As part of our group presentation, we handed out questionnaires and also to a few groups in my local community. We went to other venues in the community to get a wider range of views. I received 45 filled in forms. Three quarters of the respondents thought there should be a Minister for Poverty or some kind of governmental body with real experience of poverty to help alleviate the problem. The overall conclusions were that the current benefit system was predominately difficult for people. People find it over complicated and it takes too long to receive the benefits, which cause them distress. It was also clear that people found it confusing as to what they were actually entitled to and, it seemed, that the benefits were stopped too easily and in my view wrongly in some cases such as

- a man who missed his appointment due to being with his partner in hospital who had just had a stillborn child.

- a man who had carried out 60 job searches but missed one that matched his profile.

HIIC Poverty Writings