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Valuing tenancies … by improving financial confidence. HSA Annual Conference 2014, Danny Friedman, Cobweb Consulting and Ecorys Associate. An outline of the IFC programme ……. Big Lottery Fund £ 31.7m strategic investment Targeting social housing tenants – first time,
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Valuing tenancies… by improving financial confidence HSA Annual Conference 2014, Danny Friedman, Cobweb Consulting and Ecorys Associate
An outline of the IFC programme …… • Big Lottery Fund £31.7m strategic investment • Targeting social housing tenants – • first time, • young tenants, • in and out of work • Testing different approaches to engaging social housing residents in financial inclusion activities • Demonstrating and disseminating impact of activities to social housing landlords and financial sector organisations • 37 projects delivering range of activities for 3 to 5 years • Led by social landlords and voluntary sector organisations, with buy in from local authorities
Improving Financial Confidence outcomes • Social housing residents have greater access to appropriate and affordable financial services and products • Social housing residents have increased skills and confidence to use financial products and services and will continue to apply these skills and this confidence • Social housing providers engage with most in need residents to enable them to understand the relevance of financial inclusion and capability services • Social housing and financial sector organisations have increased awareness of the impact of a range of approaches to engaging social housing residents in financial inclusion activities.
Changing attitudes and behaviours • Building resilience in at early stages / critical points of tenancies • Promoting preventative strategies – but also becoming remedial • Changing attitudes and behaviours of tenants in both the immediate and longer terms • Self-evaluation and assessment of behaviour / attitude change AND empirical testing of reality v. belief
Demonstrating impact of programme (1) Baseline indicators and measuring change • Measurable baseline indicators for beneficiaries and landlords • Then over time assess costs and savings for: • Landlords • Tenants • Two cuts of tenant data captured, and landlord initial baseline • Use clusters and client groupings to show ‘what works’ • Use counterfactuals to compare high level results • Still under discussion, but data from non-participants in five projects currently being collected • Based on administrative data rather than self-reported data
Demonstrating impact of programme (2) Measuring attitudinal / behavioural change MyFC tool • Based on the JRF Equip toolkit • Takes five minutes (if that) • Simple set of 12 statements (e.g.) ‘I feel confident in managing my money’; each scored on a seven point scale • Tool used as beneficiary enters programme • Retaken blind after appropriate period (6 months, 1 year) • Overall financial confidence score calculated (minus 1 to plus 1) • Change measured
Baseline indicators for beneficiaries – Demographics 7,126 beneficiaries from 33 projects 58% women, 42% men (67% women in in/out work group) Average age 32 (42 for in/out work, 20 for young people) 71% white British (67% for new tenants) Low educational attainment – 40% with no qualifications (or ‘didn’t know’ Unemployment 58% Full or p/t employment 19% 26% had disability (12% among young tenants), 11% can’t work because of disability 20% had support worker (31% among young tenants)
53% in ‘financial difficulties’ currently (73% for in/out work) 10% had credit card debt (17% in/out work); 14% overdrawn 28% in rent arrears; 50% for those in/out of work 10% have NOSP; 8% had been evicted from a previous tenancy Other debt: Water (22%) Council Tax (21%) Fuel (13%) All higher among in/out work group Baseline indicators for beneficiaries – Financial difficulty
83% receiving benefits / tax credits (92% in / out work) Most common are JSA (66%) and HB (59%) 83% have bank account (national average 95%); 7% had contents insurance 6% credit union members (10% in/out work group) 39% have outstanding loans inc. from banks (13% from payday lenders, pawnbrokers, home credit agencies) 1% from unlicensed lenders / loan sharks 16% had (no interest) loans from family, friends 20% had social fund loans Baseline indicators for beneficiaries – Money matters
Baseline indicators for landlords Average rent arrears 3.8%; 6.3% tenants in arrears of eight weeks or over Average arrears per tenant in arrears £268 Average collection rate 98.7% (compared to 99.3% benchmark) Average time short term voids vacant 7.5 weeks 12% tenancies had NOSPs / NSPs taken out over last year 2% tenancies had had PO proceedings taken over last year Arrears management, PO and eviction proceedings took an average of 6.1% staff time (all staff) 91% landlords carrying out additional benefits, debt management and related advice / training outside IFC 74% landlords providing other FI activities, products or services (e.g. affordable loans, contents insurance, work with credit unions
Thank you Danny Friedman, Cobweb Consulting danny@cobwebconsulting.com www.cobwebconsulting.com