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Financial Resilience Strategy

Scoping Paper

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Contents

1. Context

2. Why financial resilience

3. Assets and needs and the importance of co-production

4. Outcomes summary

5. Outcome 1 – More people earn a living wage

6. Outcome 2 – More people have access to the financial products they need

7. Outcome 3 – Levels of problematic debt are reducing

8. Outcome 4 – More people get the benefits and credits they are entitled to

9. Outcome 5 – More people can manage their money on-line if they wish to

10. Outcome 6 – More people feel able to manage their finances well

11. Outcome 7 – Levels of fuel poverty are reducing

12. Outcome 8 – Levels of food poverty are reducing

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1.0 Context

1.1 Lambeth’s vision is to become a co-operative commissioning council that will see citizens and the

council work ‘together as equals in the design and delivery of local services [and] the relationship

between professional staff and citizens rebalanced to allow citizens more direct control and

influence over the services that make a difference in their lives and communities’1.

1.2 We know that if we are to engage citizens to shape our services we must do so with ‘no

presumptions about what the service might be, but work together to identify connections between

resources available from the community and the council in a different way, building options

genuinely from scratch.’2 It is clear that to do this effectively we need to shift the focus of our

activity to better balance all aspects of the commissioning cycle so that the elements that are

traditionally given less attention than procurement/monitoring of services, namely, understanding

the assets base, quantifying need, determining outcomes, allocating resources and designing service

delivery models are undertaken in full and in true partnership with the local community.

1.3 At the same time, given the scale of the negative impacts that will be felt locally by already

financially vulnerable households linked to the Government’s programme of welfare reform,

improving financial resilience is a key priority for the council. Taking action to improve financial

resilience in a range of ways is of critical importance to support local people to access the financial

services, products and advice that will allow them to achieve and maintain financial stability, avoid

debt and generally improve their financial capability.

1.4 It has therefore been agreed that the development of an ambitious Financial Resilience strategy is a

priority and that it be used as a ‘pathfinder’ to develop the council’s approach to co-operative

commissioning.

1.5 Given the desire to focus on building financial resilience with those most in need and the fact that

the welfare reforms are likely to deeply affect those receiving benefits and tax credits, it has been

determined that the focus of the strategy should be on those residents who receive either a welfare

benefit (eg: Job Seekers’ Allowance, housing benefit, disability benefits) or a tax credit. This ensures

that our efforts are centred on those with the lowest incomes, those most likely to lack the

necessary financial resilience and those most in need of help. Initial analysis shows that there are

approximately 44,000 local residents who receive a welfare benefit and 27,000 who receive either

Child or Working Tax Credits. There is obviously overlap between these two cohorts and we are

seeking to establish the degree of this with input from DWP. The strategy will seek to address its

outcomes and activity at this group rather than the wider population at large though the benefits of

some of the activity will be more widely felt.

1.6 The development of the strategy will involve the mapping of current assets and spend, analysis of

need (seeking to identify and target the most financially excluded), the establishment of outcomes

and measurable outcome indicators, the design of services and the allocation of resources. All of this

activity will be undertaken in partnership with the local community. This will allow all resources to

be pulled together and commissioning to be undertaken in a strategic and co-operative way.

2.0 Why financial resilience?

2.1 Lambeth’s community outcomes include one that seeks to ensure that: ‘More vulnerable and

disadvantaged residents are able to live independently and as they choose’ and one that states that

1 Cooperative Council – Your Questions Answered (Draft) – pg 5 2 Cooperative Council – Your Questions Answered (Draft) – pg 10

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“More people achieve financial security”. These outcomes speak to the council’s ambition to

empower citizens, particularly those that are vulnerable and disadvantaged, to prevent dependency

and to build greater resilience in Lambeth’s communities. Lambeth undertakes a whole range of

activity to support vulnerable and disadvantaged residents, but given the context of a prolonged

period of constrained public spending, and a sluggish economy, it is vital that Lambeth is able to

focus on preventing financial problems and building financial resilience.

2.2 This is not just an issue of the services which Lambeth commissions within the borough. The council

is a multi million pound organisation which, through its supply chains, is able to exert influence on

the local wage economy. The council also directly affects the financial health of citizens through

administering benefits and collecting taxes and other payments. In the context of Lambeth’s new

organisational structure, therefore, financial resilience is an issue that will require the engagement

of commissioners, providers and enablers.

2.3 The scale of the Government’s changes to the welfare system, and the likely reduction in income

that will follow for thousands of Lambeth residents, means that supporting residents to be as

financially resilient as possible is more critical than ever. There will be a need to manage on less

money, to manage finances differently in response to Universal Credit, to be able to cope with

fluctuations and sudden drops in income and to use different financial products in support of this.

2.4 Work with partners, residents, councillors and providers demonstrated that there is strong support

for a Financial Resilience strategy that addresses for and with residents issues like:

• An ability not to have to worry about the basics – having a roof over one’s head, food for one’s

family, a warm home

• An ability to manage one’s own finances competently

• An ability to cope with unexpected expenditure/crises without creating problematic debt

• Living within one’s means and those means being maximised

• Being paid a living wage

• Having a sense of financial well-being and of feeling able to cope

Lambeth’s Financial Resilience strategy will ensure that commissioning activity is aligned to deliver

against these broad objectives.

3.0 Understanding assets and needs and co-production of outcomes

3.1 The first stage of the process of developing the strategy has involved comprehensive asset mapping

to make sure that knowledge about the availability of local and national resources fully informs the

commissioning process. As well as commissioned services, the borough has a wealth of civil society

organisations who work to improve the financial stability and capability of citizens and a multitude

of businesses, banks, a Credit Union and other financial institutions. There are also informal

networks, skills and resources among the population that enable citizens to avoid poverty. Asset

mapping ensures that we are making full use of all of these services. The work in this area is on-

going. We have supplemented the information we already hold with information provided to us at

the co-production workshops (see below) and asset mapping templates that we have circulated by

email to agencies.

3.2 Lambeth has an increasingly sophisticated and developing data warehouse that is enabling us to

understand the resources funded by the council that support households in this area and, crucially,

where the need for support is greatest. We can demonstrate effectively where the welfare changes

will hit hardest and where levels of debt, arrears and poverty are greatest. We are using this data to

ensure that future commissioning activity can be appropriately targeted. Obviously a key focus of

the assets and needs analysis is to understand where the council needs to build on existing assets to

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build greater financial resilience and capability, where it will need to invest to plug gaps and grow

capacity and what the emerging needs are.

3.3 Financial resilience is a broad area and, as well as determining the cohort that we wished to target

with the strategy, we recognised the need to both determine and to prioritise key outcomes that

the strategy will seek to achieve with this cohort. As officers, we developed a starting definition for

financial resilience and set out potential areas for inclusion which we sought to discuss and develop

with partners, residents, councillors and providers in a series of co-production workshops. These

workshops were very successful. They were well attended, with an impressive level of engagement

and energy for the issues at hand displayed by those attending, and they have enabled us to arrive

at a properly co-produced set of outcomes and potential outcome indicators for the strategy as set

out below. .

4.0 The outcomes

Main outcome Outcome indicator(s)

1. More people earn a living

wage

• Proportion/no. of people paid the LLW increasing

• Proportion/no. of people who are economically active is

increasing

2. More people have access

to the financial products

they need

• No. of Credit Union accounts opened

• No. of claimants having benefits paid into bank account

3. Levels of problematic

debt are reducing

• No. of people using rogue/expensive lenders reducing

• Level of mortgage/rent arrears reducing

• Level of bankruptcies/CCJs/DROs reducing

• No. of Credit Union accounts opened

4. More people get the

benefits and credits that

they are entitled to

• No. of residents who have been supported to take up new

benefit/credit is increasing

• No. of residents whose income is maximised is increasing

• Claim rates for certain benefits increasing (DWP)

5. More people can manage

their money on-line if

they wish to

• No. of people on-line banking/claiming increasing

• No. of people managing council related finances on-line

6. More people feel able to

manage their finances

well and can cope with

an unexpected financial

outlay/crisis

• Self reported capability via a baseline survey

• Emergency Support Scheme applications are reducing

• Levels of problematic debt reducing (eg: loans, arrears)

• Fewer evictions linked with rent arrears

• Food bank usage reducing

7. Levels of fuel poverty are

reducing • No. of people spending more than 10% of household

income on fuel is reducing

8. Levels of food poverty

are reducing

• Number of people able to feed their family increasing

• Food bank usage decreasing

• Number of food co-ops is increasing

5.0 Outcome 1 - More people earn a living wage

Definition

5.1 Through the workshops, people identified pay as a major factor in peoples’ financial resilience. If

people have sufficient income, they are better able to cope with unexpected financial outlay, build

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up a savings cushion etc. Adequate pay can also help to address some of the other outcomes we are

working towards, including reducing food and fuel poverty.

5.2 The London living wage is an hourly wage rate set annually by the Greater London Authority, and is

based on what income is required to provide a low cost but adequate income. The London living

wage is calculated by identifying the poverty threshold, and then adding a 15% margin for

emergencies and unexpected outlays. In 2012 the London living wage was £8.55 per hour.

Scope of the problem

5.3 There are approximately 11,000 jobs in Lambeth that pay below the London living wage. A large

proportion of these are part time. 40% of part time jobs in Lambeth are below the London living

wage, around 6,900.

Table 1

Applicant

Disregard

person on

HB

Income

Support,

Non-Dep

Non-

dependant

Partner

Partner of

Non-dep

Student

Unknown

YTS

Grand Total

Above LL wage 1901 8 713 333 17 2972

Between 20 and 40 hrs 1002 4 481 213 14 1714

Less than 20 860 3 224 108 3 1198

Over 40 hrs 39 1 8 12 60

Below minimum wage 4029 3 9 436 492 3 2 4 1 4979

Between 20 and 40 hrs 2087 1 5 287 309 3 2 3 1 2698

Less than 20 1762 2 2 122 143 1 2032

Over 40 hrs 180 2 27 40 249

Between minimum wage and LL wage

2339 1 5 333 315 6 2 1 3002

Between 20 and 40 hrs 1239 4 228 204 3 2 1 1681

Less than 20 1039 1 1 97 93 3 1234

Over 40 hrs 61 8 18 87

Grand Total 8269 4 22 1482 1140 26 4 5 1 10953

5.4 Table 1 shows the employment patterns of our target population. It shows that 8269 benefit

applicants are in paid employment. Of these, only 1901 are earning the London Living Wage of

above. Almost half are earning below the minimum wage. At each wage point, numbers are fairly

evenly split between those working less than 20 hours per week, and more than 20 hours per week.

It suggests that there is a need for further information on the reasons why people are not increasing

their hours of work to improve household income. It could be because of the poor performance of

the labour market causing under employment, or disincentives in the benefits system, or additional

costs of increasing working hours, such as child care costs.

5.5 There are 114,000 paid jobs based in Lambeth - these figures are for workplaces. The median hourly

wage is £16.92, compared to £17.63 for Inner London and £11.43 for London as a whole. Part time

jobs in Lambeth are relatively well paid, compared to other London boroughs.

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5.6 There are a number of supply and demand issues that are likely to affect peoples’ ability to get jobs

that pay the London living wage. These include:

• The number of living wage jobs available to Lambeth residents

• Insufficient pressure on employers to pay the LLW, even when they can

• Insufficient opportunities for progression within the low paid section of the workforce due to

lack of structure

• The skills match between Lambeth residents and the living wage jobs

• Low level of skills in the population

• Lack of investment from employers in skills at the lower end of the jobs market, inhibiting

progression

• The access to information among Lambeth residents on living wage jobs

5.7 Low paid work is concentrated in certain sectors, particularly retail, wholesale and hospitality. See

fig. 1 below. The concentration of businesses in the London economy in these low paid sectors is

likely to affect whether people from Lambeth are able to get London Living Wage jobs.

Lambeth, All jobs,

16.92

Lambeth, Male,

17.33Lambeth, Female,

16.59

Lambeth, Full

time, 17.51

Lambeth, Part

time, 12.61

Lambeth, M Full

time, 17.83Lambeth, F full

time, 16.81Lambeth, f part

time, 14.39

Inner London, All

jobs, 17.63

Inner London,

Male, 19.54Inner London,

Female, 16.14

Inner London, Full

time, 18.85

Inner London, Part

time, 9.92

Inner London, M

Full time, 20.59

Inner London, F

full time, 17.14

Inner London, M

part time, 8.87

Inner London, f

part time, 10.52

£ p

er

ho

ur

Hourly wage, Lambeth vs other london

boroughs

Quartile 3

Quartile 2

Lambeth

Inner London

London

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5.8 Our focus is on the people in Lambeth who are likely to be affected by the welfare reforms and

those who are not currently affected, but may be in the future. We do not have complete equalities

data for this population, but there are certain factors that are worth pulling out.

a) Those affected by the household benefit cap (approx. 600 households) are disproportionately

female single parents and children, and particularly larger families. Affordable childcare,

location of jobs, and hours of work are likely to be barriers to gaining living wage jobs.

b) The overall data for Lambeth shows that more women than men hold part time jobs, and that

part time jobs are less likely to pay the London living wage. Again, caring responsibilities may

play a part in excluding women from working full-time where jobs are more likely to be paid at

higher rates

c) The data on ethnicity for the benefits caseload is not complete enough to draw conclusions on

potential barriers people of different ethnicities may face

d) Data on disability?

Current projects/activities and their effectiveness

Lambeth and partners such as JCP and the work programme providers are primarily focused on

supporting people into work, rather than necessarily into jobs that pay the LLW, or supporting people to

progress once they are in work. Getting people into jobs, even if they do pay below the LLW, may be the first

step towards earning a LLW, but research shows that many low paid jobs do not offer opportunities for

progression. There are a multitude of community, third and public sector providers of employment support.

