Download a copy of our IPR Annual Review 2019 (PDF)

Acting Chair’s Report, 2019

After yet another busy year I’m very pleased to introduce our 2018-2019 Annual Review. First some headline figures for the year:

• One to one support provided to over 2,500 people
• IPR helped over 120 clients win benefits tribunal appeals
• Over 75% of IPR clients are disabled
• We increased the incomes of numerous clients, totalling over £1 million

2019 marks the 50th anniversary of IPR. The funding environment in which we exist is as challenging as ever and it feels a significant achievement to have survived as long as we have. This year we continued to develop our services benefiting the most vulnerable members of the community. This includes protecting many families and others against some of the very real problems associated with the roll out of Universal Credit.

Particular thanks must go to the London Borough of Islington for their outstanding commitment to advice provision in the face of austerity and the tremendous pressure on their budgets.

Thank you also to the trusts and other supporters that have recognised the importance of our work and provided grants and donations. Every penny has been used to transform people’s prospects. Some of their stories appear in the pages that follow.

I must express my gratitude for the contribution of Matt Brown, IPR’s Chair in recent years, who has now moved to Islington Law Centre – a key partner for IPR in Islington. Also to my fellow trustees for their dedication to everything that we do.

Finally, a big thank-you to all of the staff and volunteers that make IPR the catalyst for positive change that it is today. Every day they are working hard to lift people out of poverty and towards brighter futures. As long as that need exists, we will work hard to ensure that IPR is there to help.

Henrietta Cooke

Download a copy of our IPR Annual Review 2018 (PDF)

Chair’s Report, 2018

Welcome to our 2018 Annual Review. It’s been quite a year! We’ve expanded our services, moving into financial literacy work that supports our clients in dealing with money issues longer-term; we’ve helped more vulnerable people find solutions to their problems and have been instrumental in driving forward the debate about the impact of Universal Credit on Islington residents. Although we’re open to everyone, we mainly work on the margins of society with people who are hard to reach and whose problems, if left unchecked, can have a dramatic effect on their lives. To do this most effectively within our resources we have concentrated on governance this year.

Good governance is at the heart of any successful long-term operation and we simply cannot cut corners. We have refreshed the Trustee Board, ensured new measures for control and oversight are in place and instigated an improved business and work planning cycle. This demonstrates to our stakeholders that we are an organisation that knows its business, knows its direction and knows how to turn words into action.

Our plans over the coming years are fivefold:

• To ensure we know exactly who we are helping by gathering better data;
• To reach and help more people;
• To support our brilliant staff team and develop our own talent;
• To diversify our income further to build resilience;
• To be a positive agent for change in Islington and beyond.

We have made great strides with this plan already yet there is much work still to be done. Universal Credit is now in place in Islington and already we are seeing some
of the devastating effects this chronically under-resourced system is having on our clients. We are pleased that its effects have gained so much national attention and
we will continue to raise endemic issues with our MPs (Jeremy Corbyn and Emily Thornberry) and in the wider advice community and fight for our clients for positive
change.

Once again, my thanks go to my fellow trustees for their hard work, dedication, insight and scrutiny; to Islington Council for their continued support and their desire
to understand the problems we are dealing with; to our many funders who make the work we do possible and, of course, to our volunteers and staff team who make it all
a reality by delivering the help to the people of Islington.

Matt Brown