Child Poverty Bill
12:00 pm
Rev. Paul Nicolson: We started the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust in the 1990s as a direct result of working with very vulnerable people who could not pay their poll tax. We found that not only were they not able to pay the poll tax, but they were in trouble with rent and fines. We needed to deal with those as well. We came to the conclusion that the reason they could not pay their poll tax was that they did not have enough income. Therefore, Professor Jonathan Bradshaw and I, as directors of the Family Budget Unit, approached the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and it turned us down. I found that Lord Sainsbury had just moved into my parish, in Turville, and was calling himself Lord Sainsbury of Turville. Turville is where I had the pleasure of giving permission for the filming of “The Vicar of Dibley”. I was the real vicar of Dibley for seven years, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Sainsbury’s came up with a very substantial donation, as did Barclays, Barnardo’s and some private donors.
We commissioned the Family Budget Unit. We found that the unemployment benefits being taxed were already £40 below what was needed, so there was really serious poverty. We went on from there. We worked as volunteers. I spent 10 years helping people fill in their means statements for the magistrates in Wycombe magistrates court, as a McKenzie Friend.
We at last got to a point where people began to notice that we might be doing something useful and raised substantial sums of money. We now have two full-time lawyers. We have an administrator and an office courtesy of the Duke of Westminster in Ebury street. I have some embarrassment in fighting poverty with the Maserati outside the door, not to mention the Bentley. However, there is a very nice grant to help us pay the rent and it is a very convenient place. We work hands-on with the most vulnerable. We only take those below the radar; we do not take mortgage or credit card debt cases. We deal with the most poor.