Below are the activities that are most closely related to helping towards supporting our target population

into LLW jobs.

Lambeth Council & London Councils Upskilling project

Project to work with employers in low paid sectors to increase the skills of their staff, offering employees

the opportunity for progression into better paid work, and employers better productivity and output. This is

currently a small scale project, funded until December 2013.

Lambeth careers service

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Provides advice (3 sessions per person) to support people to access employment, or training necessary to

obtain employment. This is mostly to support people into work.

Lambeth Working – jobs brokerage

This is a new programme to be launched shortly to work with employers to develop employment

opportunities, and then work with employment support providers to match these job opportunities to local

people. The brokerage has the potential to focus its activity on employers and sectors where LLW jobs are

more likely.

Lambeth Adult Learning

Commissions 7 providers to deliver basic vocational skills to people in Lambeth, to prepare them for work.

Backr

Co-funded project with JP Morgan and Participle to develop a social network approach to employment

support and employment progression. They are primarily targeting people out of work, but also connect

with people in work looking to advance or progress.

Lambeth’s LLW policy

Lambeth has committed to employing people on LLW rates, and to gradually ensure that its contracts pay

LLW rates. This will increase the supply of LLW jobs in the borough, but we would need to ensure that are

target population are connected with these job opportunities if they are to benefit.

Suggested future projects/activity

5.9 There are several options for Lambeth to increase the number of people in our target population

who are earning living wage jobs:

• Removing barriers – Childcare and the cost of childcare seem to be significant issues in

preventing people entering employment, increasing their hours, or taking up training that would

improve their earnings potential. LBL has a statutory duty to ensure there is suitable childcare to

meet the borough’s needs. The last review (2011) identified that affordability and hours of access

were two key concerns of parents in the borough. We need to know if there is sufficient

childcare provision for our target population, and if so, how we can better connect people to it,

or whether we need to do more to increase childcare supply.

• Supporting people into LLW jobs – The benefits cap team are focused on finding people

employment that will qualify them for Working Tax Credit, which would exempt them from the

cap. However, is there scope to focus on some ongoing employment support for these people to

connect them with Living Wage jobs? If we’re to support people to become truly resilient, then

they need to be earning more than the minimum wage. There is also a case for looking across the

range of employment support services we offer (like the new jobs brokerage service) to see if we

can do more to focus on getting people into LLW jobs, or at least offer ongoing support to see

where we can continue to support people to progress into LLW jobs.

The council could have a signposting role here. There is a complex field of employment and

training providers in the borough. However, it is unclear where people can go for support to

progress into higher paid jobs. The council could work with community groups, businesses, trade

unions, education providers etc. to develop an offer for people in low paid work who need to

earn more to be resilient.

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• Increasing the supply of LLW jobs – the council already has a policy of paying the LLW. Although

we do not necessarily employ only people from Lambeth, steps to increase the wage floor in

London could have a longer term effect on the chances of people finding LLW jobs. Options

include:

i. Implementing the LLW for contracts more rapidly, in conjunction with including more

contract clauses about local employment

ii. Offering support to London Citizens (South London Citizens) to support their work with

Lambeth employers

iii. Increasing the awareness of Lambeth’s LLW work to show leadership among Lambeth

employers

iv. Introducing a business pledge to encourage employers to sign up to the LLW

Brief Description of Service/ Activity Cost of

Service/

Activity

(estimated)

Where funding

could come

from

How many people/who will benefit?

Childcare brokerage (and possible

childcare subsidy and or/loan scheme

for upfront childcare costs)

Unknown Council Parents: A large number of people from in our target

population have children under the age of 16

Appropriate childcare has been identified as a barrier to

people gaining employment and training to get LLW jobs. A

bespoke brokerage role could support people to access the

childcare they need

Brokerage would highlight where there are gaps in the

market that might need to be addressed

Child care summit/ collaborative

conversation

To bring providers together to discuss

how we can work together to better

address the issues of providing

childcare for parents outside normal

office hours

£1000 Council Parents in our target population with children under 16

Embed workplace advancement into

employment support

To focus on getting those in min wage

employment into LLW jobs

To support unemployed people into

jobs and continue to support them in

LLW jobs

Council All target population (apart from 1009 who are already in

LLW jobs and working more than 20 hours per week)

Jobs brokerage Council (already

funded)

Scale of jobs brokerage as yet unknown

Move more quickly toward LLW

provision in Lambeth contracts

Unknown

Council/contrac

t

To increase the number of LLW jobs in the borough

Number of people who could benefit in our target population

unknown

Business pledge Unknown Council To encourage more businesses to become LLW employers

Number of people who could benefit unknown

6.0 Outcome 2 - More people have access to the financial products they need

Definition

6.1 Financial products in this context relates to bank or Credit Union accounts and associated services.

6.2 Using appropriate financial products is essential to anyone on a low income (or with difficulties with

budgeting) as such use enables people to enjoy the advantages associated with making use of direct

debits (cheaper bills, management of regular payments), accessing low cost credit (as opposed to

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expensive payday loans), using savings products (to protect against emergencies) and having

somewhere into which to pay wages and benefits. Appropriate access can also provide psychological

security and support good budgeting behaviour.

6.3 This outcome is important because of the introduction of Universal Credit in October 2013 will

require recipients to have a bank or Credit Union into which their Universal Credit can be paid. At

the moment, this is not necessary and many recipients (over 13,000 when last measured) choose to

have their payments paid via a simple Post Office Card Account.

6.4 The intention of this outcome is that financial resilience is built through people having access to the

products they need to budget better, manage regular payments via direct debits and standing

orders and take full advantage of mainstream loan and savings products offered by these

institutions.

Scope of the problem

6.5 Work by the Financial Inclusion Taskforce (published in 2010) assessed the relative levels of financial

exclusion across 10,000 council ward areas. The study defines financial exclusion in terms of

behavioural, attitudinal and demographic characteristics of individuals, households and

communities which indicate a need for mainstream financial products. Financial exclusion is

measured through a range of indicators including: income, use of financial products, debt and fuel

poverty. The study data indicates that every Lambeth ward experiences at least moderate levels of

financial exclusion and that certain wards experience high levels of financial exclusion. These

include: Coldharbour; Stockwell, Larkhall, Vassal, Tulse Hill, Prince’s, Bishop’s, Gypsy Hill, Ferndale,

Oval, Thornton, Brixton Hill, Streatham Hill, Knight’s Hill, Herne Hill.

6.6 A combination of DWP and Lambeth Council data suggests that c.44,000 local residents will be

claiming Universal Credit. It is not currently possible to state accurately how many of these people

have active bank or Credit Union accounts but data provided by DWP in September 2012 shows that

13,676 Lambeth benefit recipients are having their benefit paid into a Post Office Card Account

rather than a bank or Credit Union account.

6.7 Reports from the Universal Credit direct payment demonstration project areas suggests that at least

nine in ten of those claimants involved in the pilots already have bank accounts but we know that

the pilot cohorts have been skewed by councils and Registered Social Landlords excluding claimants

who they assumed would struggle with direct payments and allowing others to opt out. It is

therefore highly likely that the figure for those without a bank or Credit Union account is higher.

6.8 Evidence suggests that there is a very strong correlation between not having a bank account and

being on welfare benefits. Some groups: migrant women, people with an unstable lifestyle, such as

the homeless, people with mental health problems, people with language/literacy difficulties are

likely to be over-represented in the non-account group.3

6.9 Recent national research carried out by Consumer Focus and Social Finance4 suggests that in

addition to people who lack bank accounts there is wider group of people who do not have access to

the full range of banking services because they do not use the accounts they have. This may be

because these people prefer to carry out transactions in cash or because they have experienced

difficulties in making automated payments and have incurred significant penalty fees on their

3 Consumer Focus (2010), On the margins: society’s most vulnerable people and banking exclusion.

4 Social Finance (2011), A new approach to banking: extending the use of jam jar accounts in the UK; Consumer Focus (as above).

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account.5 Social Finance estimates that this group could be up to six times larger than the group

without bank accounts.

6.10 The same research indicates that banking practice and people’s own behaviour both impact on

people’s take up of banking and other financial products. Common factors which work against those

on benefits or credits using appropriate financial products include:

• Fees charged by banks for bounced payments. These are often quite large in relation to

customers’ income.

• The perception that banks are not flexible to customers’ individual circumstances, especially

fluctuations in their income. Both of the above factors can lead people to carry out transactions

in cash, which gives them a feeling of greater control over payments being made.

• The belief that only certain types of ID (passport, driving licence) are acceptable to open a bank

account.

• The perception that the bank account offered will not provide the full range of benefits which

customers want, eg: direct debit facility, debit card.

6.11 There is evidence to suggest that there is a greater risk of bank accounts failing within certain groups

of people. As above, this includes people with an unstable lifestyle and/or complex needs, those

who have recently opened an account for the first time. It is also apparent that some people who

do not currently have a bank account have held one in the past but have been unable to manage

this effectively and have thus been refused a new account.

6.12 Consumer Focus commissioned 50 face to face interviews with people who remained excluded from

banking (Jan-Feb 2010) identified the following barriers to opening bank accounts:

• Identification remains a key barrier to banking, especially for new migrants, ex offenders and

homeless people

• Language barriers can be significant, in particular for new migrants and women from minority

groups

• Literacy problems affect the ability to cope with written information

• Financial capability is an issue for many, although not all

• Legacy debt is often still being repaid or has resulted in a poor credit rating

• Lack of support will mean that many find it difficult to make a move into banking and then

efficiently sustain a bank account

6.13 Focus group research6 carried out for this strategy gives further insight into people’s choices about

using bank or Credit Union accounts versus other financial products. Factors cited included:

• Preferring the simplicity and control that comes with cash-based Post Office Card Accounts

• The relative speed and ease of obtaining credit from payday loan and other high-interest

lenders, which typically do not carry out comprehensive ID and credit history checks before

making a loan.

5 Social Finance estimates that as of 2011 1.54M people in the UK had no bank account/only Post Office card account, but that 9M people do not have the full use of banking services. 6 Focus group with members of Lambeth’s Service User Council in May 2013

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• A lack of knowledge of some financial products, such as jam jar accounts, and how these might

be able to support budgeting/saving behaviour.

• A lack of understanding about Universal Credit and the move to monthly/direct payment and

the requirement to have a bank account in order to receive Universal Credit.

• Information about banking products was given to participants in a range of ways – from friends

and family but also from agencies like the Job Centre and advice providers.

Current activity/projects and their effectiveness

Credit Union take up campaign

6.14 The London Mutual Credit Union (operating in Lambeth, Southwark and Westminster) provides both

a current account (with a fee of £0.95 pw) and a basic savings account (no fee). The Credit Union

also offers payday loans and Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs). The current account provides a debit

card, allows use of direct debits and money transfers and also provides customers with a loan option

with loans charged at an interest rate of 2% pcm – much more favourable than most other forms of

credit available to those on benefits/credits. The London Mutual Credit Union has approximately

4,000 account holders in Lambeth but currently has only one branch in the borough on Acre Lane.

6.15 The council provided funding to the Credit Union in 2012 to undertake a take up campaign to sign

up residents over the course of a six month period. The funding allowed the employment of two full

time outreach workers and provided resources for increased marketing activity. Officers also

supported the Credit Union to make links with key agencies and partners (including Lambeth Living)

so that additional activity (eg: mail out to tenants, surgeries in council buildings, attendance at

community events) could occur in support of the project’s aims. Unfortunately, this take up

campaign was not successful in the short term and the number of additional accounts opened as a

result of the activity was disappointing. The take up campaign ended early to allow all involved to

regroup and consider the issue further.

6.16 Focus group research carried out for this strategy indicated that residents may compare Credit

Union accounts unfavourably to those provided by High Street banks. Factors cited include:

• Lack of understanding about what the Credit Union offered and whether its products were

“equivalent” to a bank.

• A perception that opening an account takes too long.

• Lack of branches

• Dissatisfaction with the fee for maintaining the account and the requirement to have a

minimum amount (effectively £9) in the account at all times.

• Perception of a stigma attached to holding a Credit Union rather than a High Street bank

account.

6.17 Additionally, given the presence of only a single Credit Union branch in the borough, there are

questions about the capacity of the organisation to meet the growth in membership that would be

required to meet the need identified.

Availability of basic bank accounts on the High Street

6.18 As a result of the work of the Government’s Financial Inclusion Taskforce, all High Street banks have

now introduced basic bank accounts which are intended to meet the needs of customers without a

salary to pay in or with a poor credit history. These accounts give almost all the functionality of the

more normal current accounts but overdraft facilities are not generally available. However, research

carried out for this strategy suggests that the lack of an overdraft facility may be viewed as a

positive feature by customers with problematic debt histories.

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6.19 Basic bank accounts compare favourably in some respects to the account provided by the Credit

Union (ie: there is no account maintenance fee, there is a debit card, use of direct debits).

Customers interviewed for this strategy also liked additional features provided by High Street basic

bank accounts including the use of texts to give regular balance updates and indicate when the

balance of the account is nearing zero.

6.20 A survey of Lambeth branches of High Street banks and building societies carried out for this

strategy7 indicates they are generally more flexible about the forms of ID required to open a basic

account than anecdotal evidence would suggest. Most will accept council tax bills or letters from the

benefits agency as proof of ID. However, some banks/building societies additionally require proof of

address in the form of utility bills which may be problematic for some customers.

6.21 In addition, it is not clear that banks actively promote the option of a basic account to customers

(especially when they are turned down for a more mainstream current account) or that they are

willing to open accounts for customers who already have debt despite this being the intention of the

accounts. Previous research has indicated that this can be a barrier for financially excluded people.8

Jam jar accounts

6.22 Jam jar accounts offer the full functionality of basic bank accounts, but have the advantage of

promoting budgeting through enabling the account balance to be separated into ‘jars’ for spending,

saving and bill payment. Funds can be moved between these ‘jars’ as needed by the customer.

