Supporting Social And Economic Inclusion: Winner

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1 Supporting Social And Economic Inclusion: Winner The Wrekin Housing Trust And Partners: Financial Inclusion And Capability Summary Increasingly we are all required to take greater personal responsibility for our financial affairs and there is a need to be able to manage money well. The challenge of improving the financial capability of the nation has rapidly moved up the social and political agenda, particularly in respect of those who previously have been excluded from the financial system. With the current focus on financial issues during the credit crunch the issue of financial exclusion and capability has become even more real in the everyday lives of The Wrekin Housing Trust s customers and communities as a whole. In response to this, the Trust introduced a Financial Inclusion and Capability Strategy in December The Trust s strategy is not just about increasing access to financial services and informing of choices available. It aimed to provide services and support that encourage a culture of self-help and to foster and support a culture of economic prosperity. To help achieve the aims of the strategy, a Financial Inclusion Project Manager was appointed in June 2008.

2 What did you set out to achieve? Using our own resources and working with partners we set out to address the following priority areas: Increasing incomes through appropriate advice Developing a savings culture Increasing access to affordable credit Improving financial skills and money management Giving customers the knowledge to make their own informed financial choices Increasing spending power e.g. by reducing fuel poverty and increasing home insurance take-up Working with prospective tenants to give them the best possible chance of sustaining their tenancy. From the onset, the first priority was to find out the real issues facing our local residents. This was done by way of a Money Matters survey to 1800 people. With a response rate of 28.6% we were confident with the survey results and responses aided us with developing our ongoing action plan. The survey highlighted priority areas for us to develop, for example: Only 42% of respondents knew we provided a Welfare Benefit Advice service 95% of respondent had never used the local Credit Union to borrow money 45% had never heard of the Credit Union 55% of those struggling to consistently pay their rent stated they would have no means of funding an emergency expense 78% of those struggling to pay their rent did not have any contents insurance 29% of respondents didn t even know we offered an insurance scheme Only 63% for those who receive full Housing Benefit had access to a bank account 81% of those struggling with their rent use a pre-payment meter for their gas & electric, with many thinking they had no choice, as the meter was already installed. The full survey results and responses informed our ongoing action plan. How were these aims and objectives met? Through a partnership of our Financial Inclusion Manager, local organisations and frontline staff we: Increased access to affordable credit and increasing spending power: Success in bringing 120K of DWP funding for Credit Union instant loans into Telford and Wrekin. The scheme began in July 2009 and four sessions are

3 held every week in our local offices. Over 100 Community Fund Loans granted with a total loan value of over 43,000. Compared to home credit companies like Provident, using these loans will have now kept over 30,000 in our communities, due to reduced interest payments charged. Developing a savings culture: Worked in partnership to design a Credit Union Home Saver Account. Launched in July 2009 with personal invites sent out to customers registering on our Choose Your Home CBL scheme. The scheme is incentivised by free Credit Union membership and 5 credit in the account to kickstart savings. Giving customers knowledge to make informed financial choices - Working with prospective tenants to give the best chance of sustaining a tenancy: A Money Matters pre-tenancy discussion and information pack was introduced. Tenants are asked about their welfare benefits, banking, use of credit and debt issues prior to their tenancy starting. Our in house teams, Credit Unions for loans and Current Accounts and Debt Advice are actively promoted at this stage and referrals made as appropriate. Customers are given factual information about the meterage of gas/electric/water in their new home, with the opportunity of a visit from an energy advisor through an Energy Extra partnership. The advisors offer impartial advice and help on energy matters including efficiency, changing payment method or supplier. Increasing incomes through money/welfare benefit advice: Through better promotion of our Welfare Benefit Advisors, referrals to the team have increased by 31%, with our customers weekly potential benefit increased by 21%. What challenges did the project face, and what lessons were learned? One key challenge was to find a successful way to promote services and support to both our staff and residents. Traditionally, we would promote services in our Trust Talks tenant magazine, but in response to important Welfare Benefit changes in October 2009, we designed a simple Money Matters newsletter which was sent out along with our rent statements. This was a successful and cost effective way to communicate with our customers and directly resulted in: 12k extra Housing Benefit onto our rent accounts 3k in interest savings for those using the Credit Union for loans instead of a high-cost lender 20 customers requesting Home Contents Insurance. Another key challenge to us was to increase local awareness and confidence with Credit Unions, in what was a very challenging financial climate with general mistrust of financial services being reported daily in the media. From the onset, we involved the Credit Unions by inviting them to:

4 Resident Involvement events Community Events Staff team meetings Local resident meetings Attend other organisations that we have close links to, such as other local housing providers and the local authority. We used our staff intranet, local shops, tenants magazines and flyers in free newspapers to promote services and offered free use of our local offices for savings and loan appointments. We learnt from feedback from customers that face-to-face promotion was the best way to spread the word, but also the most resource intensive. With the Credit Unions having to rely on volunteers and keep their overheads low, we enlisted the support of our four local Resident Involvement groups (including five recently recruited volunteer Financial Inclusion Champions ). By presenting to these groups, giving them confidence in the services available, they have helped to spread the word amongst their neighbourhoods. How was the success of the project measured? We conducted a further survey in October 2009 to enable us to evaluate our ongoing work. The survey highlighted increased awareness of services and choices available. To measure the ongoing success of this project we have developed a suite of performance indicators on our in-house Infomania system to regularly monitor the following areas: Take up of Credit Union Community Fund Loans Take up of Credit Union Home Saver Accounts Take up of Home Contents Insurance Referrals and financial gains from our Welfare Benefit Advice Team. We are now developing the following to measure the impact of pre-tenancy discussions on the sustainability of tenancies: The number of new tenants getting into debt (and levels of debt) The number of evictions and court actions cases for rent arrears The number of abandoned properties. What were the key positive outcomes? In September 2008, 95% of customers had never used the local Credit Union to borrow money and 45% of customers were not even aware of them. Our

