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Government backs clamp down on rogue parking firms
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Pioneering advice project helps boost low-income household budgets
“Poverty has a huge impact on health and wellbeing, including damp housing, hunger, lack of access to healthy food, and stress and depression.” – Graham Mackenzie, Consultant in Public Health, NHS Lothian
Two Lothian projects that began with a midwife helping mums improve their nutrition have evolved into a support network ensuring low income families access thousands of pounds of unclaimed entitlements.
The projects in Leith and West Lothian have each had a welfare rights adviser working since March with a team of NHS Lothian, council and voluntary sector workers.
The welfare rights advisers are funded by the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) as part of its Tackling Money Worries programme.
In Leith, Granton Information Centre (GIC) has provided money and welfare rights advice to 89 families referred by midwives, health visitors, Dr Bell’s Family Centre, Citadel Youth Centre, nurseries and early years centres, and working with Edinburgh Community Food.
For these families the total financial gain during 2015-16 is projected to be £404,000, or an average of £4,500 per client. The maximum financial gain for one client so far has been £15,000.
This is in addition to the support GIC (pictured below) has already provided to the most vulnerable families in the North Edinburgh area, who are not included in these figures.
Citizens Advice Bureau West Lothian has been supporting families in West Lothian in a similar project, also funded by SLAB. In that project around 200 clients have gained £300,000, an average of almost £5,000 per client.
Over half of those accessing support for the first time have been in work, and were not aware of their unclaimed entitlements (e.g. tax credits, benefits) and other help available (e.g. advice about debt, access to hardship funds).
The figures have been released during Challenge Poverty Week 2015 which aims to raise awareness of poverty and to highlight the great work that community organisations are doing to help those in crisis.
Graham Mackenzie, Consultant in Public Health, NHS Lothian, said the success of the advice projects illustrated the importance of the NHS and other services working with welfare rights advisers, and could be repeated in many other parts of the UK.
“This work, which started with a single midwife focusing on ensuring families were claiming food vouchers they were entitled to, has expanded into a sophisticated package of support that we are aiming to offer to hundreds of families over the coming year.
“Poverty has a huge impact on health and wellbeing, including damp housing, hunger, lack of access to healthy food, and stress and depression.
“With hundreds of thousands of pounds secured for families, and more to come, we are taking practical steps to help families tackle the consequences of poverty.”
The Lothian projects were formed following work started with Healthy Start food and vitamin vouchers, a UK-wide scheme designed to improve nutrition for low income families. Across the UK around a quarter of eligible families miss out on these valuable vouchers, with the number of pregnant women and children under four years old in receipt of vouchers falling over recent years. In Lothian, however, after concentrated work with NHS Lothian staff and families, the number of pregnant women in receipt of vouchers increased from 294 in March 2014 to 368 in July 2015.
The work started with simple insights from a single midwife about how to make the application process more reliable, and secure vouchers for women earlier in pregnancy.
From 10 weeks of pregnancy to the child’s fourth birthday Healthy Start vouchers are worth up to £899 in total.
With 76 more women benefitting across Lothian as a result, this work has boosted family budgets by tens of thousands of pounds; this in addition to the hundreds of thousands secured through the Tackling Money Worries work. Vouchers can be spent on fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables, milk and formula feed. Vitamin vouchers are provided separately.
This work, part of the Scottish Government Early Years Collaborative, provided insights that have now been applied to much greater effect through the Lothian Tackling Money Worries projects by providing families with money and welfare rights advice.
£0.5m Emergency Food Fund allocated across Scotland
Funding aimed at tackling food poverty has been allocated to 26 Scottish projects
Deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced £518,000 of grants during a visit to Greater Maryhill Food Bank, which last week alone provided food to 131 individuals, feeding 52 different families.
Lead organisations Citizens Advice Edinburgh and Edinburgh City Mission will receive the bulk of Edinburgh’s allocation, with The Rock Trust and Bethany Christian Trust also receiving funding.
In April, the Scottish government announced £1m to support the work of food providers through the Emergency Food Fund, half of which has been allocated to the charity FareShare, which redistributes surplus food from retailers to charities supporting communities. The Emergency Food Fund (EFF) opened for applications in June, and today’s s announcement sees the remaining £518,000 distributed among 17 local authority areas.
EFF was established to support projects which respond to immediate demands for emergency food aid and help to address the underlying causes of food poverty, and grants have been allocated to projects that concentrate on preventing food crisis recurring, those that build connections between food aid providers, advice and support agencies and organisations working to promote healthy eating and reduce food waste.