These accounts are thus valuable for customers who lack financial capability.

6.23 However, there are a number of structural problems which need to be addressed before jam jar

accounts can be considered a viable solution for those who would benefit from their use. At present,

the scale of jam jar account usage is small: the UK estimate for 2011 was 150,000 accounts in use

only.9 Although jam jar accounts are operated by a number of providers, at present this includes

only one High Street bank – the Royal Bank of Scotland – and this is aimed at existing customers of

the bank who get into financial difficulties. The remainder of jam jar accounts are run by specialist

companies who do not have the marketing reach to “sell” these accounts in a widespread way.10

6.24 With the exception of the RBS account, jam jar account providers also charge a relatively high

monthly fee (between £12.50 - £14.50 pcm) for their use. The focus group research indicated that

the monthly fee and lack of information about how the account functions were likely to act as

barriers to accessing this financial product for many.

Suggested future projects/activity

6.25 The following actions are proposed:

• A banking ‘summit’ and associated bank/council-led campaign is held, involving High Street banks

and building societies. This event and campaign would encourage institutions to meet with

council representatives, local residents and partners with the aim of understanding local needs,

problems of access. It would discuss how institutions can move towards offering a wider range of

7This included: HSBC, NatWest, Lloyds, TSB, Barclays, Nationwide, Santander.

8CAB (2006) Banking benefits evidence report.

9Social Finance report, as above.

10 These include: Secure Trust Bank, Spectrum Financial Group, ThinkBanking.

15

products (ie: jam jar accounts) and set a target to increase the number of jam jar and basic bank

accounts offered to financially excluded individuals/households

• The council and partners continue to offer support to the Credit Union to increase the number of

account holders and seek to undertake some specialist take up work with those most in need of

an account which might involve offering incentives (eg: paying account fees for a year, writing off

a proportion of debt) to multiply indebted households or those in arrears to the council to

encourage sign up. The communications team should work with the Credit Union to review

marketing strategies and materials and provide in-kind support through council publications and

advertising space. This work will be helped by the Government’s recently announced take up

campaign which sees £38m of funding available to Credit Unions in return for an increase in

membership of 1m members by 2019 and which is intended to be backed by a nationwide

advertising campaign.

• Work is carried out to explore if/how the current capacity of the Credit Union can be expanded.

This should include the possibility of opening further branches in the borough or making counter

space available in council buildings in the same way that councils like Leeds have done.

• Work is carried out which explores if financially excluded households can be connected with

others in the community who know about financial advice and products [ie: peer support] via the

Money Champions programme.

• Work is undertaken with the voluntary and community sector (including but not limited to advice

agencies) to ensure that signing up for a bank account becomes a key and automatic element of

support work in much the same way as being supported to sign up with a GP is.

• Week of Action and Finance Fair at the Town Hall at which all local banks are present and a

banking pledge is made to sign up a target number of accounts in the coming year.

• Urgent meeting with the council’s current bankers (RBS) to see what they can offer to help with

this agenda from their Corporate Social Responsibility team.

Brief Description of Service/

Activity

Cost of Service/ Activity (est.) Where funding

could come

from

How many people/who will benefit?

Banking summit to secure support

of banks in opening more basic

bank accounts

Nil n/a Up to 13,676 (depending on banks commitment)

Credit Union marketing support c.£15k LBL 300 who sign up for accounts as a result of activity

Expansion of CU – new High Street

branch

£160,000

(one off costs)

LBL/

DWP

>1,800 new members per branch to break even –

more can be accommodated. The current branch

serves 4,000 Lambeth customers.

Expansion of CU into council

customer centres/libraries

£50k

(per counter/

cash desk)

LBL/

DWP

1,000+

Programme of financial advice to

help citizens to set up accounts and

manage them appropriately

Existing providers can add this

element to support planning at

nil cost;

Money Champions can make

this one of their offers (cost

£100k pa)

GSTT Up to 13,676 (depending on scale of Money

Champions programme)

Week of Action annually with banks

present

Nil n/a 200 (est.)

16

7.0 Outcome 3 - Levels of problematic debt are reducing

Definition

7.1 Problematic debt is when the amount a person is scheduled to repay in debt, per month, is causing

them to suffer financial hardship or health problems, such as stress. Some of the debts that can

cause this to happen are:

• out of control credit card expenditure (personal debt)

• high interest loans – such as payday loans

• council debt

• illegal debt – that is money owed to loan sharks

7.2 We recognise that people move in and out of debt; e.g. for some one month meeting their mortgage

repayments would not be a problem but if they have a crisis, such as losing their job, not being able

to make a mortgage repayment could exacerbate their financial situation, especially if in negative

equity. The strategy should be able to find a way to help people who are not only experiencing

problematic debt in the long term but also be preventative and build the resilience of people who

are likely to get into problematic debt during crises.

Scope of the problem – the national picture

7.3 Over the last three years Step Change (national debt charity) have been analysing the calls they get

in the third week of January. This research has shown that the main causes of debt problems are job

losses and pay cuts. Using credit to meet living expenses is rising and is a worrying trend.

7.4 There is a wealth of information about the personal debts of UK households. The following

information is taken from Credit Action’s April 2013 statistical update. Average household debt in

the UK (excluding mortgages) was £5,998 in February. The average amount owed per UK adult

(including mortgages) was £28,981 in February, and was around 118% of average earnings. Average

consumer borrowing (including credit cards, motor and retail finance deals, overdrafts and

unsecured loans) per UK adult was £3,218 in February.

7.5 Based on the latest available data, Credit Action estimates that:

• 277 people are declared insolvent or bankrupt every day (based on Q4 2012 trends).

• 1,374 Consumer County Court Judgements (CCJs) are issued every day (based on Q4 2012

trends). The average value of a Consumer CCJ in Q4 2012 was £2,615.

• Citizens Advice Bureaux in England and Wales dealt with 8,192 debt problems every working day

during the year ending December 2012.

• 84 properties are repossessed every day (based on Q4 2012 trends).

7.6 Research by confused.com has revealed that a significant number of credit card owners have little

understanding of how their credit rating works with 27% of credit card owners not knowing what

the term “credit rating” means, 61% not knowing what their current credit rating is and 40% having

never checked it.

7.7 Confused.com add that 19% of credit card owners do not realise that missing payments on credit

cards could potentially affect credit ratings, 87% do not know that using credit cards for online

gambling can impact credit ratings while 28% don’t realise that making multiple applications for a

credit card can also have an effect.

7.8 The number of payday loans reported by clients had increased by almost 300% since 2011.

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7.9 In February 2013, the National Debt line reported a 94% increase in calls received about payday

loans. In the first quarter of 2009/10 only one per cent of Citizens Advice Bureau debt casework

clients had at least one payday loan - in the same quarter of 2012, 10 per cent had at least one

payday loan. In May 2013 StepChange Debt Charity reported that between 2011 and 2012 they saw

a 109% increase in the number of clients with payday loans. In 2012, the charity helped 36,413

people with payday loan debts, almost 20,000 more than in 2011. The average amount owed rose

by £390 over the same period, to £1,657. This exceeds the £1,320 average monthly income of a

client with a payday loan.

7.10 According to a recent survey from Shelter one in 33 respondents have taken out a high-interest

payday loan to cover their rent costs, one in seven renters have used a credit card to pay their rent.

Research by Which, in May 2012, found that over 60% of people who took out payday loans were

using the money to pay for household bills or buying other essentials like food, nappies and petrol.

7.11 In 2012 the number of payday loan and cheque cashing premises increased by 20% nationally,

making them the fastest growing businesses on Britain’s high streets. There are also a lot of options

for people to get a payday loan over the internet. There has been a lot of media interest in the

practices of payday loan businesses, such as plans to cap interest rates and change the planning

permissions needed to open a payday loan outlet. The Office for Fair Trading (OFT) has recently

launched a campaign to better regulate pay day loan organisations. Their key research findings

about the pay day loan industry were:

• Around a third of loans are repaid late or not repaid at all.

• 28% of loans are rolled over or refinanced at least once, providing 50% of lenders’ revenues.

• 19% of the lenders’ revenue comes from the five per cent of loans which are rolled over or

refinanced four or more times.

• Debt advisers reported that borrowers seeking help with payday lending debts had on average

rolled over at least four times and had six separate payday loans.

• 30 of the 50 websites we looked at emphasised speed and simplicity over cost – in some cases

making claims that, if true, would amount to irresponsible lending.

• 38 of the 50 lenders we inspected failed to comply with at least one of the complaint handling

rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service.

7.12 Information about the loans themselves shows that:

• The average loan is between £265 and £270 and is borrowed over 30 days.

• Firms reported that the average cost of borrowing £100 was around £25, but it actually ranged

from £14 to £51.

• OFT estimates that the total number of new payday loans issued in 2011/12 to be between 7.4

and 8.2 million, with the total value of new loans issued estimated as between £2.0 and £2.2

billion. In contrast, the OFT’s High-Cost Credit report in 2010 estimated that the value of payday

loans issued in 2008 was £900 million.

• 28% of loans issued in 2011/12 were rolled over at least once, accounting for almost 50% of

revenue. Five per cent of loans were rolled over four times or more, accounting for 19% of

revenue.

• 58% of customers took out more than one new payday loan in 2011/12 (excluding rollovers and

refinancing) and these customers accounted for around 81% of total payday revenue. On

average, 15% of customers took out more than five loans in the year, accounting for 36% of

revenue.

• Responses to OFT’s survey suggested that around a third of loans are either repaid late (18%) or

not repaid at all (14%).

18

7.13 The National Illegal Money Lending Team (based a Birmingham Council) investigates illegal money

lending activity to establish if a problem exists and, if so, bring to justice those persons carrying on

this activity. They estimate that:

• around the UK teams have written off almost £40m of illegal debts

• since 2004, more than 218 prosecutions for illegal money lending have been secured

• the project has helped over 19,000 victims

• the highest interest charged by a loan shark was calculated at 131,000% APR.

• the latest research from a report by Policis in 2010 estimated 310,000 households across the

country are in debt to a loan shark; 2% of those in the lowest 50% of household incomes and 6%

of those in the most deprived communities.

Scope of the problem – the local picture

7.14 There is a wealth of information on the problematic debt of the nation’s households; unfortunately

it isn’t so easy to find this information for the borough of Lambeth. Data based on 11,015 Londoners

who were counselled by debt charity Step Change’s helpline in 2011 demonstrated that Lambeth,

along with Lewisham and Bromley, were ‘the payday loan capitals of London’.

7.15 The council is also developing maps of where outlets on our high streets are that contribute to

personal debt. This research has shown high concentrations of payday loan shops in Brixton,

Streatham and West Norwood. Alongside these are an even higher number of betting shops, which

also have the potential to increase people’s debt and lead them towards financial difficulty. Overall,

there were X payday loan shops in Lambeth, and Y betting shops.

7.16 The council has examined information on the number of individual insolvencies, bankruptcy orders,

debt relief orders and individual voluntary arrangements over the last few years since the banking

crisis of 2008. The information paints a mixed picture, for some debt measures below London and

inner London average for others above.

7.17 The council has no information about the residents of Lambeth and their credit card usage and debt.

We do have information about the number of people who use credit cards to pay their council tax

and rent, however it should be noted that although this may not appear to be the best way to pay

this actually may work out to be better for some customers with no interest cards who are gaining

store card points / air miles. The council has recently taken the decision to pass on credit card

charges to those who are paying for council services by credit card, as a result we expect the

percentage of people using this method of payment to fall.

7.18 Information tells us that the banding shows a generally positive relationship between higher

bandings and more credit card usage.

7.19 Information from the council’s planning team suggest that there are twelve payday loan outlets in

the borough, it’s not surprising that information from Step Change suggests that payday loans are a

significant problem for our residents. We can also expect that residents are accessing payday loans

online.

7.20 Anecdotal evidence from the council’s ethnography study with residents on low incomes and in

multiple debt to the council found that people were aware of payday loan options and the interest

rates of such high interest lenders. People were averse to accessing this financial product, though

some had chosen to use a “better” product, Provident. The council also ran a focus group with

substance misuse service users. This group were also very aware of the payday loan industry and

19

what their high interest rates mean. They reported accessing payday loans themselves with no

intention of paying them back as they knew that as they should never be able to get the loan it

could be written off with the help of an advice agency or the council. Although not getting these

people into problematic debt it has to be noted that there is a price attached to this for local advice

agencies, health organisations and the council.

7.21 There is no local information about the number of rogue lenders operating in the area. There are

plans for the council’s Trading Standards Team to work with the National Illegal Money Lending

Team on ascertaining this.

Current projects/activities and effectiveness

7.22 Nationally there are several options available for people to get advice on problematic debt,

including:

• Money A&E, website information on financial capability

• Money Advice Service, website information on financial capability

• Christians Against Poverty, currently working directly with some housing providers

• Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CAB)

• Debt Advice Foundation

• StepChange Debt Charity

Lambeth Welfare Reform teams

7.23 Lambeth has several teams who are working with those residents affected by the benefit changes.

These include a multi-disciplinary team who are supporting cap affected families, a team set up

through Lambeth Living to support those affected by the size criteria, a pilot lodgings scheme run by

a third sector agency to again help those affected by the size criteria, a tenancy rescue service run

by the same agency to help those affected by the Shared Accommodation Rate, and enhanced local

advice services to help with appeals for ESA claims.

7.24 Lambeth also employed two full time workers to provide awareness-raising sessions in schools,

children’s centres, with providers, advice agencies and health and social care staff, which in four

months have seen 3,000 people attending 200 sessions.

Lambeth Advice Agencies

7.25 The council currently funds a variety of local advice agencies to advise people who have problematic

debt from a number of different sources. The more detailed information about these agencies is

covered under the outcome of supporting residents to claim benefits and credits they are entitled to

as many agencies undertake both functions.