5 second survey in October 2009 showed us that 93% of respondents would now consider using the local Credit Union for a loan. Our local Credit Unions have both seen an increase in membership of 23% in the past 18 months Improved communication with our residents - 89% of those surveyed, found our new Money Matters flyer sent with their rent statements very useful. We shall continue to use this method twice yearly to communicate important Money Matters information to residents. We have worked hard to increase the awareness of our frontline staff on the Financial Inclusion agenda, ensuring that they are knowledgeable on in-house services and products, and other areas such as the Credit Unions. By encouraging staff to take an holistic approach when discussing rent arrears, we have continued to perform at very high level, in what has been a difficult financial climate. Performance and customer satisfaction - at the start of this current financial year arrears performance stood at 0.85%, placing us amongst the top performing organisations in the country. From our recent survey, 55% of customers who had recently had rent arrears issues, rate the support and advice they received from us as Very Good. Overall, 93% of our tenants are satisfied with the services we provide as a landlord. How did the project demonstrate positive practice in equality and diversity? The Trust is committed to ensuring and promoting equality of opportunity for all in the services that we deliver. As an organisation, all tenant publications are Tenant Read, in Plain Language and carry translation information in Polish, Urdu, Punjabi and Chinese. Many are available in Large Print and in audio versions. Local publications produced by the Financial Inclusion Partnership carry translation information in Polish, Urdu, Punjabi and Chinese. As part of the Financial Inclusion Project, we set out to ensure that the services we promoted were very accessible to all. An example of this is the Welfare Benefit Advice Team, who can be contacted for expert advice in a wide range of ways: By telephone using a direct contact number (with Language Line translation available on all calls to the organisation where required) By attending a face to face appointment in one of our 11 local shops (attendance of a translator can be arranged for any appointments where required) By through our website, which offers translation tools. Through local partnership working we actively support and facilitate targeted

6 outreach, recent examples are: Promoting Credit Unions in an area of high unemployment with recognised loan shark activity Inviting the Credit Union to attend a woman only event aimed at local Punjabi women Targeted promotions to those in rural areas using expensive LPG for fuel, giving them access to affordable loans and savings for future purchases. Whilst the project may focus on particular client groups or areas for targeted promotions, its overall aim is for Credit Unions, savings, low cost loans and affordable gas and electric to be promoted and available to all. What elements of the project could be replicated by others? By surveying customers we were able to identify the key things locally that people needed, and through raising awareness of this important agenda with local Resident Involvement groups we have been able to tailor services, access to advice and local events to meet the needs of residents. Engaging tenants in this work is very important and satisfying and very easy for any organisation to replicate. Developing ideas for local savings schemes with Credit Unions is also possible in most areas, and by targeting those waiting for homes, you can encourage savings, financial responsibility and more sustainable tenancies in the future. With access to or through working in partnership with, either Local Authority housing lists, or Choice Based lettings schemes its simple to encourage those registered to save and offer incentives where possible. Engaging with customers prior to the start of their tenancy is a very important stage that we have recently introduced. Offering support and advice to help the tenancy off to the best start will both improve customer satisfaction and increase the chance of the tenancy being sustainable. By training the staff in this area of work and developing both a comprehensive script and tenant information pack, many organisations can replicate a similar process during their allocation process. How does this project fit with your organisational environmental action strategy/action plan? Our Financial Inclusion Strategy, ongoing action planning, training and awareness constantly focuses on the main aims of the previous Government s Financial Inclusion Agenda. The Government set out its strategy to tackle financial exclusion in Financial Inclusion - the way forward, published in March 2007, with the three main areas outlined as:

7 Access to free face-to-face advice Access to banking services Access to affordable credit. Further to these, at The Wrekin Housing Trust also know how important it is for our tenants to have: Access to affordable home contents insurance Access to affordable gas and electric. How have you involved residents in developing this project/initiative? Through working in partnership with Credit Unions to develop products, inviting them to local events, conferences, resident meetings, allowing them free use of our network of local offices to deliver services, funding incentives and promoting their products to tenants via our publications. The Trust took the lead in both developing and chairing a local Financial Inclusion Partnership to better co-ordinate and lead on Financial Inclusion activities and events locally. The group comprises of: Local Authority (Benefits, Housing Needs, Affordable Warmth and Neighbourhood Management) Local Credit Unions Citizens Advice Bureau Jobcentre Plus The Pension Service Midlands Loan Shark Team. Collectively we have arranged many shared training events for all frontline staff including Loan Shark Awareness and the DWP Working Benefits Workshop, produced publications offering advice and guidance for local people. The group has now been tasked with delivering on the action plan for the Financial Support quadrant of the Local Authority s Child Poverty Action Plan. The Trust s Financial Inclusion Manager attends the local Worklessness Steering Group and is the Lead Officer for our Local Authority s Child Poverty Strategy (Financial Support Element). By being involved at a strategic level we can ensure that planned service and support are inclusive to our customers. This involvement has allowed us greater access to a wider group of frontline staff who may also work with our customers, for example: Children s Centres Staff Health Trainers Substance Misuse Workers

8 Community Mental Health Team. Ensuring that all local frontline staff have good knowledge of support, services and products available to help the financially excluded makes it easier to ensure a consistent message to all local residents.