Southern Housing Group leads on Financial Inclusion Service for Residents
27 March 2008
From 1 April Southern Housing Group will provide a permanent Financial Inclusion Service for its residents based in London, south-east and southern England. It is a first for the housing association and it is leading by design to have a dedicated in-house team of Financial Inclusion Officers (FIOs) on hand to help residents overcome their rental arrears, combat debt and financial exclusion.
Pictured back left to right: Donal O'Sullivan, Financial Inclusion Officer, Southern Housing Group; Bob Paterson, Community Finance Solutions (University of Salford); front left to right: Zoe Peppiatt, Financial Inclusion Officer, Southern Housing Group; Caroline Sherrard, Financial Inclusion Officer, Southern Housing Group and Gillian Draper, Project Manager (Financial Inclusion) Southern Housing Foundation. (2.08)
The adoption of the service is a result of a successful, two year pilot scheme operated by Southern Housing Foundation (the community regeneration arm of Southern Housing Group). The pilot scheme created three jobs and according to an independent evaluation the scheme was highly valued. Southern Housing Foundation engaged Community Finance Solutions (CFS), the financial inclusion research and development unit of the University of Salford, to carry out a three month external evaluation of the pilot scheme (between October 2006/January 2007) to ascertain its effectiveness and value for money. The research was conducted by Dr Karl Dayson, Bob Marchant and Bob Paterson of the University of Salford's CFS unit. Their report entitled "Re-evaluating Southern Housing Group's Financial Inclusion Service: Black Holes and Bin Bags," and the recommendations therein found that the Financial Inclusion Service was *cost positive. Taking into account these recommendations together with the fact that this was a service clearly valued by residents enabling them to retain their homes in extremely difficult circumstances the pilot is being adopted as a mainstream service for Southern Housing Group residents.
Anabel Palmer, Southern Housing Foundation Director, says that she is delighted that Southern Housing Group will continue to provide residents with essential support to enable them to sustain their tenancies reducing the inevitable negative impact of financial worries.
"Our Financial Inclusion Service has brought many of our residents much needed peace of mind and has helped us to turn around their financial situation. Our findings corroborated by CFS have demonstrated that an effective financial-inclusion strategy is a win-win solution for our residents, Southern Housing Group and the wider community. Southern Housing Group's Financial Inclusion Service is a best-practice blue print for all Registered Social Landlords to follow," said Anabel.
Tom Dacey, Southern Housing Group's Chief Executive said, "Southern Housing Group's Financial Inclusion Service brings significant benefit to the organisation. The findings of the research and the clear benefit to residents meant the Board was keen to adopt financial-inclusion as a mainstream activity within the Group. We are now looking to establish and strengthen the service further."
Bob Paterson, CFC says: "It is obvious to us from the work with both the Housing Corporation and the National Housing Federation that the work of Southern Housing Group is at the cutting-edge of financial-inclusion interventions when viewed against those of other social landlords."
Southern Housing Group's Financial Inclusion Service takes a non-compulsory (for residents) triage approach to supporting residents in rent arrears. The steps are: a tenant fails to pay their rent on time and is in arrears it is usually an indication that they have other debt-repayment issues. Southern Housing Group's Service Centre deals with the majority of their tenants arrears cases. Where additional support requirements or vulnerabilities are identified the Service Centre refers the tenant to Southern Housing Group's FIOs. An FIO supports the resident and offers them free advice, personal visits and mentoring support to help solve the problem; tailoring the service to the resident's needs. If the tenant is seeking debt advice the FIO refers them to the Citizens Advice Bureau or alternative local-advice agencies, often accompanying residents if requested.
Typical support that FIOs provide are:
help with Financial Statements;
writing letters to creditors;
assistance with benefit claims;
referrals to, and attendance with, specialist agencies;
confirming arrangements.
"Southern Housing Group's Financial Inclusion Service is not only compliant with current Government policy that requires a housing association to do all it can to ensure that eviction is a last resort but also goes beyond that hopefully to give residents the support and confidence and the skills to sustain their tenancy in the future," said Anabel.
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*Cost positive: the benefits of running the scheme outweigh the cost to provide the service. The non-tangible benefits are the minimisation of the impact of financial exclusion. The non-tangible benefits are the minimisation of the impact of financial exclusion.
Notes for Editors
Financial exclusion is defined as a lack of access to most or all of the range of financial services enjoyed by the majority of the adult population. In an age where access to financial services is an essential part of participation in mainstream society an inability to use these services imposes severe burdens on individuals and households and is normally associated with social exclusion.
In 2006 CFS published research entitled: "Social Housing Landlords Reaping the Benefit" http://www.communityfinance.salford.ac.uk/fi_publications.php and it suggested that every eviction costs a Registered Social Landlord £6,000.
Research carried out for Glasgow Housing Association in 2005 suggests that every tenancy that breaks down costs the organisation over £1,300 not accounting for staff time.
Some of the key findings of CFS research into Southern Housing Group financial inclusion service were:
The Financial Inclusion Service was proving value-for-money as it was saving more money than it was costing (using a bespoke model to assess the cost-benefit analysis);
The relationship between the FIO was good as often the tenant felt as they were speaking with a friend;
The advice given by the FIO was perceived as personal to them by most of the tenants interviewed.
Click here for a copy of the Summary Evaluation Report.
Some (unattributable) residents' perspectives of Southern Housing Group's Financial Inclusion Service:
"I think a lot more of Southern Housing Group now since they tried to help me. I know from friends that other Housing Associations don't offer this service."
"The Financial Inclusion Service has changed my view of my landlord. Before I thought of it as someone who just wants your money. Using the Financial Inclusion service has made me realise they (Southern Housing Group) go a bit deeper than just dealing with my housing problems."
"The Financial Inclusion Service gave me peace of mind. This is absolute fact. The support was fantastic. The FIO is totally non-judgemental."
At yesterday's National Housing Federation Financial Conference held at the University of Warwick the CFS launched: Financial Inclusion in Social Housing: Policy and Practice Guide. In addition the National Housing Federation recently launched a toolkit entitled: A guide to Financial Capability for Social Housing Tenants http://www.housing.org.uk/default.aspx?tabId=289
The Financial Inclusion Housing Partnership Group held an event on Tuesday (25 March) debating whether Housing Associations are doing enough to help tenants and themselves with financial inclusions and have recently launched a guide into financial inclusion http://www.housing.org.uk/default.aspx?tabid=414&mid=833&ctl=Details&ArticleID=927
Southern Housing Foundation
Southern Housing Foundation is the community-regeneration arm of the Southern Housing Group formed in 1998 to deliver the Group's social investment work. In partnership with various organisations the Foundation funds a range of community initiatives to help create sustainable neighbourhoods where people want to live. Southern Housing Foundation is a Company Limited by Guarantee and registered in England; Company no 03587034: and is a registered charity no.1074737.
Southern Housing Group
Southern Housing Group is one of southern England’s largest housing associations. Founded over 100 years ago, it owns and manages 24,000 homes for more than 66,000 residents, employing more than 800 people and works with 80 local authorities.
Southern Housing Group's activities centre on four-key areas: the development of quality-affordable housing, housing and neighbourhood management, a range of rent and home ownership and social investment.
The Group believes that building communities is as important as building homes. As well as developing and managing quality, affordable housing for rent and ownership, it invests considerable resources to provide an environment where people really want to live.
Southern Housing Group Limited is a Charitable Industrial and Provident Society No. 27412R.
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