Two benefits advisors may lose their jobs in new council proposals.

The posts of two welfare rights advisors are at risk as Barnet Council consults on potentially restructuring the roles, which Barnet Unison believes will turn the roles “from helping to signposting”.

Various cuts have meant similar organisations, such as the Welfare Rights Unit and the Barnet Law Service, have been closed down due to lack of funding and others no longer offer the same advice as the welfare officers.

Barnet Unison secretary John Burgess said: “This proposal is appalling and must be stopped.

“Barnet Unison and our members will do our utmost to stop this from happening. The benefit system is too complex - there is no other provider and we can’t let this cut destroy more people’s lives.

“We need to save this service.”

The campaigning group also released statistics which stated that since 2012, Barnet Council spend on consultancy fees and agencies has risen from £7.73m to just under £20m by 2017.

Mr Burgess continued: “The most vulnerable Barnet residents will suffer the consequences of the deletion of these posts and their lives will be severely impacted because they will not be able to access impartial help.

“The service is already working with extremely vulnerable families including those with mental health conditions, disabilities, domestic violence victims and those at risk of homelessness.

“We will see an increase of families being moved out of borough, children’s education will be disrupted, communities and torn apart, families networks severed.

“The isolation will have a critical effect on them finding jobs vacancies because family and friends are an essential source of the child care.”

Under the proposal, the roles will be turned into one Financial Inclusion Coordinator role, which Barnet Unison fear will just be a signposting role that will not offer support to vulnerable families who need advice on their benefits.

Film director and activist Ken Loach, whose film I, Daniel Blake told the story of a man wrongly denied benefits, weighed in on the proposal, asked whether the council were aware of “the cruelty of the treatment of vulnerable people” that these cuts may lead to.

He said: “The DWP’s procedures are set up to trap and punish those who need support and advice.

By these cuts, the council is colluding in this conscious brutality.”

A Barnet Council spokesman, who the council refused to name, said: “Barnet Council are reviewing the role of two welfare rights advisors in the context of how welfare and benefits advice should be delivered across Barnet in the future.

“No decisions have been made about the future of these of these posts at this time. We are in consultation with the two staff affected by the proposal.”