Lottery funding for financial inclusion advice for social housing tenants

Money-saving expert Martin Lewis, National Housing Federation and Citizens Advice are backing a multi-million pound Big Lottery Fund initiative aimed at preventing thousands of the most vulnerable people living in social housing across England from falling into a spiral of debt. Big Lottery Fund (BIG) has announced £31.7m in funding for 37 projects that will help an estimated 150,000 tenants across England become more financially aware and more confident in money management as well as better able to access financial products and services such as a basic bank account.

Among the successful lead recipients are Bromley By Bow Centre (£597,948), East End Citizens Advice Bureaux (£1,000,000), Haringey Citizens Advice Bureaux (£1,000,000), Liverpool Specialist Advice Services (£968,109), Plymouth Citizens Advice Bureau (£864,210), Coventry Citizens Advice Bureau (£988,756), Stoke On Trent Citizens Advice Bureaux (£780,702), Wolverhampton Citizens Advice Bureaux (£568,984), Hull and East Riding Citizens Advice Bureau Ltd (£993,199), The RCJ Citizens Advice Bureau (£959,200), Knowsley District Citizens Advice Bureau (£863,858), Tameside Citizens Advice Bureau Limited   (£785,858), and Sheffield Citizens Advice Bureaux Debt Support Unit (£614,855 and £586253). Many of these projects will be working with partners from advice services, housing providers and local authorities to deliver their particular projects.

For more on this funding stream, see Preventing the poverty premium - Lottery invests over £31m

This makes sense.

You deregulate fincial services so they operate like a casino.

You start a lottery.

You banks gamble on borrowing short to lever take overs.

Your banks fail.

Your banks are bailed out.

You cut public spending on welfare to pay for the bail out.

As folks have less welfare money.

You offer them finacial advice.

Paid from the lottery….

As the poorest spend more of their money as a proportion on the Lottery.

The advice is self financed.

Brilliant.

I find these measures laughable really. Financial Inclusion ignoring the elephant in the room - inadequate benefits and tax credit levels!!!

A recent report on direct payments discovered that most claimants of Housing Benefit have bank accounts!! I was always amazed how often i heard that claimants didnt have bank accounts! Most have had one since the switch over from giros and benefit books.

What will the new “discovery” be - that most claimants use doorstep lenders, not for frivalous luxury, but simply to get through the week!

I really think the money would be better spent on discretionary grants direct to the vulnerable, in the form of vouchers or something if we are too pious to trust anyone with cash. Financial inclusion smacks of Victorian well wishes telling people to buy flour in bulk, and not to put groceries on the slate!!!

I’ve always held the (unpopular) view that financial inclusion is just a box ticking exercise and its just about people with money telling people without money how to spend it.

Whilst I do understand the general cynicism, I have been speaking to a couple of people from successful agencies who say that one aspect of the work they intend to try out is in helping people living in social housing deal with the various welfare reforms.

Clearly, the need for monthly payments, bank accounts, digital by default etc, will require some improved degrees of financial literacy for many people, and this is an opportunity to work with a range of partners to try and help ensure this happens.

I agree that intervention and education should be seen as the way forward, however the governments’ idea of perhaps paying money to claimants monthly can seriously backfire.

It’s quite easy to budget monthly if you are working and have a decent income.

It’s a different story on £71 per week with the rising cost of living.

I predict that if monthly payments go ahead then it will be like christmas day for loan sharks and other money lenders as it will be difficult for many claimants to stretch their money for a whole month.

Intervention “might” help address this however many claimants wont engage in the process for a variety of reasons.

The main problem is that the intervention and education required must compete head on with the money lenders out there regarding the help they can offer.

Credit unions, for example, are great in principle but there arent many around and most claimants arent aware of them.
Why spend a fiver on bus fares to access a credit union when “kneecap” Billy the loan shark, the provident or even Wonga can supply cash immediately without even having to step out of your front door?
Its too easy and too convenient to get into debt unfortunately.