Money First Aid pilot

About the Money and Pensions Service

Set up by government, the Money and Pensions Service creates one organisation from the three respected government-sponsored bodies of financial guidance: The Money Advice Service, The Pensions Advisory Service, and Pension Wise. This brings together for the first time the provision of debt advice, money guidance and pensions guidance. Our vision is Everyone making the most of their money and pensions.

We are an arm’s-length body, sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions, with a joint commitment to ensuring that people throughout the UK have guidance and access to the information they need to make effective financial decisions over their lifetime. We deliver this across five core functions.

The Money and Pensions Service is funded by levies on both the financial services industry and pension schemes.

About working-age money-management

Across the UK, many households find it difficult to manage money. Our research shows one in five (8.2m) working-age adults rarely or never save; a million do not keep track of their income and expenditure; 26% (10.5m) would have to borrow or could not pay when faced with an unexpected £300 bill; 20% (7.9m) often use a credit card, overdraft or borrow money to buy food or pay bills because they have run short of money; and 42% (16.9m) feel that thinking about their financial situation makes them anxious. This leaves families vulnerable to over-indebtedness, places a great strain on relationships and can have a severe impact on people’s physical and mental health.

We want to improve working-age people’s ability to make the most of their money by helping them improve their day-to-day money management and by building their financial resilience (their ability to withstand financial shocks).

Money First Aid training

Money information and guidance needs are often bound up with and overlap with other issues for which people seek support. We are therefore seeking to test ways of embedding money information and guidance within holistic support services that people already access, bringing money guidance to where people already are.

As part of our 2019/20 Business Plan, the Money and Pensions Service will therefore fund the development and delivery of Money First Aider training to enhance the confidence and competence of support/wellbeing workers across a number of professions. We are starting the process in Scotland with support workers who work with and have established and trusted relationships with residents in supported housing.

The objective will not be to turn these support workers in supported housing into money guidance specialists, but rather to be able to talk to their clients/service users about their money challenges, listen, and respond confidently and competently, providing generalist money guidance, understanding where regulatory boundaries lie, and signposting to more specialist resources and services as required.

We are seeking potential delivery partners for this pilot.

We have made available £100,000 for this pilot (inclusive of evaluation costs).

Partners must:

• Reach at least 1,000 of the target group via trained support workers or the support services they provide (can be more)
• Not exclude the financially squeezed segment (the focus is more likely to be the struggling segment) – see our segmentation
• Co-design an approach with partners and measure its impact, involving the target group if feasible
• Seek outcomes related to managing credit and/or building a savings buffer (this can include taking out insurance too)
• Complete delivery and evaluation by the end of March 2020

Next steps

We are holding an engagement event on 15^th May at 12.30-3pm at Money Advice Scotland, Suite 410, Pentagon Centre, 36 Washington Street, Glasgow, G3 8AZ,to brief potential delivery partners in advance of invitations to tender, to answer any questions and discuss the pilot in more detail, seeking stakeholders’ expertise and feedback, and to provide opportunity for potential delivery partners to explore any partnership opportunities.

A light lunch will be provided. Please reserve your place and let us know of any dietary requirements by emailing david.marjoribanks@moneyadviceservice.org.uk

If you would like any further information on this project please contact david.marjoribanks@moneyadviceservice.org.uk or allison.barnes@moneyadviceservice.org.uk