Universal Credit: Supporting Residents out of Poverty in Tower Hamlets

Tower Hamlets, a borough in East London has a significant deprivation problem. Although it is home to the business district of Canary Wharf, its residents suffer some of the worst poverty in the city. Currently, the borough has 20,000 people on their housing waiting list, as well as high levels of crime and unemployment.

Cllr Mufeedah Bustin is the Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion in Tower Hamlets Council. Her background is in financial services, working in audit, operations and strategy within the banking and insurance sectors, and was a Partner at a broking firm.

Mufeedah moved into the charitable sector in 2017, working for organisations that seek to reduce inequalities. She currently works for a social enterprise supporting young people in care. Elected in 2018, Mufeedah was a Commissioner for Tower Hamlets’ race inequality commission, has led a review of the council’s poverty interventions and is currently working on a digital inclusion strategy.

In this session from the Universal Credit Conference, 2021, Mufeedah outlined the deprivation problems present in Tower Hamlets. She shared the councils’ incentives to help lift its residents out of poverty, which involve supplementing universal credit and helping young people to work.