Lambeth Council – Adult Learning Team

7.26 Lambeth Adult Learning engages and supports over 6,200 residents per year through community

learning and skills training. During 2011-12 97% of these residents achieved their course. Lambeth

Adult Learning also runs entry level pre-employability skills training for some of the most vulnerable

and marginalised residents in the borough, including homeless people, people with learning

difficulties and disabilities, older people, parents and carers with English, maths and language needs,

people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, people with low skills levels and the

unemployed.

20

7.27 Residents gain the skills and confidence to help them actively contribute to their community and

neighbourhood, making good progress on to further learning, volunteering and employment.

Lambeth Adult Learning helps to increase community cohesion and resilience as well as reducing

isolation and vulnerability and increasing individual independence through the development of skills

such as: IT, English and Maths as well as a wide range of personal skill development to help residents

manage their budget and improve financial security, enhance self-esteem, confidence,

communication skills, reduce depression and anxiety and improve health and wellbeing.

7.28 Courses are provided that are designed, with learners, specifically to improve residents’ financial

skills and to improve health and wellbeing, therefore reducing reliance on local services. Through

our Family Learning courses parents and carers learn how to support their children with English,

Maths and language development as well as improving wider skills such as budgeting and healthy

eating.

Other regional projects

7.29 Regionally we have found several projects that could be used by Lambeth residents/staff:

• StepChange are a national charity that helps those who are in debt. They offer online or phone

advice only; if they feel that someone requires face-to-face advice, they work closely with the

CAB and will refer the client to them. Similarly, the CAB will refer clients to StepChange if they

have a waiting list. In 2012 StepChange received 450,000 enquiries. StepChange work with many

of the larger Housing Associations in London, as well as a number of the larger firms who clients

are often in debt to (for example energy companies) and they have a ‘fair share contributions’

policy; creditors will pay StepChange 10% of the amount StepChange manage to recoup for

them. The services are free to clients.

• Mary Ward Legal Centre is based in Camden but has funding from the Money Advice Service to

provide debt advice for up to 2300 clients pa across London.

• Toynbee Hall has various regional projects on financial education and debt management.

• City Lit. Money management, 10 week course starting January 2013.

• Gaia Centre, provides workshops for vulnerable women in: book-keeping, budgeting, sorting out

debt/setting up and sticking to debt orders.

• London Mutual Credit Union, piloting a Credit Union ‘payday loan’ which has interest of 38%

rather than 3000%.

• Banks and schools, education for young people on money management.

• Mosaic Clubhouse run Money Management sessions for their service users.

• Made of Money training run by Quaker Social Action in east London on a national basis.

Suggested future projects/activity

a) Annual Week of Action for Healthy Finances - Lambeth’s Trading Standards team has previously

organised a Day of Action, informing officers and partners about spotting if a customer or

resident may have a loan with an illegal lender (or loan shark), and raising awareness about the

danger of using loan sharks. The working group for the Financial Resilience strategy are linking

with Trading Standards and the England Illegal Money Team to expand this into a Healthy

Finances Week of Action in 2013, which will seek to raise awareness about:

• avoiding loan sharks

• the pitfalls of using payday loan shops

• promoting alternative forms of credit (for example the Credit Union and other banks)

• advising people who are in debt and/or affected by the benefit changes.

It is recommended that this is extended to become an annual event to address any financial

problems relevant to the time.

21

b) Expanding the debt advice provision to different venues where people more likely to be affected

by problematic debt visit – e.g. GP surgeries, schools and children’s centres.

c) Financial education in schools. Schools are likely to be legislatively required to provide financial

education as part of the curriculum in the future. Many banks already run financial education

programmes, though the success is varied. We propose that the council works with the banks

and schools to develop the offer for Lambeth schools and facilitate the relationship. One idea is

for a bank to “adopt a school” to guarantee that they will help schools.

d) Financial education for adults – would be ‘bite-sized’ sessions at the beginning or end of the

school day, when parents are already going to be there, and could be on a range of topics from

credit cards and bank charges, to avoiding loan sharks, to getting a better energy deal.

e) Money Champions –using the Toynbee Hall money mentor programme model the council could

commission a similar programme whereby members of the community receive financial

capability skills and techniques to pass these on to their peers. Early research has shown that

this has been very successful in Tower Hamlets.

f) Training course on link between health and finances – this would be for social care and health

professionals, and would be to help them recognise the link between someone having financial

difficulties and how this could be leading to health and/or social care problems. It would

improve signposting and referrals, and enable people to get the most effective support.

g) Promoting alternatives to pay day lenders and campaigning to stop more opening in the

borough. It is expected that as people’s financial capability increases through other outcome

areas’ activity people will be less likely to go to payday lenders; that said the council has a role in

conveying to residents the pitfalls of payday lenders.

h) Provide direct support to residents in Lambeth who are known to be multiply indebted to the

Council. This will help to generate income for the Council, and the support will be provided in a

targeted way. Review of council and Lambeth Living debt collection policy. Work with council

officers and Lambeth Living to adopt recommendations.

Brief Description of Service/ Activity Cost of Service/

Activity (est.)

Where

funding

could come

from

How many people/who will benefit?

Debt advice in GP surgeries £200,000 pa GSTT?

CCG?

Residents who go to their GP with symptoms of

stress/depression/ anxiety

Carers can also benefit from this service

Financial education in schools for

children

Potentially zero cost

Council Officer time

Banks Children in Lambeth in KS 5 and 6 (14-18 years old)

Financial education for adults £50k Council and

Banks

Parents (mainly of primary school-age children)

Money Champions £5k per 60 hr course

teaching time

(following Toynbee

Hall model)

£100k in total (2

coordinators, ongoing

volunteer costs, and

the 60 hour course)

Could move to be self

sustaining

Lottery

funding

Council

GSTT

Immeasurable – reliant on how many people the

champions reach

22

Annual Healthy Finances Week Council Officers time

£10k marketing

materials

Council Immeasurable – all residents could benefit

Training Course on link between health

and money/finances

£20,000 for 250 staff GSTT Anyone who comes into contact with frontline health

and social care staff

Provide direct and proactive advice

intervention to 600

multiple debtors to the council.

Approx £100,000

Council 600 households with 3 or multiple debt to the council

Provide 7 hours per household advice and case work

interventions over 12 months on this target

8.0 Outcome 4 - More people get the benefits and credits they are entitled to

Definition

8.1 The benefit and tax credits system is complex and can be very confusing. As a result many people

don’t get the benefits and credits they are entitled. This is particularly true of families and

vulnerable people e.g. older people, people with disabilities and carers.

8.2 This may be due to due to lack of information and knowledge of benefits and tax credits available or

due to a change in their circumstances that they have not reported to the relevant authorities. For

example many working families do not receive the tax credits they are entitled to due to lack of

knowledge or information and as a result struggle in unnecessary poverty and many older people

and carers do not access their entitlement as they feel if is their duty to ‘solider on’ despite

increasing difficulties.

8.3 The current changes to welfare benefits have resulted in people receiving incorrect benefits and

increased the anxiety and concern amongst many residents. The new assessment systems for

Incapacity Benefits and Disability Allowance and the move to Personal Independence

Payments appears flawed and many people with disabilities are finding that their benefits are being

reduce or cut. In a large number of cases this is due to the fact they are wrongly assessed or their

benefits are calculated wrongly. Without the relevant support this injustice can go unchallenged

.

8.4 There are also issues with Council tax and Housing benefit with exemption from the bedroom tax

causing particular confusion. People are less financially resilience if they cannot get benefits and tax

credits they are entitled. It puts pressure on household budgets. People have to make choice

between paying the rent and utility bills or going without food for their families. This is equally true

for people out of work, the vulnerable, those incapable of working and working families.

8.5 Advice services providing social welfare advice services are a lifeline to these client groups. They can

give information and advice to enable people to deal with their own problems themselves or

intervene on their behalf or make representation to get benefits, tax credits and services they are

entitled or negotiate on their behalf with third parties. Advice services play a vital role in equipping

local residents with information, knowledge and capacity to access benefits, credits and service they

are entitled to; to manage and control their circumstance and to become full active citizens. Advice

services contribute to all the outcomes of the Financial Resilience Strategy including fuel and food

poverty, debt and money management.

Scope of the problem

8.6 The Lambeth Information Advice and Advocacy Strategy (2007-2012) recognised the importance of

the advice services in helping the council to meet its objectives in strengthening financial inclusion

(e.g. more people get the benefits and credits); tackling inequalities; social exclusion; and promoting

independent living. It is generally accepted that IA&A provision is preventative and supports

23

vulnerable people to access services and benefits to which they are entitled to live independently.

The scope of the Information and Advice services extends beyond the remit the Financial Resilience

Strategy (FRS) outcomes.

8.7 Currently there is no statutory requirement for local authorities to provide information and advice

on the benefits and credits or other services. The draft Care and Support Bill was published in July

2012 creates a new duty for local authorities to provide information and advice for adults and

carers. The duty to provide information and advice would include how to access the care and

support that is available for adults and carers, and the choice of types of care and support and the

choice of providers available in the authority’s area. In meeting this duty, the local authority must

provide an information and advice service which is sufficient to enable adults and carers to make

plans for meeting their care and support needs. The guidance on how the duty to provide

information and advice is to be discharged is not yet available.

8.8 All services are reporting an increase in demand for information and advice in welfare benefits,

council tax and bedroom tax. The generic services provided by the Six (LAN) have been further

impacted by cuts in Legal Services Commission and Legal Aid Funding. They are reporting an increase

in demand in complex welfare benefits cases and appeal work, immigration and asylum and

employment work but the council only funds 3 areas of social welfare law: welfare benefits; housing

and money advice which is closely aligned with the FRS out come that more people get the benefits

and credits that they are entitled to. Overall IA&A offer is broader than this remit.

8.9 The reduction in the Legal Services Commission funding and changes to Legal Aid means and

increase in demand means clear that the current model of funding and services is not sustainable

and a radical approach is needed. The 6 generic advice agencies have successfully applied for the BLF

transition fund grant for 3 years. The grant will assist them to start remodelling their services to

manage the transition, develop shared protocols and explore and implement new ways of delivering

services. As the existing contracts come to an end, there is a need to review the information, advice

and advocacy services to develop commissioning plans for the future. This would involve identifying

synergies, efficiencies, economies of scale and better access and outcomes for local residents and

we would need to take into account the investment from the BLF transition fund.

8.10 A major concern is the lack of funding for case work and representations for immigration and asylum

work for families with children, unaccompanied and trafficked children and young people, trafficked

women and asylum seeker in destitution. Early indications from advice sessions at foodbanks are

that advice services are not reaching many hard to reach people. This indicates that outreach work

at ‘unusual’ community facilities would need to be included in future commissioning plans.

8.11 Lambeth has a number of delivery points for IA&A that have grown organically in response to

changing needs, availability of sites and funding streams. Some advice is provided directly by the

council but the majority of the service is provided by local voluntary sector organisations. The

current advice provision is mixed in terms of the numbers of people supported and the quality of the

services offered; there is a fragmented approach to quality assurance, and a variety of methods for

collection of data and case recording. Most current provision is face to face centre based and

although there is high demand to access services in this way, it is mainly only available during office

hours with little or no service available on evenings or Saturdays or on outreach basis.

8.12 Therefore the problems are that:

•••• demand out strips the supply

•••• current services are available to all residents and are not targeted. Targeting will be politically

sensitive

24

•••• the current model of service needs reviewing including the options of one contract; one access

point, shared protocols; doing more outreach work etc.

•••• the scope of these services extends beyond the remit of that the financial resilience strategy

(FRS)

•••• there will be statutory duties to provide information and advice (social care) to adults and

carers – this is currently not funded

•••• information and advice services can have impact on all FRS outcomes but are not resourced to

do so

•••• some areas of social welfare law are not funded

8.13 It is virtually impossible to know how many people are not accessing all of the benefits and credits

that they are entitled to without doing a detailed benefit check on every individual in the borough.

As such it is necessary to use the number of people eligible for any benefits as a starting point for

estimating need.

8.14 Latest Nomis data on labour supply shows there are 16,200 unemployed people and 11,855 JSA

claimants (Nomis March 13) and 30,960 people of working age were claiming key out of work. Out

of these more that 13,700 were receiving ESA and incapacity benefits; nearly 4,600 were single

parents and 1600 were carers claiming out of work benefits. This indicates that there are up to

16,000 out of work who could be in need of advice.

8.15 Nomis on 6 December 2012 - Data for Feb 2012 shows that there were nearly 13,000 people in

Lambeth receiving DLA and incapacity benefits and 25,300 people receiving state pension. This

confirms that there are more than 36,000 older or disable people in the borough who could be in

need of advice.

8.16 Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE), Department for Work and Pensions August 12 shows that

there are more that 41,700 housing benefits claimants in Lambeth. This can be treated as one very

good indicator of the need as people on HB are also likely to be in receipt of other benefits. However

it will be a mistake to add up the numbers for out work, older people, disable people and HB

claimants as significant number are likely to be in more than one category.

8.17 However there is no universally agreed method for analysing need. There are some indicators for

estimating social welfare advice need. Number of new arrivals/migrants is often such an indicator,

others number of people claiming benefits, older people etc However, the analysis of these

indicators cannot predict absolute levels of need. The indictors can help us to identify the number of

people in specific categories (unemployed, claimants and pensioners). This data combined with the

monitoring data collected by Advice agencies may help us to provide good indication of the demand.

8.18 It is also the case that even those who are in receipt of the correct benefits and credits may require

advice on changes in their circumstances so the need for services is likely to be higher than those

receiving the incorrect payments. Demand is further exacerbated by the need to check the benefits

of those who are currently in the receipt of the correct payments but simply require this service as

part of a broader package of support around other related issues.