The Trussell Trust charity said the number of people who used their food banks in Scotland between April last year and March this year rose to 71,428 – FIVE TIMES the number which used them during the previous financial year.
Ms Sturgeon said: “The amount of people experiencing food poverty in Scotland is simply not acceptable. Worryingly the Trussell Trust has seen a 400 per cent increase in people using food banks between April 2013 and March 2014 which includes more than 22,000 children using these services.
“Welfare reform, benefit delays, benefit sanctions and falling incomes are all having a detrimental impact on the people of Scotland.
“Today I visited Greater Maryhill Food Bank, which is one of 35 food aid providers operating in Glasgow. Working in partnership with other local agencies, our Emergency Food Fund will help food aid organisations, such as this one, combat food poverty.
“Most people recognise that the increase in food bank use is directly linked to welfare reform and benefit cuts, and this fund is another example of what we are doing to mitigate the harmful effects of Westminster’s welfare cuts. However, the impact is still being felt by the most vulnerable in our society.
“One million people in Scotland are now living in relative poverty after housing costs, including more than 200,000 children.
“What is even more worrying is that 70 per cent of the welfare cuts are still to come – Scotland will see its welfare budget reduced by over £6 billion by 2015/16. And some estimates suggest that up to 100,000 more children could be living in poverty by 2020 if we continue with Westminster policies.
“It is vital that we gain the full powers of independence in order to build a better Scotland – one that protects people from poverty and helps them fulfill their potential in work and life.”
Bid to cut presence of payday lenders in communities
The face of Scotland’s high streets changed markedly during the recent recession – as household names like Woolworth’s, Jessop’s and HMV disappeared units often lay empty for months. Some were replaced by pound shops or charity shops but the other notable feature was the growing presence of the payday lenders on our shopping streets – and the Scottish Government is now making moves to limit their numbers.
Tighter regulations and stricter planning procedures will help limit the numbers of new payday lenders on Scotland’s high streets, Local Government Minister Derek Mackay announced on Friday.
The measures which are designed to minimise the presence of payday lenders in communities are set out in a new 12 point Scottish Government action plan.
The plan is a result of Scotland’s first Payday Lending Summit earlier this year and based on feedback from local authorities, advice services, welfare organisations and credit unions who attended.
The preventative measures also include the introduction of a new Financial Health Service which will serve as a one-stop-shop for money advice services, and there is an emphasis on promoting credit unions.
Launching the plan on a visit to the Glasgow Central Citizens Advice Bureau, Mr Mackay said:
“This action plan reinforces our commitment to addressing the problems associated with payday lending and sets out a number of actions that we will undertake across a range of policy areas.
“Payday loan companies are not only blighting our high streets but they are exposing people to financial credit they just cannot afford.
“Bringing the industry together at the Payday Lending Summit was a real opportunity to share ideas and discuss ways of reducing the problem of payday lenders in town centres.
“I won’t pretend that this action plan will solve the problem overnight but it’s a step in the right direction. Through legislation we will remove some of the exemptions from planning control on premises that sell pay day loans. This will allow planning authorities to implement policies addressing future clustering and over-provision of such activities. The planning proposals also include similar changes regarding controls on betting shops.
“We’re making conditions tougher for payday lenders by excluding them from small business bonus schemes and working with the Financial Conduct Authority to tighten up regulations.”
Mr Mackay continued: “We’re taking steps to tackle the issue of problem debt through legislation such as the Bankruptcy and Debt Advice (Scotland) Act, but raising awareness of alternative ways of accessing credit is key. By showing people payday lenders are not the only option we can lessen the demand for the service.
“Our new Financial Health Service website will bring together different strands and sources of information and advice, so that anybody with a concern or an issue to do with debt or borrowing can find, in one place, the help and assistance that they need.
“With our limited powers we are doing what we can, but with independence we could do so much more to act quickly to offer protection to consumers.
“Whilst we welcome the tougher FCA regulatory regime and the consultation on a cap, the UK Government have been slow to act. We have been calling for a cap on the cost of pay day loans since 2012. In an independent Scotland we can act more quickly to protect Scottish consumers, and introduce policies and measures that reflect the needs of people living in Scotland.
“Tackling the increasing numbers of payday lending businesses will not only stop more people being driven into poverty, but will help give our town centres a sense of identity and be more attractive places for people to live, work and visit.”
There are an estimated 180 to 200 payday lenders on Scotland’s high streets.
Case Study
Stewart*, 46, owed £18,000 in unsecured debts, and tried various fee-charging debt management companies before contacting StepChange Debt Charity.
