The IPR Annual Review can be downloaded here.

Chair’s Report

As with charities throughout the country the year has been dominated by the pandemic. Before Covid and the first lockdown in March 2020 appointments were offered at our base in Holloway and another centre in south Islington but these had to quickly move to being by phone and online. Thanks to the exceptional work of the staff this huge change was achieved without any interruption to our services. IPR was successful in securing emergency grants from the London Community Response Fund to pay for IT, phones, training and software to quickly make the transition needed.

IPR has supported many residents to access emergency support. It is well recognised that the pandemic has disproportionately affected certain groups of residents including people with mental health issues, physical disabilities, carers and those from BAMER communities. There are now 26,500 households in receipt of Council Tax Support in Islington, indicative of the hardship caused by Covid and other factors. 246 additional households including 329 more children have also now been affected by the benefit cap as a result – an increase of 96%.

Another big development in the year has been the launch of the IPR Justice project. Full details of this exciting initiative are in this Review. The inspiration for IPR Justice is to use our extensive experience working in Islington to have a wider impact on policy and practice throughout the UK. This is an exciting ambition and one that we hope will translate into real benefits for many disabled people in the years ahead.

This Annual Review is a chance to acknowledge and thank all of those who have supported our work during 2020-2021. The London Borough of Islington has continued its commitment to our activities. IPR is also supported by a number of key grant making trusts who resource projects that are designed to help some of the most disadvantaged communities in the borough. Then there are the people who have raised money through special events such as the London Legal Walk – thank you all.

IPR has a fantastic team of staff, volunteers and Trustees who have worked tirelessly through one of the most challenging years in our 51-year history. As you will read in the following pages we are looking forward with renewed commitment and ambition to tackle poverty in Islington and beyond.

David Moore

The IPR Annual Review can be downloaded here.

Chair’s Report

2019-2020 was certainly a very big year for IPR. We celebrated our 50th anniversary with a series of great events, including a major exhibition at Islington Museum, and an evening with Ken Loach and screening of “Cathy Come Home”. IPR@50 gave the organisation an opportunity to tell its story, including highlighting some of the people who have given so much to the organisation over five decades.

Just as these celebrations were coming to an end, in the first months of 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic changed everything. It was essential that our services helping many of the most needy residents in Islington continued seamlessly. In fact, demand increased significantly with so many local people suddenly finding themselves out of work and needing to access welfare benefits and debt advice. It’s a credit to all the staff that the service switched so quickly and efficiently to operating through home-working and that IPR was able to continue to offer its service throughout the lockdown and subsequently.

Some key statistics from IPR’s year were:

• Direct specialist advice benefiting over 2,800 people
• Support for 130 clients at benefits tribunal appeals with a success rate of over 90%
• Three quarters of our clients say they have mental health problems

As in previous years we must give particular thanks to the London Borough of Islington for their continuing strong financial commitment to our work. Also thank you to the trusts that have given funding this year to resource our special initiatives such as our work to support carers and those with families with children that have complex disabilities. I must also thank individual supporters who have supported those that have walked, run and cycled in aid of IPR. We will continue to ensure that every penny will be put to good use and will help those most affected by poverty and disadvantage in our community.

In these especially challenging times I am pleased to say that everyone including the trustees, staff and volunteers at IPR remain focused on doing all that we can to improve the prospects of thousands more people in the year ahead.

David Moore

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

Download a copy of our IPR Annual Review 2017 (PDF)

Chair’s Report

Welcome to IPR’s Annual Review. As Chair, I’m delighted to report a year of very solid progress in achieving our aims. These include providing essential, specialist advice to well over 2,500 people in acute need. We target our service towards those groups and individuals too often left behind in today’s Britain. Over 75% of our clients are disabled and a high proportion live with poor mental health. We are a multi-channel service and provided advice via our telephone service to over 6,000 individuals in the last year.

As in previous years, we have seen demand for our services continue to increase. This is the result of the deepening of the Government’s austerity programme which continues to squeeze welfare benefits, particularly for people with disabilities. The sheer weight of welfare reforms (including the long awaited introduction of Universal Credit) and rising interest rates threatening to tip more people into unmanageable debt also continues to present challenges to our dedicated and skilled advice teams. IPR is widely and deservedly recognised for its quality and expertise and this has translated into receiving more referrals from other agencies. This is flattering but the specialist work is involved and it takes time to grind through the welfare system; as an organisation we continue to be ever-vigilant about how we use our scarce resources so we maximise our effect on the often marginalised Islington residents whom we serve.

IPR funding from Islington Council has been confirmed until March 2020 which is a tremendous boost to our core advice service. Islington Council must be commended for investing in its advice services at a time when other London Boroughs are cutting theirs. We have continuation funding from Trust for London for the Access+ project working with local BAMER communities. The grant from the Big Lottery Local Sustainability Fund allowed us to put extra resources into fundraising and building partnerships with law firms and others to maximise our reach. We recently secured funding from new sources, notably the NatWest Skills and Opportunities Fund, and Henry Smith Charity.

I am very proud to be Chair of IPR but it would an empty position without our wonderful staff and volunteers who together make such a positive impact every day on the lives of our clients. I would like to thank my predecessor as Chair, Tim Aldridge. I would also like to express appreciation for the time committed by fellow Trustees as well as the resources of time and money given by our supporters that make everything possible. Our services are needed more than ever and with your continued support, we can look forward to another successful year!

Matt Brown