8.19 Total number of enquires received by the 6 generics advice agencies are for 2012/13 is: 29,992

which result in 7638 in cases resulting in £2,439,422 financial outcomes. For Lambeth Resolve for

October 2011 to September 2012, the total number of enquiries was 3,533 resulting in 316 cases.

Figures from the Carers Hub will be available soon.

25

8.20 All agencies are experiencing an increase in demand for information and advice in welfare benefits,

council tax and bedroom tax. Early indications from advice sessions at foodbanks are that advice

services are not reaching many hard to reach people. It is clear that demand outstrips the supply.

8.21 People turn to information and advice provision because for a number of reasons and experiences in

which they feel they do not have the appropriate resources, knowledge, capacity, and networks to

fix the problem. This might be due to a service or systems failure, consumer issues, unemployment,

money worries, homelessness, housing conditions, unmanageable debt and fuel poverty. Advice

agencies are reporting that there is increase in demand due to the system failures and mistakes

made by the DWP and the Council in assessing their circumstances and their entitlement to the

benefits

8.22 Socially excluded people such as new arrivals/migrants, older people, people with disabilities and

people often have less resources to solve their own problems and therefore have needs for face to

face information and advice but this client groups are more likely to be people who do not access

advice services whereas well connected lower income groups are more likely to use neighbourhood

advice services.

Current projects/activities and their effectiveness

8.23 There are a range of services that are set up to assist people to access the benefits and credits there

are entitled to. However, in all cases apart from Every Pound Counts (EPC) this forms part of a

broader Information, Advice and Advocacy (IAA) offer that extends beyond benefits and credits. The

current IAA offer is delivered by 6 agencies as part of the Lambeth Advice Network (LAN) and these

are Waterloo Action Centre; Brixton Advice Centre, Lambeth Law Centre, Clapham Community

Project, Centre 70s, Merton and Lambeth CAB service. Some agencies are more specialist than

others. The current contracts are for delivery of Social Welfare Advice Service (SWAS) is limited to:

Welfare Benefits, Debt and Housing but they provide information and advice beyond this remit by

attracting funding from elsewhere. Contracts for these services end on 31 March 2014. The

agencies providing these services have a high level of local community, social and political capital.

8.24 Lambeth Resolve is delivered by a consortium of Age UK Lambeth (the lead accountable partner),

the Disability Advice Services Lambeth (DASL), Royal Association for Deaf People and Lambeth

Mencap. This service has run since October 2011 and its contract ends on 31 March 2014. The

Lambeth Carers Hub has been commissioned from a consortium made up South Thames Crossroads

(the lead accountable partner), Age UK Lambeth and DASL. This service has been running since

December 2009 and the contract has been extended to 31 March 2014. The service offer includes

IAA service for carers. Both service offers are wider than the take up of benefits and credits.

8.25 EPC is the council’s in house service providing welfare benefits advice to Lambeth residents aged 60

and above; those residents who are living with long term illness; people with disabilities and their

carers. The key aim of the service is to maximise the benefit take up by vulnerable client groups. EPC

is funded through a mix of health and council non recurring funding up to 2014/15.

8.26 ACS also commissions TOPAZ and SHP. TOPAZ provides information and advice to residents on

budgeting, benefits, housing and support and care, aids and adaptations. The offer is wider than

typical SWAS offer. SHP Tenancy Support provide a floating support service for anyone living in

Lambeth who is aged 16 and over who is having difficulties with their tenancy. It provides support

and advice around sustaining tenancies and maintaining independence including benefits, access

education, training and employment. Both offer services much wider than the take up of benefits

and credits.

26

8.27 CYPS commissions Contact a Family Lambeth to offer information and advice to families with

disabled children aged 0 to 19 years on a range of parenting and childrearing issues. It is not a

typical SWAS offer as its remit is wider. CYPS also commissions the Merton and Lambeth Citizen

Advice Bureau to deliver an information and advice service to families in each of the 6 clusters of

Children’s Centres and Stockwell Partnership to provide a borough wide, bi-lingual information,

advice and advocacy service in Portuguese. The service is accessed by appointment only and

provides bi-lingual outreach in a range of community languages.

8.28 The Housing Options and Advice Team (in HRE) gives general advice on housing-related matters,

signposting or referring on to more specialist services where appropriate. HRE and Lambeth Living

have set up a number of teams to deal with the impact of welfare reform.

8.29 The council provides around £2m of funding to the various agencies which undertake welfare rights

and debt advice locally. This does not include the costs associated with Topaz and SHP which have a

wider service offer.

8.30 There are a range of community, social housing, voluntary, church and other agencies providing

information and advice. We have carried out a mapping of local and national services. There are 17

other local organisations which provided some level of information and advice. Some of this might

just be signposting, basic advice or peer support. According “Your Care Your Way” there are 35+

organisations in this category. There are 43 national online or telephone helpline providing a range

of general and specialist agencies.

8.31 The key priority groups identified from the development of Financial Resilience Strategy, the Fuel

Strategy, Child Poverty Strategy and social care are:

• Carers;

• Families with dependent children with disabilities;

• Individuals living with disabilities and / or long term and terminal illnesses;

• Older people receiving any form of social care;

• People in multiple debt;

• Single parents;

• and Vulnerable young people

8.32 However the current model is for universal access based on historical factors. There is a lack of

coordination, shared services, common referral systems and common case management systems

between agencies.

8.33 Other significant factors are the changing shape and form of the future Council services as

determined by the cooperative model, stronger commissioning role and the ‘End to End’ service

offer. As the ‘End to End’ service model aims to streamline the entry, assessment and exit processes

within Adult Community Services and to improve the service user’s journey from start to end, it does

creates an opportunity to rethink the role and the possible service delivery model of the future IA&A

services. It also needs to be remembered that the current provision covers issues such as housing

which are beyond the scope of the FRS and which elements of this non-finance work we wish to

retain.

Suggested future projects/activities

8.34 As part of the development of the Financial Resilience Strategy, two half day coproduction

workshops were held and the key messages and priorities identified in these workshops are:

• Advice resource should be better targeted;

• Advice services should also play a preventive role and have a role to play in informing,

27

educating, encouraging and supporting individuals and families to take responsibility for their

circumstances in partnership with schools, colleges, day centres and housing providers;

• Advice services need to be better coordinated and joined up with sharing of resources,

protocols etc;

• Advice services should be better connected with health providers, JCP and other statutory

services;

• The possibility of one stop shop for basic advice, enquiries, triage with one access point, one

website, one service directory and one enquiry number should be explored;

• There is a need for better and specialist debt/money advice casework services and support for

welfare benefit appeals.

8.35 Information and advice could also contribute to all of the outcomes identified as part of the

development FRS and therefore this can only happen if the nature of service offer for information,

advice and advocacy service is clearly defined. In addition the IAA offer also includes key social care

objectives. The possible offer could include:

• Providing money management and household budget management and debt advice.

• Reaching the most vulnerable and at risk people who have been effected by welfare reform

changes.

• Benefit health checks for clients beyond the presenting problem and maximisation of income

should be a key service objective i.e. increasing claim rates for targeted benefits and client

groups.

• Providing information and advice on fuel grants, managing fuel bills and negotiate with fuel

companies.

• Outreach work at foodbanks, children centres and community centres etc.

• Signpost and provide basic information re credit union, bank accounts and loans directing

people away from payday loan companies.

• Information and advice on digital inclusion.

• Enable older people, people with disabilities and long term conditions, families with disabled

children and their carers to access service to enable them to live independently.

• Providing pc terminals to enable access to on line services e.g. IAA internet café style set up

with on the floor assistance.

• Sign posting to social fund – voucher holders for food banks; carry out benefits health checks

and money and household budget management and debt advice.

• IAA services could give information and advice on living wage

8.36 Going forward, we would need to work with the 6 LAN agencies to coproduce a specification which

encourages greater integration, coordination and joined up service outcomes between the agencies

possibly even one consortium based contract with a clearer focus on outcomes based on the above.

8.37 We would also need to provide for the new duty to provide information and advice under the draft

Care and Support Bill including exploring the possibility of one IA&A social care hub.

8.38 There is also scope to consider extending the provision of community based advice such as that

delivered in food banks, Children’s Centres or in GP surgeries.

Brief Description of Service/ Activity Cost of Service/

Activity (estimated)

Where funding

could come from

How many people/who will benefit?

Extend advice sessions at foodbanks beyond the pilot £80,000 p.a.

revenue

Council

Plus possible match

funding from

charitable trusts

10 sessions per week

60+ hard to reach people each week.

0ver 3000 hard to reach people given

information and advice per year

Advice outreach sessions at CCs and services to all £90,000 p.a. Council Estimate Guess 50 families per week

28

families with 0 to 5 children revenue

May need one off

capital expenditure

to install/update IT

equipment

Guess work 10 new

laptops = £5000

Software licenses,

wifi upgrades

£3000. In total

approx = £8000 x 5

= £40,000 one off

cost

Plus possible match

funding from

charitable trusts

advised – 2600 families per year

Provide benefit advice to Lambeth resident prisoners in

Brixton Prison

£50,000 Council

Plus possible match

funding from

charitable trusts,

Prison/Probation

service?

10 prisoners helped every weeks

500 prisoners helped over the year

Recommission SWAS offer

Option 1

No change – open service drop in for the whole

community.

Current cost is

£600k p.a. plus

match funding from

other sources

Council

Big lottery

Trusts etc

30,000 enquiries per year resulting in

8000 case work interventions

Financial return on investment

£1.5million

Option 2

SWAS offer as above but services are more targeted

and aligned with FRS.

This option would mean no drop in sessions – all access

through telephone and outreach sessions and

appointment system

Estimate

£720000.pa. approx

plus match funding

from other sources

As above As above but more targeted provision

36,000 enquiries per year resulting in

9600 case work interventions

Financial return on investment

£1.75million

Option 3

SWAS offer which is more closely aligned with FRS;

statutory duty and End to End and brings together

range of offers together and includes

• Targeted services

• Statutory duty to provide advice

• One holistic offer

• Advice services at foodbanks

• targeted outreach

• targeted multiple debt intervention

• targeted intervention with prisons and ex prisoners

• Better coordination of resources, synergies and

efficiencies and reduced overhead and management

costs.

• One website/portal

• Significant online presence & digital presence

including, interactive chat, facebook and twitter etc...

• One staffed enquiry line

• One information and advice pathway

• Shared protocols on referrals, case work,

professional standards and quality control.

• Clear focus on client journey

• Clear focus on outcomes and outputs

• Clearly defined offer.

• Managed neighbourhood presence – drop in

available

• 2 internet café setups

• Multi lingual advocacy and Portuguese advice

outreach

• Direct and proactive advice intervention to 600

multiple debtors to the council.

• Agreed level of drop-in sessions during day, evenings

and weekends

• Specialist second tier case work option

Specialist debt and money advice

£1,200,000 p.a.

plus match funding

from other sources

All existing funding

plus saving

reinvested

One off capital

costs, guesstimate

for 20 PC, software

licenses, wifi

upgrades etc =

£20000

Additional one off

costs for online

presence = £10,000

Council – savings

elsewhere with in SI

budget

Total number of enquires 50,000

enquiries via telephone enquiry line

and online presence

50% of 44,000 UC claimants receive an

information & advice intervention i.e.

22,000 over an agreed period

20,000 units of enquiries in other areas

of SWAS

600 targeted intervention on multiple

debt

2300 targeted intervention

13600 new case work interventions

200 of these to complex nature

involving higher level of complexity and

appeals

25 cases involving families and children

involving immigration/asylum issues

Could reach more people doing more

enquiries via telephone enquiry line

and online presence

Would do more targeted out reach

Internet café with total 20 PC could

provide 3500 supported sessions

29

Every Pound Counts (EPC) – In-house benefit take-up

and welfare rights unit

option 1

Provide current level of service with some fine tuning

Funded until 2014/15

£475,000 pa. Council

Public Health

Currently finding

2013/14 and 14/15

2800 most vulnerable people to receive

benefit checks – half of these will

receive casework intervention. Home

visits

Appeal representations for most

vulnerable clients

EPC option 2

Revamp and redefine the remit and align it closely with

FRS; statutory duty and End to End.

• Targeted client group people with disabilities, older

people and their carers

• Secure funding to step up and beyond 2014/15

£600,000 p.a. Council/

Public Health

Currently finding

2013/14 and 14/15

3500 most vulnerable people to receive

benefit checks – half of these will

receive casework intervention.

Home visits

Appeal representations for most

vulnerable clients

9 Outcome 5 - More people can manage their money on-line if they wish to

Definition

9.1 Digital Inclusion is making sure that no-one gets excluded from using digital technology. This can be

a sliding scale; some people have never used a computer at all, through to people who can use them

but can’t physically access one, or can access them but aren’t confident using them or don’t know

how.

9.2 For people to want to want to use digital technology, they have to feel that it is relevant to their

own situations. This may be accessing council services, keeping in touch with friends and family,

buying goods online, or making payments online.

Scope of the problem

9.3 15% of Lambeth residents stated in the last residents’ survey (October/November 2012) that they

didn’t have access to the internet. The groups who are most likely to not have access are those aged

65 or over, those who are retired, people with disabilities, and those on a low income or not in work

or training.

9.4 It should be noted that of the remaining 85% of residents who say they do have access to the

internet may only be accessing it through a Smartphone. Whilst this gives them access to a range of

services and information, in terms of benefits and Universal Credit this will be problematic, as

Universal Credit will not be accessible through Smartphone technology.

9.5 In a recent survey by Lambeth Living, only 53% of tenants said that they had internet access,

compared to 83% of leaseholders. This could have an impact on rent arrears for Lambeth Living, and

claimant’s Universal Credit claims will need to be managed online, and if they can’t access the

internet at all, or not very easily, then they will struggle to maintain their rent payments.

