I often talk about how many people come to the end of our Money Health-Check process and ask: “Why doesn’t anyone tell us this stuff?” It’s difficult to answer. Schools have never had the tools. So, who else would do it? Martin Lewis and loan companies, it seems.

Many institutions reach into communities in hardship. DWP and Jobcentre Plus, for starters, but also local authorities, housing providers and health services. With better partnerships, I’d argue they could work less in silos to support people with other issues holding them back. In principle, they could do this at a (massive) scale, through the email databases, apps and digital tools they increasingly have at their disposal. But GDPR has spooked everyone. To the cost of people in hardship.

The public and third sectors are way behind private firms when it comes to developing a digital comms offer. It’s hard to buy a pair of socks in a shop without being asked to part with an email address and our consent to receive first an invoice… then ‘offers’ (aka sales emails). And online it’s impossible without unleashing an onslaught, unless we opt out. The latter would be illegal if it wasn’t a matter of ‘legitimate interest’, ie, ‘you’re a customer and you provided an email, right?’

GPs know that many mental and physical conditions are linked to poverty, so if they captured data about household incomes, they could send their struggling patients information about ways to boost their finances. It’s useful and relevant to the patient, and as it starts working down future waiting lists, there’s a legitimate interest to both parties? If they’re transparent about their motives, have no commercial interest, and clearly provide the option to opt out, I’m sure they’d comply with GDPR regulations.

Housing providers’ and local authorities’ contacts databases can also be organised to send versions of the same emails to different households, depending on their location, (a deprived estate, say), or their profile information, (which the recipient can update). Why are they holding back on sharing much-needed information? No wonder people feel left in the dark.

We’re working with a number of landlords already to co-brand Quids in! Readers Club emails that they then send out. (No data changes hands, so that’s also compliant, in addition to all the points listed above.) There’s a good engagement rate – our cost-of-living survey yielded over 1,100 responses. We want to do the same with more landlords, for whom supporting tenants’ financial wellbeing has a benefit to both parties. But we could also could/ should be licensing content to health providers and local authorities. It takes some insight about what people need but also some nerve to grasp the nettle of risk, (which we can help with).

Quids in! reaches over 175,000 low-income households a year to help ensure nobody is in the dark. And so Nobody in the Dark is the name of the initiative we’ve developed to support people in hardship and we’re working up a number of interactive, digital tools to support people to find work, plan for older age or prevent diabetes. You can see how we hope GPs and health commissioners, for one, will want to join this effort.

While private companies rinse those with money through effective digital comms, the public and third sectors seem too risk-averse to reach out to people in hardship. Even with offers of help. It’s not for the want of caring but the balance between ‘too risky’ and ‘too important’ is a little out of kilter.

There’s also the issue of digital exclusion, which is one part incredibly important and nine parts a red herring. If more than 90 per cent of people are online, (with some only using WhatsApp and Facebook), then we shouldn’t hesitate about digital comms on account of the risk of worsening people’s exclusion. The answer is to invest in inclusion too. Part of that is about creating the demand to get online… by providing an unmissable digital offer to those who are receiving comms about the things that could help them out of hardship.

See the Quids in! Professional Network’s special report on the bridging the digital divide.

See Jeff Mitchell’s top ten tips for engaging people in hardship.

Find out more about the Quids in! Readers Club.

Image: Lolostock – Apex Studios / Shutterstock