact of the crisis on both those requiring social work
services and those providing them were reflected in a video released to celebrate the
2011 World Social Work Day and feedback on the progress of this project was
delivered to member organisations and the wider social work community at the 2011
Delegates Meeting and at a symposium at the accompanying ENSACT Conference
in Brussels.
In April 2011 we issued a press release entitled “The Social Consequences of the
Financial Crisis: We don’t pay for your crisis”, expressing the view that the
financial crisis is a result of financial systems disregarding social responsibilities and
social investments.
We also voiced concern that some politicians and the popular media are fuelling a
blame culture that scapegoats minority groups. People facing redundancy are
encouraged to attribute this to economic migrants and asylum seekers. Rather than
facing up to the pressing need to tackle inequality all too often the focus is on the
small number of people who abuse welfare benefit systems, with the result that hate
crime is on the increase.
We have pointed out to our partner organisations that short term savings measures
that deny vulnerable individuals support and protection at times of crisis represent
false economy. Such concerns have been taken on board and a letter dated
February 15th from the Social Platform to President Barossa and Ministers for
Employment and Social Affairs included the following quote from IFSW’s submission
to them.
“At a time when budgets are being cut, hard pressed social workers and
healthcare professionals face insatiable demands for a service from those who
are bearing the brunt of austerity measures. Failure to provide essential health
and social care services at times of ill health and crisis, results in avoidable
suffering and hardship, often leading to much greater expense in the long
term.”
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Delegates may be aware that our colleagues from the European Anti-Poverty
Network (EAPN) have made representations to President Barroso in support of
Greece and the other countries receiving economic support and surveillance (bailout countries) from the EU/IMF/ECB asking the Commission to ensure that pledges
made to reduce poverty and social exclusion in Europe 2020 are applied equally in
all European countries. IFSW has approached EAPN with a view to forming a
strategic alliance and we hope to provide further information to the DM about this
possibility.
On 8th March at the invitation of the European Peoples Party (EPP) we conveyed our
concerns to an Employment and Social Affairs Committee evidence gathering
hearing at the European Parliament focussing on “The Social Investment Pact: A
response to the crisis.”
We have now received an invitation from the Party of European Socialists to respond
to their vision for a progressive Europe and a different political response to the social
consequences of the crisis and to express our views along with those of other social
NGOs on how “Equal Societies” can be achieved.
We have registered our concern with the Social Platform about increasing youth
unemployment in many European countries and the impact this can have on the
emotional wellbeing and mental health of young people, making specific reference to
the unacceptably high incidence of suicide in that age group.
The Platform has recently expressed the view that all citizens including asylum
seekers should have the right to a bank account. We have drawn their attention to
our concern as social workers that poor people are denied credit facilities and forced
to pay vastly inflated rates of interest when they borrow money. We have mentioned
situations where additional charges are levied on people paying for essential items
by installments and those who use prepayment meters for gas and electricity.
Recommendation
A draft press release will be presented to the DM for approval.
The IFSW Europe Executive Committee will continue to voice the concerns of our
profession about the impact of the financial crisis on social work services at
European level and support member organisations to raise awareness of the impact
of austerity measures on such services in their own countries.
The DM is requested to note the efforts made by IFSW Europe to constructively
engage with this difficult situation and endorse the measures taken to alert policy
makers to the impact of their decisions on those citizens who are already most
disadvantaged and those providing them with essential social services in times of
need.
NP/SM/IJ
13th April 2012
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