9.6 Nationally, ONS data shows that 6% of those whose weekly wage is £200 or less have never

accessed the internet. Considering that this is for those who are in some form of work, it can be

reasonably assumed that this figure will be similar or higher for those who are not in work at all.

9.7 Ipsos Mori found that in the pilot projects it was involved in, much of the initial negative feelings

towards computers were due to the participants’ low self esteem, particularly among people with

mental health problems; they used words such as ‘frightened’ and ‘embarrassed’ to describe their

feelings towards IT.

30

9.8 There are additional issues that are documented within this research for people who are not

connected to the ‘online community’; feelings of social isolation, lack of independence, as well as a

high proportion of participants (30%) saying that they needed help with literacy and numeracy.

Interestingly, this dropped to 12% by the end of the project.At the beginning, only 37% of people

said Council services were easy to access; by the end of the project this had risen to 56%.

9.9 Further research by the National Housing Federation shows that offline households are missing out

on savings estimated at £560 a year by shopping and paying bills online.

9.10 In December 2010 the Welsh Government launched Delivering Digital Inclusion; A Strategic

Framework for Wales11

. This outlined how the Welsh Government planned to provide digital access

for all welsh residents, as they acknowledged that anyone who does not have the skills to get online

or see it as irrelevant are increasingly likely to become socially and economically excluded. They

identified that the most excluded groups with regards digital access were older people, those on low

incomes, including the unemployed, those with lower socio-economic status and less schooling, and

people with disabilities. They also identified that housing tenure was an indicator, with those in

social housing nearly twice more likely to be excluded than owner-occupiers. They used the above

knowledge to target different projects and interventions at the different groups where appropriate.

9.11 The Consumer Framework for Digital Participation was developed by the Ofcom Communications

Consumer Panel. It not only shows what people need to get the most out of the Internet, but also

helps people evaluate, engage with and understand online content.

9.12 It includes what we need to do to enable residents to get online and access IT. For many of our

residents who are digitally excluded, they will have a reason to use it when Universal Credit is

implemented later in the year. Lambeth needs to ensure that it has built its capabilities to be able to

support this increase in demand for IT access (see Potential Options below). Following on from the

Ipsos Mori research referenced above, for those residents who have disabilities or mental health

problems, it is likely that they may lack the confidence to try, so we need to have support in place to

enable those people to have the same access as others.

9.13 In addition the work that that Ofcom did demonstrates that there is further work to be done beyond

just getting people access to online services; it is also about supporting them once they are online to

be able to use it to their benefit, and not suffer some of the pitfalls that accessing the Internet can

create.

Current projects/activities and their effectiveness

9.14 There are 9 libraries across Lambeth, which have 180 computers. Not all of these computers are for

residents’ general use; some are simply for library/catalogue searches.More information has been

requested in this area, but so far has not been received.

9.15 Lambeth City Learning Centre (CLC) work with pupils, teachers and parents to create new ways of

teaching ICT and developing it into mainstream. CLC Family Learning courses, which target families

with complex needs, support learners in developing their skills and understanding of ICT and new

technologies. The CLC accredits learners through the Open College Network. All learners on CLC

courses are strongly encouraged to progress to higher level ICT courses, which may lead in turn to

increased job prospects in the future for both parents/carers and their children, as well as improving

learners’ confidence in using and extending their computer skills.

11http://wales.gov.uk/docs/dsjlg/publications/comm/101208deliveringdien.pdf

31

9.16 Oval School Cluster is going to be delivering a functional Skills ICT course at Wyvil School in

partnership with Morley College. They have run similar courses in the past few months at Vauxhall

and St Stephen’s Children’s Centres.

9.17 In the two Customer Centres (Brixton and Gracefield Gardens) there are approximately 30 terminals.

These can only be used to access Lambeth services, so cannot at the moment be used to apply for

benefits (apart from Housing Benefit which is still access through the Council), and will not be

suitable for managing Universal Credit in the future. They are in use approximately 80% of the time.

A recent IT ‘health check’ showed that they are not currently fit for purpose.

9.18 Lambeth Living Housing Officers do provide some support to tenants, and there may be PCs

available within community halls which residents can access. Further mapping is being done on this

with Lambeth Living.

9.19 The Digital Bazaar has been running since January 2011, one Saturday every month for two hours.

Over 40 local people have shared their skills. People are ‘neighbourhood trainers’; there is 100% no

commitment rule, although many of the trainers attend regularly. Over 200 people have accessed

the service. Such good outcomes appear to be because it is peer-to-peer learning, which makes it

less daunting and formal. The event has now started at Durning library.

9.20 DTVIP (Digital Tuesdays for Visually Impaired People) runs from Tate South Lambeth library every

Tuesday. It uses library down time. Over 50 people have accessed the service which started in 2012.

The ambition is to get people back into employment.

Suggested future projects/activities

a) Digital Champions - To enable those who are the most vulnerable within Lambeth to be

supported when accessing digital and online services, Lambeth could employ, or get volunteers,

to build a network of ‘digital champions’. Digital champions could be based at, or visit, a number

of locations in the borough, from Council buildings to libraries, children’s centres and schools,

advice services, and even be available at some of our support services. They could help people

to apply for benefits online, manage their money online, look for and apply for jobs, or find

information and advice. Furthermore, they could use this opportunity to help those who are

feeling socially isolated to access social media online, which could help to increase confidence

and enable them to develop social networks. The champions would be trained in different areas

of digital access, and can help residents either in group sessions, or through one-to-one support.

b) More computer points in Lambeth Living - They are exploring the possibility of installing

hardwire (which will provide wireless internet access) across all of their blocks; however, this

would cost £12m. One of their current contractors could do it, and then it would be leased beck

by Lambeth Living, and tenants would contribute through their service charges. Another option

is to improve access for all Lambeth Living tenants by having PCs in the reception areas (they

don’t currently do this, unlike Metropolitan, another HA, who do) which tenants can access

when they need. They could also have laptops that tenants loan out when they need them,

although they will still need an internet connection. This could potentially be fine for those who

live in the blocks where the digital satellite has been installed (account for roughly 40% of LL

housing stock) but would be problematic for those who don’t. LL officers could also have iPads

that they take with them when they have appointment with tenants to enable them to access

online services during the appointment. Again, this is reliant on there being a wireless internet

connection.

32

c) More computer points in Food banks and Churches - Once the mapping is completed, there may

be a requirement to provide more computers in areas where there isn’t currently any provision.

The pilot project of advice agencies doing outreach work with food banks has already started to

demonstrate a gap, where people who attend the food banks require access to other services

but either haven’t known about the support available, or haven’t known how to access it. There

is a strong case that this could be the same for accessing benefits support online; each food

bank in Lambeth could be issued with two laptops, and a trained support worker, who could

help people to access benefit services online. Cost of the laptops would be circa £2000, and the

cost of a support worker to go into each food bank to complete the support would be circa £20-

30k (may be two people going to the different food bank sessions when they are open).

d) IT Health Check - Whilst the mapping above is limited at the moment, the work done in the

Customer Centre shows that there is a need to ensure that all of the hardware owned by

Lambeth Council and which is used by the community is fit for purpose. One requirement is to

do an IT health check on all of the computers which are accessed by residents. This will not only

tell us what is required to ensure they up to a sufficient standard to support people with the

changes in the way benefits are applied for and managed, but may also demonstrate that new

hardware isn’t required, but simply an upgrade of the systems. This would save Lambeth

resources which could be spent on other areas. The health check would also need to make sure

that where computers will be used for application forms and money management, that they are

secure and safe.

e) Digital Bazaar - The Digital Bazaar demonstrates that peer-to-peer support can work well, and

that people respond well when the learning takes place in a less formal situation. An option is to

build on the work of the Digital Bazaar, and roll this out to the other libraries in the borough.

This would require someone to drive this forward, and the person would need to liaise with

tutors and individuals, liaise with the libraries, coordinate everyone, and prepare posters and do

promotional work on the website. This can be 2-3 days work, as well as being there on the day

of the event.

f) Training - Lambeth needs to ensure that when residents access digital services through Lambeth

IT, the staff who are there have the skills to be able to support them to navigate the internet,

apply for benefits and other support online, and manage their money online if they wish to. We

would need to commission some IT training for library staff, and potentially Lambeth Living staff,

so that they feel confident to support residents when they need it. It would be preferable for

this training to be accredited, meaning the staff would get an accredited qualification from it.

We could take make this training better value for money by having some of the digital

champions do ‘train the trainer’, so they could also deliver the training course. This would also

give the digital champions a qualification that they could use outside of this work, which would

help them with employment opportunities.

Brief Description of

Service/ Activity

Cost of

Service/

Activity

(estimated)

Where funding

could come

from

How many people/who will benefit?

Digital champions

coordinators (and

associated marketing/

training costs)

£120,000

Two workers

fte and on-

costs

Part DWP

Part Council

Will recruit 100 digi-champions, providing 50 days of support pw; will link

these champions into community-based IT suites, customer centres, libraries

on rota basis; likely to be able to deliver 300 hours of support pw, helping

500 residents pw

Increased provision of

computer points in the

community (including in

food banks)

£100,000

TUC?

Banks?

GSTT?

Council

100 more access points in community locations (plus Wifi)

Assuming use by 10 people each per day; could see 1,000 more people on-

line per day

Roughly 3000 people access the food banks each year – 1 hour support pw

each family = 3000 extra hours of benefit support

33

Annual IT Health check

(compatible with govt

websites and up to date

software)

Council

Officer time

Council 180 computers in the libraries, potentially another 100 elsewhere (RSLs, LL,

customer centres).

Assuming accessed by 10 people a day, this could mean 2000-3000 people

have improved access

Increase Digital Access

points in Lambeth Living

£10,000 for

hardware and

necessary

software

(1600 LL

blocks)

Council and

Lambeth Living

Based on surveys c8000 LL households don’t have internet access, giving

access to all these households

Digital Bazaar (expansion

of)

£35k for full-

time

coordinators

role

Council 2500 people accessing digital education and training across all libraries, 2

hours a month = 60,000 hrs of digital education and training

Training Lambeth staff

who are in customer-

facing roles

£10,000 to

train 250 staff

Council Residents who comes into contact with LBL face to face support

Digital Access Awareness

Raising Week

Council staff

time

Council Residents across Lambeth

10 Outcome 6 - More people feel able to manage their finances well and cope with an unexpected outlay

Definition

10.1 There are three key components for people to feel able to manage their finances well, including in

crises:

1. A healthy relationship with money

2. Social capital

3. Ability to save, no matter how small

These areas not only help people deal with a crisis but will also help them not get into a situation in

the first place. Activity in this area will be targeted at those who need the most help in improving

their relationship with money and preventative as building this healthy relationship with money will

see less people in a crisis, and if they do hit a bump in the road more able to cope using their

financial capability, savings and social networks.

10.2 A healthy relationship with money

For the cohort that the Financial Resilience Strategy is trying to improve finances for, this means

that the Financial Resilience Strategy has to do more than educate about money management, but

also change behaviours and emotions towards money. It must be recognised that making ends

meet is a significant problem for our cohort; research suggests that without this it is not possible to

have a healthy relationship with money as there is always a tension between financial security and

empowerment. Work in other areas, such as making sure people have access to benefits they are

entitled to (particularly a smooth transition to Universal Credit over the coming months) and

reducing problematic debt, will help our cohort maximise their income.

10.3 Social capital

In addition to having the right financial capability and relationship with money we think that part of

what makes people feel able to manage their finances and cope in a crisis is having a support

network. Another area that the Financial Resilience Strategy will need to address is improving

people’s social networks. For someone who is isolated or only knows people in the same financial

situation as themselves it will be difficult to build their financial resilience without also building their

social capital.

10.4 Ability to save, no matter how small

34

In order to be financially resilient, people need to have a financial ‘cushion’ or safety net that

prevents them experiencing a crisis as a result of often relatively small, but unexpected, financial

outlays. It is estimated that approximately 1 in 5 adults have no savings. People who depend on

benefits or minimum wage work are unlikely to be able to build up any savings. The London Living

Wage is calculated to include a small financial cushion, but pay below this will only just cover basic

living costs. However, if people are in the habit of saving as little as £1 a month they will foster a

feeling of resilience.

Scope of the problem – national

10.5 The table below demonstrates that the biggest life changing events that have a negative effect on a

person’s finances is redundancy, followed by birth / adoption and then having a major illness. For

Lambeth, we can expect more people struggling as welfare reform changes are enacted, this table

does not capture this type of event as for most people it would not have been a problem previously.

10.6 In April 2011 the BBC conducted research to determine why people are confused when it comes to

managing their money, The Big Money Test. The experiment looked at the relationship between

how money makes us feel (money motivations), financial capability and money problems. Results

clearly show that there is more to how we manage our money than financial knowledge. The

research’s key findings were:

• While financial knowledge is important, our emotions play a big part in how well we manage our

money

• Money makes many people feel worried, guilty and anxious - to help people improve their

financial capability, we need to tackle people's emotional relationship with money and help

them feel more positive and confident about it

• Impulse shopping can lead to disastrous financial problems – people who shop impulsively do so

to manage their emotions – to make themselves happy, or to stop feeling sad

• If money makes you feel powerful you are more likely to encounter money problems, but if

money makes you feel secure you are less likely to. If money gives you a sense of security it

could push you to develop the financial skills you need to save and avoid financial crises.

