Clean Slate founder Jeff Mitchell describes the opportunity to try to prevent the cost-of-living disaster hurtling down the tracks towards low-income households

When we think too hard about how much people on low incomes are up against, it can be overwhelming. The cost-of-living crisis is coming at them from every angle. Even when the will is there to help people, it’s hard to know where to start. But it’s not impossible.

The pandemic revealed the ingenuity and resilience of the housing, health/care and support sectors. Business as usual, we found, need not be the norm. The cost-of-living crisis is calling on us to be equally resourceful.

Clean Slate* has lived in a kind of blindspot addressing how people manage their money. Funders and partners sometimes struggle to see personal finance for what it is. They know poverty makes everything harder for those facing health issues, struggling families and workless households. But money is so everyday, so much a part of all our lives, that it doesn’t seem like the problem. Until it is – once someone presents as homeless or in crisis debt.

Money, though, is not incidental to anything. It is fundamental to everything.

During the pandemic, commissioners, partners and housing providers approached us for an emergency response to the financial crisis communities found themselves in. We dusted off a reader ‘quiz’ published in Quids in!, designed to help people improve their all-round financial resilience. We took referrals and hit the phones to triage participants’ circumstances, creating a bespoke plan to get them ahead financially.

Matching needs to actions

Jobcentre Plus, for example, referred over 1,000 struggling claimants. At this scale, and using a digital assessment tool, we could see what people were struggling with. Among the 1,099 completers of our Money Health-Check and financial guidance programme, we saw:

• Just one in four (26.3 per cent) knew where to turn with financial problems
• Fewer than one in five (18.6 per cent) had checked if there was more support they could claim
• Even fewer (16.9 per cent) could keep food on the table if their money stopped

We could also see the impact our programmes made on these alarming statistics. When participants took the quiz at the end to reflect on their progress and update their action plan, we found:

• Almost all (96.8 per cent) had used our benefits calculator. (Among those who disclosed, this had triggered a shared windfall of £305,900)
• Nine in ten (89.5 per cent) could now sustainably manage a food budget
• Surprisingly, while just one in eight (12.7 per cent) set money aside for savings at the start, almost half (46.7 per cent) did by the end. (We had low expectations about this and approached it as a ‘nudge’ towards improved attitudes to money and resilience.)

In total, the 1,099 claimants shared financial gains of £1.33 million, including through shopping smarter and increasing earnings. People who disclosed suicidal thoughts at the start began thinking of the future, believing things could be different and making plans even for work. Indicating transformed resilience, 84.3 per cent of participants said they were now thinking differently about managing their money.

We need to catch people when the wheels are wobbling, before they come off

In June, I presented our methodology and impact results at a Homeless Link conference on prevention. Keynote speakers like Dr Pete Mackie, (Wales Knowledge Exchange Lead, UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence), called on the sector to do more “upstream”. Responding at crisis point, when an eviction letter is raised, is not prevention. We know who is at risk: People with mental health issues; Struggling families; People without secure employment. And, yes, of course, those slipping into arrears. We need to catch people when the wheels are wobbling, before they come off.

Upstream, not against the tide

Speakers laid the foundations perfectly for my pitch to fill this gap, upstream and with at-risk groups. Clean Slate can deliver the Money Health-Check programme to anyone across the UK. We ran it remotely during the pandemic and, in principle, there’s no need to fix what’s not broken. We are, though, developing hybrid options to offer face-to-face engagement in partnership with on-the-ground community projects.

Afterwards, two thirds of the audience signed up to discuss partnerships with Clean Slate to prevent financial hardship and homelessness. The will is there. Upstream does not mean swimming against the tide. We just need to see money issues as fundamental, not incidental, to the challenges faced by ‘at-risk’ groups. We know who they are.

In partnership with the Longleigh Foundation, Clean Slate works with housing provider Stonewater to support struggling tenants. The initiative started as an emergency response to the pandemic but grew as staff saw the benefits of tackling money issues in the round. This year, we will have worked with about 1,000 tenants. Arrears are almost always a feature but expensive, intensive, crisis-based debt interventions are not always the best starting point. Repayment plans and negotiations with creditors can come after budgeting reviews, income maximisation and cost-cutting. Checking habits and attitudes, and proving things can change, builds resilience and stops or slows the revolving door of crisis.

Clean Slate can work with landlords to engage tenants at risk: People living in areas of multiple deprivation, for example; Housing Benefit claimants, on course to move on to Universal Credit, (where one in five initial claims fail or are delayed); Parents claiming free school meals or Healthy Start vouchers; Working in partnership with mental health agencies or Children’s Centres. People don’t raise their hand when they’re struggling. If they do, it’s when they can no longer pay their bills.

The cost-of-living crisis is a wrecking ball hurtling down the line towards low-income households. If we want to prevent disaster, upstream, the time is now. Let’s talk.

• Clean Slate Training & Employment CIC is a not-for-profit social enterprise in business to help people on low incomes become better off. It helps those from struggling parts of our community to re-organise how they manage, stretch and grow a limited budget. We help them find work or better work, and to get online. Quids in! is our financial resilience initiative, publishing a magazine, monthly money emails, a range of guides and interactive web-based tools designed specifically for social tenants, benefit claimants and people facing financial hardship. For more information about the work of Clean Slate, please go to https://www.cleanslateltd.co.uk/. If you would like to speak to us about partnership and collaboration opportunities, in supporting your tenants, residents and service users, please contact [email protected]