Agenda item

To consider the report of the Financial Inclusion Team on the work undertaken across the city to support people who find themselves in financial difficulties. The report also highlights support organisations and financial inclusion initiatives specific to the Inner East area. (This report is submitted in support of the Community Workshop which follows this meeting)

The Committee resolved to use the ‘Community Comment’ section of the meeting to facilitate comments from residents in discussions on the theme of ‘Money Management’ planned for the community workshop and on the contents of the report of the Financial Inclusion Team.

Diane Gill, LCC Financial Inclusion Development Team, attended the meeting to present the report and highlighted the following:

- the work undertaken in the locality to provide support, advice and mentoring by the local Debt Forum and the Money Buddy and Benefit Buddy initiatives to empower local people in difficulty to deal with their financial struggles

- the work being done to encourage people to borrow and save money safely by the Leeds Credit Union and the work in local schools to encourage early savers and their parents.

- the new Holiday Hunger initiative by the “Fare Share” group and holiday activity providers seeking to ensure pupils who received free school meals throughout the school term would not go without during the holiday period.

In conclusion, Diane asked the workshop discussions to consider how the local community, Council and partners could reach people in distress to provide information to them and signpost services/support.

Councillor R Grahame, Community Champion for Employment, Skills and Welfare, introduced discussions by emphasising the role of apprenticeships, business and NEETs initiatives in combatting poverty in the locality. He outlined the causes and impact of debt on individuals, their families and the wider community.

Neil Young, Area Officer, directed attention to the four questions set for the workshop session seeking to inform a proposed action plan for a campaign to raise awareness of personal debt services and responsible spending in the run-up to Christmas 2017:

- What are the barriers to people seeking debt advice?

- What are the barriers to people knowing about what services are on offer?

- What can the community do to promote debt advice services?

-Is there anything missing from the draft campaign strategy?

The workshop was attended by representatives of several organisations who provided support and advice – each described the nature of their operation in the locality. Discussions highlighted the following issues:

- The difficulties experienced by people who did not speak English as their first language; this was a barrier to seeking support

- The impact of the benefit changes/caps and sanctions. A particular concern being for those people with young families.

(Councillor Ragan left the meeting at this point).

- Concern that much of the advice and support was not available out of hours and could be inaccessible for people who worked but were on low incomes.

- The process for referrals from One Stop Centre officers and Housing officers

- Comments regarding the accessibility of referrals for tenants on private rented properties were noted

- Perceived deficit of jobs available 9.30 to 2.30 around family hours

- The challenge of encouraging attendance at money/debt advice sessions and the stigma attached to financial problems

- The advice and support available for people who challenged sanctions and whether there was an opportunity for the Benefits Advice Service to be involved.

The following key points were identified:

Isolation – People in difficulty isolated themselves and would not respond to leaflets, may not have phone or internet access. Outreach work could be successful, but identifying those in difficulty would be key

Information packs – Packs containing information on upcoming Community Committee workshops could be provided to residents and tenants groups, and include money management signposting as standard

Proactive measures – Providing money management information at the first point of contact was highlighted, such as when people make their first benefit claim or housing application

Health and wellbeing – The impact of poverty and debt on mental health and family wellbeing was identified

Education – People understood £20.00 per week loan repayments but not interest rates and work to educate young people and especially college/university students who will incur long term debt was identified

Role of social prescribing – GPs social prescribing did include debt advice but it would be useful to know how effective the links were from the GP to specific organisations – such as the Money Buddies

The Committee also noted the fact that the UK and Poland were the only two European countries which allowed high cost lending companies to trade. The suggestion that the CC could consider lobbying Central Government to address this was noted.

Work to take forward was identified as follows:

~ Mapping exercise of what services and support are available out of hours to see how the CC can support work or stakeholders to fill that gap

~ Consideration of how to better signpost and promote availability of support and advice

~ Consideration of how to reach the various communities within Inner East and break down the language barriers

~ How to overcome the stigma and embarrassment attached to financial problems

~ Identifying a counter argument against the 24/7 advertising of the high cost lenders

RESOLVED –

a) To note the contents of the Financial Inclusion Initiatives report

b) To note the contents of the discussions held during the Community Committee workshop on the theme of ‘Money Management’

c) To note the issues identified for future action