• Being able to make ends meet is crucial for people to be able to manage our money well, more

so than financial knowledge

• Attitude to money and financial success tend to improve with age, even more so for men than

women

10.7 According to the Understanding Society research 2009/10, 12.3% of people said that they were

finding it hard or very difficult to get by financially, unfortunately no later figures are available. In

35

April 2013, a YouGov poll commissioned by Shelter revealed that 36% of people, equivalent to 8.6

million people, could not pay their rent or mortgage from their savings for more than a month if

they lost their job. 18%, equivalent to 4.4 million people, wouldn’t be able to pay their rent or

mortgage at all if they couldn’t secure a new job immediately. The research reveals families with

children are in the most precarious situation; 43% could not pay for their home for more than a

month, and nearly a quarter (23%) could not meet their payments at all.

10.8 Determining how many people are finding it difficult to manage their finances due to their

relationship with money is difficult, for example, from time to time we can all be guilty of impulse

buying; therefore suggesting that most people have a negative relationship with money. Impulse

buying may not always be a negative thing either, if there is an offer in the supermarket – buy one

get one free – a person could be saving themselves money in the long term. Links have been made

recently with the growth in tablet and smart phones and impulse buying, on the whole because it is

now so easy to make online purchases without going through the same decision making process.

This will be important for the council to take into account when developing activity to enable people

to manage their money online.

10.9 The Resolution Foundation talks about low to middle income households, or the ‘squeezed middle’;

these are households that are typically in low paid work. These form the upper end of our target

population (a third of these families will become benefit reliant in any one year). They found that

55% had no savings, 69% had no pension, 40% were unable to replace broken furniture, 27%

couldn’t repair broken electrical goods, 46% couldn’t afford a week’s holiday, and 7% could not

afford to own two pairs of shoes. We can expect most of the benefit reliant population, and the

people for whom the strategy is targeted, to be in a worse financial situation.

Scope of the problem – local

10.10 Residents opinion of their personal financial circumstances (November 2012)

Compared to Apr 2012, there has

been a fall in the number of residents

who say their financial situation has

worsened. However, there has also

been a fall in the number saying

things have improved.

Feb

2010

Aug

2010

Nov

2010

Feb

2011

Apr

2011

Aug

2011

Apr

2012

Nov

2012

Stayed the

same48 49 51 44 43 45 47 56

Got worse 31 32 33 43 42 40 37 32

Improved 18 17 14 12 13 13 16 11

36

10.11 The table indicates how people feel about their financial situation, but not the emotional drivers for

how they spend or save their money.

10.12 Data from the household resource survey also shows that 9% of Lambeth households have no

savings account. It follows that these people are the very same that the strategy is trying to target.

10.13 When analysing the findings from the ethnography research, officers developed a framework for

plotting where participants were in terms of financial capability and social capital. This does not

necessarily reflect people’s incomes, but what they are able to do with it. There is a lot of attention

given by the media to cultures of worklessness, though our research found that people wanted to

work more hours but their personal circumstances didn’t always allow it. The people we saw moved

in and out of poverty, people’s situations can improve and they can move from one income band to

another.

10.14 The financial resilience ethnography analysis framework

10.15 There will be people who fall into each category for the people that the financial resilience strategy

is targeting, it is most important to tailor our offer to people with less financial capability and social

connection; the people that the analysis framework terms “the invisible”. This group of people are

less likely to have the knowledge to deal with any crisis and manage their finances and also have the

least support around them to help. Less intensive interventions will be needed for the “self-reliant”

people (these interventions will need to be based on building their connections with people who are

in better situations than themselves) and the people in the group termed “passive” (these

interventions will be more financial education based). The people in the group termed

“resourceful” are the most likely to not need any intervention and will find their way out of financial

troubles with help from the social connections and financial capabilities.

10.16 A couple of the residents the council saw for the ethnography could be termed impulse buyers and

had signs that money was controlling them by making them feel powerful rather than secure. For

example, some of the participants admitted to shying away from credit card bills or making

Passive Resourceful

Invisible Self-reliant

Low social capital

High social capital

More financially capable

Less financially capable

37

purchases on their credit cards that they knew they couldn’t afford as a way of making them feel

better. All of the participants worried about money, some admitted to feeling mildly depressed by

their financial situation. On the whole the group had enough to make ends meet; though this meant

that they all went without food, heating, paying all bills in a timely way and saving for any crisis. So,

although they thought they were coping with their finances, the group were not coping in a way

that was desirable. We heard the phrase “robbing Peter to pay Paul” frequently, causing many

people to feel disempowered by their finances and far from secure. Thinking about the ethnography

and the relationship these people had with money (as defined by the BBC’s Big Money Test), the

people who fell into the resourceful category were more likely to have a healthier relationship with

money. The other groups of people were more likely to have a power struggle with their money

which, in some instances, led to them constantly worrying about money.

10.17 When commissioning financial resilience activity it will be important for commissioners to be

thinking about which of these groups of people the activity will work for.

Current projects/activities and their effectiveness

10.18 Financial education is currently available at a national and local level (as detailed in the Problematic

Debt section). However, it is thought that this education focuses on solving people’s current crises

rather than changing their relationship with money. Research recommends that in order for people

to feel like they can manage their finances well they also have to have a “healthy” relationship with

money, this means that they feel secure and not controlled by money.

10.19 At the moment people are able to receive financial education from different projects, some of these

are council or government funded and provided via the community sector or the council itself.

Suggested future projects/activity

10.20 When providing financial education it is pertinent that this includes not only information on how to

be financially capable but also how to have a positive relationship with money. The Consumer

Financial Education Body (CFEB) has come up with a framework for changing financial behaviours12

.

Transforming Financial Behaviour: building financial capability (CFEB)

12 CFEB Consumer Research Report - Transforming Financial Behaviour: developing interventions that build

financial capability, Antony Elliott, Paul Dolan, Ivo Vlaev, Charles Adriaenssens& Robert Metcalfe, July 2010

38

10.21 The above table describes the type of interventions that would work to change the financial choices

people make. The CFEB also tested interventions out on experts to determine the best financial

education methods to promote healthy financial decisions.

10.22 The Top 10 interventions to promote financial capability through education:

Intervention MINDSPACE

category

Use the best person or channel to provide

education/information Messenger

Provide incentives in order to change behaviour

Incentives

Use mental accounting to encourage provision for

unexpected outcomes

Incentives

Provide relative information on peer group, i.e. people

like you

Norms

Use a default behaviour to encourage action

Default

Provide feedback to encourage money management

Salience

Present outcomes in such a way that invokes particular

feelings or influences behaviour Priming / Affect

Make a commitment to an action or behaviour

Commitment

Set realistic targets and goals

Commitment

Financial health checks that challenge negative

self-beliefs and norms

Ego

39

10.23 In conjunction with this approach to financial education the financial resilience strategy could go

some way to helping people connect through informal or formal networks. The RSA have recently

started a project called connected communities, part of their work has been with people who

misuse substances. With ‘Whole Person Recovery’, the RSA set out to understand in a holistic way

how problematic drug and alcohol users become trapped in cycles of addiction, what helps or

hinders their journey to recovery, and how their recovery can be sustained. Their key findings were:

• The emerging theory of Recovery Capital – the sum total of personal, social and community

resources that someone can call on to aid their recovery – provides a more holistic foundation

on which to develop strategies that can spark and sustain recovery.

• Adopting this approach supports both the localist and Big Society agendas that encourage a

community-led response to recovery.

• Involving drug and alcohol users more directly in the design of services substantially increases

the likelihood of services targeting resources where they are most likely to have a meaningful

impact on individuals’ recovery.

• Social innovations examined in the report include: giving users modest grants to assist their

recovery; a peer led dedicated radio services; and a user led training package for local GPs.

• A systems based approach to understanding, mapping and visualising users’ experiences can

help harness all the assets available to aid recovery for a given person.

• Recovery is 'contagious' – users should be part of networks of people who have or are

recovering from problematic drug and alcohol use and those people that support recovery such

as non-using family and friends. There needs to be a collective response to recovery, primarily in

the form of 'recovery communities'.

• A change in public attitude to the recovery and wellbeing of problem drug and alcohol users is of

fundamental importance to generate a collective response to the opportunity that a whole

person recovery approach presents.

10.24 Given this way of approaching the issue, the suggestion is that we:

• Integrate MINDSPACE elements into financial education programmes delivered by the council

and partners.

• Encourage social networks to develop to build social capital through the range of interventions

we design. For example, through our advice service, or support for indebted people, can we look

at how we can enable those people to be more connected? Programmes like Backr explicitly do

this around employment. Could we do something similar for financial support?

• When examining financial products encourage savings or jam jar accounts, for those who can

afford it. We need to understand what behavioural change is needed to encourage saving too.

Could we work with banks or other financial organisations to pilot a door to door savings

scheme, or see if the evidence would support introducing savings schemes in schools. There may

also be work we could do with Churches and other religious and community organisations to see

how they might support and encourage saving.

40

Brief Description of Service/ Activity Cost of Service/

Activity

(estimated)

Where funding

could come

from

How many people/who will benefit?

Review of all financial education programmes to

integrate MINDSPACE elements into financial

education programmes delivered by the council

and partners

£100k Council budgets Greatest impact will be on those who are least

financially capability

Impact will be on all that attend financial education

training

Commission an organisation to train frontline

staff and voluntary groups to recognise,

diagnose and refer people with unhealthy

relationship with money.

Once people are referred the same organisation

will provide training for them.

£100k Council budget All RBCS customer advisors, all adult social workers

and Lambeth advice agencies will be trained.

Review of the extent to which services that

support people who aren’t financially resilient

become more socially connected, with

recommendations. Work with the services to

see how they can improve people’s

connectedness.

£50k Council Greatest impact will be on those with little social

capital and connections

Create a toolkit for money champions on how to

start a savings club

£30k Money can

come from

banks / credit

union

11 Outcome 7 - Levels of food poverty are reducing

Definition

11.1 Food poverty is defined as the inability to obtain healthy, affordable food.

Scope of the problem

11.2 We do not have accurate data on the number of people affected by food poverty in Lambeth.

However, we do have data on the number of people affected by ill health that is associated with

poor diet, which may be related to food poverty.

11.3 Our ethnographic research, research on the use of food banks, and information from Lambeth

schools, show that the cost of food is a major concern for people in Lambeth. A lack of income

caused by unemployment, lack of benefits or benefit delays are often the cause.

11.4 In Lambeth the estimated number of deaths from heart disease and stroke attributable to obesity is

172 each year and the NHS cost in Lambeth from diseases relating to being overweight or obese is

estimated at £122.5million.

11.5 There is compelling research on the effects of food poverty on the health and development of young

children, including increased hospitalisations and poor health including iron deficiency,

developmental risk and behaviour problems, primarily aggression, anxiety, depression, and

attention deficit disorder . These concerns early in life increase children’s risk of poor school

readiness, poor school performance and subsequent health disparities and poverty.

11.6 Those who are most likely to experience food poverty are people living on low incomes or who are

unemployed, households with dependent children, older people, disabled people and ethnic

minority communities.

11.7 The relationship between food poverty and healthy weight in childhood is not straight forward, but

childhood obesity is high in Lambeth with 25% of 10 - 11 years olds classified as obese (against a

national average of 22%). In Lambeth, clinical and non-clinical staff have worked together to develop

41

a children’s healthy weight care pathway, one of the first of its kind nationally and an example of

good partnership working in the borough.

11.8 We have no data that allows us to compare the Lambeth picture with other London boroughs.

11.9 The effects of inflation are being felt most acutely by those on low incomes. A greater proportion of

the income of poorer households is absorbed by food costs, which have seen high rates of inflation

in recent years. This is problematic for people on benefits or low paid work, because both have

increased at a much slower pace in recent years, and this is set to continue.

11.10 Food poverty can be caused by having insufficient income, by the high price of food, by not having

enough shops selling healthy affordable food, or poor transport which prevents people from

accessing these shops. There may also be associated problems of poor knowledge or skills around

diet, food and budgeting.

11.11 The recent GLA investigation into food poverty found that children and older people were most

likely to experience food poverty. Low income households are also vulnerable, but the research

points out that some low income households are better able to avoid food poverty than others.

11.12 NHS Lambeth’s research highlights mothers of young children, and pregnant women as being of

particular concern. A good diet is particularly important for this group, but this is often a time when

household income is reduced, and there are multiple demands on the household budget. Women

are often thought to prioritise children’s diets over their own.

11.13 The NHS Lambeth’s research also showed that the quality of the diets of low income households in

general had declined, as people replaced expensive fresh fruit and vegetables with poorer quality

foods. There may be certain parts of the borough that are more affected by problems with access to

affordable food than others, but we do not currently have any data on food deserts.

11.14 In April 2012 The Children’s Society published a report entitled Fair and Square which warns that

more than 350,000 children will lose their free school meals under the government's welfare

reforms. The charity says the proposed universal credit system, which comes into force in October

2013, will stop paying for certain benefits if a household earns more than £7,500. In England,

children are eligible to receive government free school meals (FSM) if their parents are in receipt of

any of the following benefits - Income Support, Income-based Job Seekers' Allowance, Income-

related Employment and Support Allowance, Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum

Act 1999, the Guaranteed element of State Pension Credit or Child Tax Credit, provided they are not

also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190, as

assessed by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.1

11.14 Currently 11,715 (34%) Lambeth pupils are eligible for government FSM and take up at January 2012

was 88% (not including Academies), which is above the average of 85%.

11.15 Research has shown that offering free school meals to everyone can help close the gap between rich

and poor pupils. During September 2012 the Children’s Trust Board considered the potential costs

and benefits of implementing a Universal Free School Meal focusing on

• Lessons learnt from Southwark and Islington

• Costs of implementing a local Lambeth scheme

• Potential outcomes

42

11.16 Based on School census data the total cost of FSM delegated to all Lambeth schools was estimated

at around £5.8m in 2012/13. It was agreed that more robust evidence should be provided before

allocating funds to this initiative.