Stewart said: “Although I was working full-time, I found myself relying on credit cards to pay for things like bills and food shopping.
“When my cards were maxed out, I was refused more credit by my bank and offered no help.
“I felt like I had nowhere else to go, which is when I turned to payday loans and I ended up relying on them to get me through.”
Stewart was able to take out three payday loans despite already having significant debts.
He also noticed a dramatic rise in nuisance calls, texts and emails offering further loans and debt management services.
Owing £18,000 in unsecured debts, Stewart tried various fee-charging debt management companies – who he says charged administrative fees and kept important information hidden – before contacting StepChange Debt Charity.
He is now repaying his debts through a Debt Management Plan, and says he would never be tempted to take out another loan following his bad experiences.
Stewart continued: “I can remember waking up in the mornings and thinking this is going to be a struggle. I’m really happy now, and going back to that is not something I could even think about.”
* Case study name changed to protect identity.
Susan McPhee, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Citizens Advice Scotland gave a presentation on the problems CAB clients have at the summit in April. She said:
“There has been a proliferation of payday loan shops throughout our communities so we welcome moves to restrict them though the planning process. Accessing loans through a payday lender seems easy when so many shops are on our high streets and lenders bombard us with adverts for credit. But paying back such loans is not always easy and it is often the poor practices of payday lenders that cause problems to occur for people who can easily get into difficulty making their repayments.
“Citizens Advice Bureaux in Scotland are dealing with over 100 cases involving payday loans every week and our research shows that a fifth of people access such loans through high street shops.
“It is often poor practices by payday lenders that cause problems which is why CAS has campaigned for several years now to tackle to the unfair practices of payday lenders and make sure the people of Scotland know that their local CAB can give them advice and help if they do get into difficulty.”
Anyone who needs debt advice can get free, confidential help from their local CAB or from our helpline on 0808 800 9060.
Sharon Bell of StepChange also presented at the Payday Lending Summit. She said:
“This Scottish Government action plan is welcome – anything that better protects consumers from these loans and their potentially damaging repercussions is good news.
“We see too many people falling back on such high cost credit in order to either cope with existing debt problems, or just to make ends meet, often to damaging effect. Taking on this type of borrowing is not a solution to financial difficulty, and instead these people need better protection from the pressures of debt.
“StepChange is calling on policymakers to consider the idea of ‘breathing space’ – a break from interest, charges and enforcement, where debts can be repaid over an agreed period – so debtors in difficulty don’t have to keep borrowing to service borrowing.
“We also need a better short term credit market, where banks, credit unions and employers play a role in providing more responsible sources of loans and we hope the UK Government will do more to promote such schemes.”
StepChange Debt Charity Scotland offers free and impartial debt advice and solutions through its freephone helpline (0800 138 1111) and online (www.stepchange.org).
Local free, independent debt advice is available at Granton Information Centre on West Granton Road, telephone 551 2459 or 552 0458.
Money advice for free in West Pilton
Looking for free independent money advice? Then West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre is the place to be on Friday 12 April, when you can meet advisors from the Money Advice Service between 10am – 2pm.
This is an appointment-only service, so to book yours call 0131 551 3194 now!
Free money …
… advice at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre tomorrow!
Lottery cash extends financial inclusion project
Port of Leith Housing Association (PoLHA) is one of five Edinburgh housing associations to benefit from Big Lottery Funding to continue the Financial Inclusion Project (FIP) until 2017.
FIP is a partnership project between Port of Leith, Castle Rock Edinvar, Dunedin Canmore, Hillcrest and Margaret Blackwood housing associations and the Edinburgh Citizens’ Advice Bureau. The programme, which enables the CAB to second money advice staff to the housing associations to provide financial and debt management advice, was established in January 2007.
Fiona Neilson runs the programme at PoLHA. Last year she helped over 130 tenants bringing them almost £75,000 of additional income. She said: “It is fantastic that funding has been secured to continue with this programme which has already helped hundreds of Edinburgh families manage their finances and bring a positive change in their lives. The project will now be funded until it celebrates its milestone tenth birthday – this shows what a success it has been and we are confident will continue to be.”
PoLHA, which has over 3000 tenants in North Edinburgh, also works with energy charity Changeworks to help tenants manage energy costs and efficiency, as well as a number of other support services.
Keith Anderson, Chief Executive at PoLHA, said: “This programme has been a major success and I am delighted this can now continue for a further four years. The changes effective money management can bring to families will help to ease pressure and worry and build confidence and skills.”
