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Crisis Conference 2011. Crisis Conference 2011 Session 1: Opening doors to ex-offenders. Crisis Conference 2011. Jill Wallis, Unlock Your Potential (Crisis). Crisis Conference 2011. Prisoners Abroad. Case study. Crisis Conference 2011. Context.
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Crisis Conference 2011 Crisis Conference 2011Session 1: Opening doors to ex-offenders
Crisis Conference 2011 Jill Wallis, Unlock Your Potential (Crisis)
Crisis Conference 2011 Prisoners Abroad Case study
Crisis Conference 2011 Context • On remand and in prison abroad: 1,700 people in any one year and over 1000 at any one time • On return to the UK: approx. 200 men and women a year access our resettlement service in London • Receive no statutory support • Prisoners Abroad Resettlement Workers provide practical assistance and advice
Crisis Conference 2011 Need • Our service users: • Often not lived in the UK since childhood • Often with no family or friends in the UK • No NI number • Immediate need for food, clothes and accommodation
Crisis Conference 2011 History • Previous changes in the welfare system and their impact on Prisoners Abroad’s service users • Habitual Residence Test • Benefit claims on the phone • Crisis loan = immediate debt
Crisis Conference 2011 The Future • Potential changes in the welfare system and their possible impacts on Prisoners Abroad’s service users • Cuts in Housing benefit (under 35) • The Work Programme (number of specialist advisors) • Lots of unknowns • Already vulnerable group likely to fall through the cracks
Crisis Conference 2011 • www.prisonersabroad.org.uk • info@prisonersabroad.org.uk