Current projects/activities and their effectiveness

11.17 The services the council provides to maximise peoples’ income, whether by giving people advice on

benefits, or by helping people get the training they need to get employment, or supporting them

into employment opportunities probably has some of the biggest direct impacts on food poverty. It

is estimated that Lambeth council spent £56 million in the last financial year on achieving more jobs

and sustainable growth. These activities were not necessarily targeted at the population we are

aiming to work with, but some would have benefited. These activities are discussed under the

outcome ‘more people earn a living wage’.

11.18 There are a large number of food related community projects in the borough that help contribute to

improving the supply of affordable food, improve education about food, and also aim to strengthen

social networks. Included in this is the development of borough wide food strategy. From the

information we have, it is not clear to what extent these food growing projects connect with people

in our target population.

11.19 Another significant activity is the provision of free school meals. These are funded by central

government, but administered by Lambeth’s schools. These benefit children in our target

population, and may help mitigate the effects of food poverty, but not necessarily deal with the

causes.

11.20 Similarly, there is a network of food banks in the borough that work with those experiencing food

poverty, many of whom will be in our target population. These food banks are primarily designed to

mitigate the effects of poverty, rather that reduce overall food poverty, however, with the provision

of advice services in food banks, some more preventative work is taking place.

11.21 NHS has a number of projects/ services designed to improve skills and information around healthy

diets. This includes the healthy schools project, and cook and learn sessions in children’s centres.

Suggested future projects/activities

11.22 The suggested actions include:

a. Increasing household income is likely to be the best way of avoiding food poverty. This outcome

will cross reference the LLW outcome and the benefits take up outcome.

b. Children- Free School Meals are often under used (see NHS Lambeth study). More could be

done to promote FSM, and even review options around introducing universal access to FSM.

Evidence has shown universal free school meals are improving children’s wellbeing and

educational attainment and healthy eating habits outside school. Universal FSMs also remove

the stigma associated with means-tested provision. Breakfast clubs operate at some, but not all

schools. These provide subsidised quality breakfasts for children eligible for FSM. LBL could work

with schools to increase the number of school breakfast clubs.

c. Improving knowledge of food and nutrition – Good practice elsewhere has focused on using a

community champions model to increase knowledge of where to buy affordable food and how

to prepare it, offering training through children’s centres and schools.

43

d. Targeting those in crisis - Food banks provide food to those in crisis. There may be more that can

be done with this group in particular to offer them support to avoid food poverty including

increasing income, improving budgeting and food preparation skills, connecting them with other

food subsidies such as Healthy Start vouchers.

e. We need to explore to what extent peoples’ ability to find affordable food is based a lack of

suitable shops, or shops selling food in reasonable proximity. If this is an issue, then there may

be more we can do in working with traders in the area to develop their offer, increase markets

and the range of market stalls, introduce mobile food services (e.g. veg van) and support food

coops and collective food buying schemes.

Brief Description of Service/ Activity Cost of Service/

Activity (estimated)

Where funding could

come from

How many people/who will

benefit?

Increasing take up of Free School Meals for children.

This could involve peer to peer promotion, marketing

campaigns, and reforms to the application process

NHS/ council, but could

also draw on voluntary

activity

A large number of our target

population have school age

children

Increase of breakfast club provision – more schools

have breakfast clubs providing free breakfasts to

children eligible for free school meals

None (some staff

costs to help

schools set up

breakfast clubs)

A large number of our target

population have school age

children

Support for food banks

Targeted support offer for those using food banks to

identify any underlying problems they may face.

Holistic support.

Working with food banks to help connect them to

other services and organisations

Further work with LBL social workers to understand

food bank referrals and how alternative support could

be developed

Advice in food

banks (costs

detailed in benefits

and credits options

appraisal)

Hosting food bank

network meetings –

cost negligible

Over a 6 month period last year

we estimated that the food

banks provided food for 2191

adults and 1837 children

12 Outcome 8 - Levels of fuel poverty are reducing

Definition

12.1 Fuel poverty, defined as the need to spend more than 10% of a household’s income to heat the

home adequately, is a problem which affects many of Lambeth’s least affluent and most vulnerable

residents. It has a range of significant negative impacts on quality of life including mental and

physical health implications and fuel debt problems.

12.2 The following groups are particularly vulnerable to experiencing fuel poverty:

• Older people, particularly those living alone

• Families with dependent children, particularly single parents

• People living with long term and terminal illnesses or disabilities

12.3 The primary effects of fuel poverty are:

• Fuel debt, leading to:

- Negative impacts on mental health (depression, anxiety);

- Non payment of other bills including council tax and rent;

- Choice between heating and eating (healthy) food.

• Not adequately heating the home, leading to:

44

- Impacts on physical and mental health including excess winter mortality;

- Condensation, dampness and mould growth; increased dust mites;

- Deterioration of the property;

- Increased health expenditure due to additional GP appointments and hospital admissions.

• Social isolation due to being embarrassed to have people over

• Diminished educational results and tensions in the family as result of only having one heated

room

12.4 The three causes of fuel poverty are:

• The cost of energy,

• Household income,

• The energy efficiency of the property.

Scope of the problem

12.5 Lambeth is the 14th

most deprived local authority in England, making the average household income

relatively low. As in other (inner) London boroughs, the costs of housing in particular and living in

general are high in Lambeth, which means families have less money to spend on energy.

12.6 Furthermore, Lambeth’s housing stock is characterised by:

• Many older ‘hard to treat’ properties with solid walls;

• High proportion of flats;

• Conservation areas.

All these factors have a distinct negative influence on the energy efficiency of Lambeth properties,

making them difficult to insulate.

12.7 In 2010, the latest year for which official statistics are available, 10.5% of Lambeth households were

in fuel poverty (10.8% in London overall, 16.4 in England). As energy prices have risen significantly

since 2010, it is now estimated that this figure has risen to some 25-30% of Lambeth households.

12.8 Between 2004 and 2009 levels of fuel poverty went down, mainly due to rising incomes and a

programme of increasing the levels of energy efficiency of the UK’s housing stock. However, since

then any increases in energy efficiency have been more than outweighed by the increasing fuel

costs. The economic downturn and austerity measures have had a negative impact on income levels.

12.9 In the winter 2010-2011 there were 60 excess winter deaths in Lambeth (i.e. 60 more people died in

the winter months compared to the summer months). The average over the last 5 winters is 70

excess winter deaths, with the winter of 2008-2009 very bad with 160 extra deaths. (In comparison:

the numbers for London overall are 78 in 2010-2011, 84 on average over the last 5 winters, and 116

in 2008-2009.)

12.10 Excess winter deaths are associated with cold weather, but it has been observed that other

countries in Europe, especially the colder Scandinavian countries have relatively fewer excess winter

deaths in winter compared to the UK. This clearly shows the link between the UK’s poor quality

housing stock and poor health/mortality rates.

Current projects/activities and their effectiveness

45

12.11 Recent and current projects in Lambeth to alleviate fuel poverty include:

a) RE:NEW phases 1 and 2 - RE:NEW phase 1 (completed March 2012): 1600 home visits in Gipsy Hill

ward, installing simple energy efficiency measures, giving comprehensive advice, and checking

eligibility for free or reduced cavity wall and/or loft insulation. RE:NEW phase 2 (started Oct 2012,

ended Dec 2012): 177 home visits and installing 103 free cavity wall and loft insulation and heating

measures, funded by energy companies.

b) CESP - Some 800 homes on the Loughborough Estate have had their energy efficiency improved

significantly due to the installation of new boilers, double-glazed windows, external wall insulation

and roof insulation as part of the CESP programme co-funded by E.ON. The capital works budget of

£7.5m to upgrade and replace bathrooms and kitchens was supplemented by in total £2.5m from

E.ON to install the energy efficiency measures.

c) CERT scheme - late 2012 together with E.ON to insulate cavity walls in Lambeth Living properties

in south Lambeth: some 100 cavity walls insulated.

d) Coldbusters - Managing agent Climate Energy is delivering the Coldbuster scheme in Lambeth:

free basic heating and insulation measures for private sector residents (tenants and

owner/occupiers) on eligible benefits. Funded through ECO Affordable Warmth.

e) Collective energy switching - £617,505 was awarded to set up the Big London Energy Switch,

coordinated by London Councils and Royal Borough of Kinston upon Thames; 21 participating

London boroughs including Lambeth. Procured third party switching provider to organise energy

auction. Total 26,000 households registered in London (1.2% of total households), 2200 in Lambeth.

71% can make saving, average saving £122.

f) Energy Efficiency funding - £5,360,421 awarded to 18 participating boroughs, led by Greater

London Authority, to deliver energy efficiency measures with a focus on heating (free boilers), to

fuel poor households that fall outside of ECO eligibility. Last update from early April: 71 measures

installed in Lambeth households (second highest in sub region).

g) Energy Company Obligation - Obligation on big six energy companies to deliver carbon reductions

through insulation and heating measures. Lambeth is accessing this funding through the Coldbuster

scheme for households in the private sector, and through working with Lambeth Living to select an

ECO delivery partner to dovetail ECO funding into the capital works programme to fund extra

insulation measures that would otherwise not happen due to limited budget.

g) Fuel poverty strategy

h) The Fuel Poverty Strategy and Action Plan - These were adopted in October 2011; the cross-

departmental Fuel Poverty Steering Group has been reinstated to oversee the implementation of

the Action Plan and meets bi-annually. The Strategy includes direct actions including energy

efficiency targets, but it also emphasises the need to work together with other departments within

the council as well as external organisations involved with vulnerable people such as the NHS and

AgeUK Lambeth. The Energy Strategy Officer is responsible for driving the Strategy and

implementation of the Action Plan forward.

Suggested future projects/activities

12.12 As well as continuing with many of the activities/projects listed above, additional ideas to deliver

this outcome are set out below.

46

12.13 In an ideal world Lambeth would copy Islington’s SHINE (Seasonal Health Interventions Network)

referral programme13

. SHINE is a one-stop referral system where a single referral leads to an

assessment for more than twenty potential interventions, including:

• Advice on saving energy and grants available for heating and insulation (e.g. Coldbusters)

• Benefit checks (Every Pound Counts)

• Falls Assessments (Home Improvement Agency)

• Befriending services (e.g. volunteers)

• Fire Safety Checks (from London Fire Brigade)

• Home Security Checks (from the Police)

• Air quality alerts for those with respiratory diseases

• Home from Hospital Service (e.g. from AgeUK)

• Handyperson Service (e.g. from AgeUK)

• Medical interventions, e.g. flu jab

Any professional working in Islington can make a referral to the SHINE hub by filling out a referral

form, and the hub will then contact the client and discuss the range of services the client is eligible

for. The SHINE hub thus provides a single point of referral to assist service providers in providing a

comprehensive service to clients/patients.

It has taken Islington some 5 years and an unknown sum of money to set SHINE up. However, by

making all relevant agencies and organisations aware of each others’ existence, we can make a start

in Lambeth. From there we can possibly set up a shared website and construct a standardised yet

fairly easy form that can then be uploaded to the website for other organisations to look at and act

upon where necessary.

12.14 A study into switching behaviour by Kensington and Chelsea Community Enterprises CIC (Action

research on switching energy tariffs, June 201214

) shows that in general:

• Older people respond best to personalised approach (speaking to an advisor rather than

telephone contact – internet is rarely used by this demographic), and due to poor health and

poor mobility are not likely to go out to be informed but depend on home visits; often this group

needs time to understand information;

• BME groups value and rely on friends, family and community members as sources of information,

and often need information in their own language;

• Families with young children are more likely to search for advice themselves, but a lack of time

may prevent them from actually undertaking action, and literacy may be an issue as some

participants require their children to assist with information.

13

http://www.islington.gov.uk/services/parks-environment/sustainability/sus_awarmth/Pages/shine.aspx 14

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/brandpartnerglobal/kensingtonandchelseavpp/documents/information%20and%20a

dvice/switching-energy-tariffs-jun12.pdf

47

Brief Description of Service/ Activity Cost of Service/

Activity

(estimated)

Where funding could come from How many people/who

will benefit?

Implement, continue and renew the Lambeth Fuel

Poverty Strategy Action Plan:*

• Work with Lambeth Living to attract funding for

increased insulation

• Increase awareness within Council through Steering

Group and attending other team’s team meetings

• Increase awareness in VCS through training of local

groups

• Increase awareness of residents through targeted

campaigns (e.g. Big London Energy Switch)

Work with private landlords and housing associations

to attract funding for insulation and heating measures

• Fuel Poverty

Steering

Group to

action and

monitor -

lead HRE (one

fte officer

post £50K)

• Lambeth

Housing

Standard is a

£450m

programme

over 5 years –

level of ECO

funding not

known at this

stage

• To fund (post formerly know as)

Energy Strategy Officer: Council

• To implement action plan:

- Decent Homes funding

(Lambeth Housing Standard),

- regeneration programmes.

- Energy companies

- central Gov’t

• Potentially millions of pounds in

match funding available

• Most of the funding is/will be

ring-fenced for particular

programmes and projects.

-

• Potentially 30,000 fuel

poor households in

Lambeth in 2013

• Excess Winter Deaths

reduced (60 in Lambeth

2010-2011)

Advice on saving energy and grants

• Dedicated training and outreach work to capacity

building public, RSLs and VCO staff to give advice on

energy savings, grants and fuel cost management

• £55,000 • Council

• Plus trusts and grants.

• Energy companies

• 6000 professionals in

public, community and

voluntary and sector

trained to give advice to

30,000 households

• 60 Excess Winter Deaths

reduced

Lambeth to set up an Energy Information and Advice

One Stop shop (copy Islington Shine)

• Dedicated referral system where single referral leads

to an assessment for range of needs.

• This and the above programme can be combined into

one.

• £55,000 • Council

• Plus trusts and grants.

• Contributions from all

participating agencies /services,

including public health

• Potentially 30.000 fuel

poor household

• 60 Excess Winter Deaths

reduced