Putting cash into people’s pockets is fundamental. But it’s about more than handouts – we need to nurture good money management skills

On 9th November, the Quids In Professional Network staged a webinar entitled Money First… and the Rest Will Follow. It was timed to coincide with the launch of Clean Slate‘s new Gloucestershire operation, providing money guidance to hundreds of people on low incomes. Despite having a local flavour, more than 100 attendees registered from all corners of the UK.

Our guest speaker, Sabine Goodwin from the Independent Food Aid Network, described the principles of ‘cash first’ and the need for better policies that ensure people have more money in their pocket. How else will they be able to feed their families and stay well without being forced to turn to evermore overstretched foodbanks? That’s why it’s good news the government allayed our worst fears and matched benefit increases to inflation.

Money guidance remains a blind spot for most commissioners, authorities and housing providers. Money is so everyday. We all just have to tighten our belts, right?

For Clean Slate, cash in people’s pockets is an opportunity for them to pause. Take stock. Consider their options. While giving the 1,100 claimants we worked with in 2021 shopping vouchers worth up to £245 incentivised their participation, people also reported having time to stop and think about what we were talking to them about. The alternative was having people whose bandwidth was used up thinking about how to keep food on the table and a roof over their head. It worked. Collectively, this group went on to enjoy financial gains of £1,210 on average.

Not enough is invested into debt or housing advice, nor mental health services. Even less goes to financial support. And next to nothing at all goes into crisis-preventing money guidance. It remains a blind spot for most commissioners, authorities and housing providers. Money is so everyday. We all just have to tighten our belts, right? Why should people on lower incomes be any more in the dark than the rest of us? 

Well, who is less likely to be online? Who is more likely to be spending their time just getting by rather than taking time to explore their options? Who is least likely to want to ’cause a fuss’, or ‘look stupid’, or question the status quo? People with least.

Don’t know what we don’t know

Instead, what little funding exists is channelled into crisis services. Crises that are either created or exacerbated by money problems, which might have been averted up the chain.

I talked at the webinar about the opportunity to join some dots. Yes, a cash boost is great, but financial capability is sustainable. For a start, accessing unclaimed benefits or finding work will put money into their pockets continuously. But Clean Slate’s system for helping people also uncovers ways to bring in more, spend less, save more and borrow less, often by revealing things people don’t know they don’t know. This not only unlocks hundreds of pounds, it also reactivates participants as active guardians of their own financial wellbeing. More than three in four, (79%), said the process changed how they would go on to manage their money in future. They grew in confidence and a sense of agency, something many put to use to access specialist support like debt or housing advice or wellbeing services.

The benefits will stay with them long after the quick fix has faded

I spent the first 15 years of my career working at The Big Issue. One of its taglines was ‘a hand up, not a handout’. It’s fundamental to how homeless people transition, at their own pace, off the streets, into homes, on to work, and ultimately achieve independence. I have an unshakeable belief in this principle and it is threaded through the DNA of Clean Slate and its money skills programme, Quids in!.

There is a real opportunity to pair emergency grants like from the Household Support Fund, free food from foodbanks, or even financial boosts like Healthy Start Vouchers with solid financial guidance. The benefits of this will stay with them long after the quick fix has faded. Money First is fundamental. However, we’re not just talking about handouts, but a concerted effort to nurture good money management skills.