?

Strategy document; 

?

Cabinet report 17 March 2009;

?

Notes on meeting held on 24 November 2009;

?

Request for Scrutiny  Work Programme Item.

(i)

in 2006 the Council and its partners worked together to develop the only multi agency Income Maximisation Strategy in England; the strategy brought together advice agencies across all sectors to deliver the best possible services in Plymouth;

(ii)

the Income Maximisation Strategy successfully co-coordinated services that dealt with over £190m of problem debt and raised £13m of previously unclaimed welfare benefits and tax credits;

(iii)

the economic downturn presented new challenges such as unemployment, falling house prices, fuel poverty, affordable credit, problem debt and house repossessions;

(iv)

in response to these issues, the Financial Inclusion Strategy 2009-2012 was developed by the Council in partnership with other organisations to improve financial inclusion;

(v)

in January 2009, a consultation document was distributed via partners across all sectors to identify work that would enable the Council and its partners to work together to co-ordinate and monitor progress;

(vi)

the key aims of the strategy were–

?

maximise the take up of welfare benefits and tax credits with an emphasis on in work benefits;

?

reduce problem debt; 

?

provide accessible and high quality financial inclusion services;

?

reduce fuel poverty;

?

maximise opportunities for delivering financial inclusion  through partnership working;

(vii)

the consultation exercise identified a change of emphasis in the strategy, which included -

?

prioritisation of take up of in work benefits and tax credits;

?

more focus on money and debt advice for people adversely affected by the economic situation;

?

maximising income and assisting people in using their money to the best advantage;

?

delivering debt prevention services as well as debt remedy services;

(viii)

to achieve the aims of the strategy the following actions were undertaken –

?

commissioning of face to face debt and money advice;

?

strengthening the provision of credit unions as an alternative to doorstep lending;

?

targeting advice to remove barriers to work eg tax credit and child care for parents;

?

raising awareness for advice agencies on fuel poverty;

?

the production of fact sheets reflecting economic climate;

?

welfare benefits and tax credit take up initiatives;

(ix)

the strategy’s action plan would be refreshed annually;

(x)

in the last 12 months, the City had experienced 75 per cent increase in mortgage and 57 per cent increase in rent possession orders;

(xi)

the third sector expected to deal with over £100m of debt in the City this year and based on national figures, there could be £48.5m in unclaimed welfare benefits and tax credits;

(xii)

compared  to the same time last year, debt enquires were up by 26 per cent and welfare benefit enquiries were up by 50 per cent.

(a)

monitoring procedures were in place to ensure that services were ‘hitting’ the right people; in order to evaluate the services provided, Routeways sought feedback from one in five people who had used their services and the Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CRB) one in ten users;

(b)

with the impending closure of the Devonport Regeneration Community Partnership, it was envisaged that access to services in the west of the City would not be adversely affected; Routeways would continue to provide services at Chapel Street;

(c)

flexibility had been built into the strategy to accommodate the changing needs of the City;

(d)

Routeways had been commissioned to work with Council staff to maximise the take up of in work benefits;

(e)

increasing the take up of council tax benefits would be more challenging, as older people were reluctant to make claims; this was a national problem and not just inherent to Plymouth;

(f)

information on council tax benefits was inlcuded in the literatur circulated with the council tax bills; a ‘tell granny’ campaign was previously run and consideration would be given to what sort of take up campagins were needed in future;

(g)

in order to reach people that had been adversely affected by the economic situation the emphasis of the strategy had  changed to focus more on money and debt advice and in work support;

(h)

a national Pension Service hotline had been set up which provides assistance in applying for pension credit over the telephone which has reduced the need for face to face advice;

(i)

facilitators could be placed within libraries to provide assistance with online applications, as it was recognised that older people preferred to receive face to face advice;

(j)

our contracted partners ensure that an outcome is achieved within 21 days of initial contact, or if this had not been achieved the reason.

(xiii)

eight targeted campaigns aimed at different vulnerable groups had been delivered;

(xiv)

one partner funding bid had been successful in securing funding of £300,000 for the separated partners project; other bids had been applied for including the flexible new deal £80,000 per annum over five year, future jobs fund and £7,000 to train ‘money friends’;

(xv)

a preferred partner credit union provider would be selected by the end of March 2010 -

?

the Council had provided funding of £20,000 for one year, to offer services to council staff and members via payroll;

?

staff would benefit from receiving support with borrowing and cheaper insurance;

?

the credit union had a membership of 1000 but there were currently 12,000 people using doorstep lenders;

(xvi)

the fuel poverty awareness sessions had been delivered to at least 25 people;

(xvii)

staff from the Council, Routeways and the Citizens’ Advice Bureau would be trained to access the funds that were availabe from the utility trust funds;

(xviii)

the Council had worked in partnership with Job Centre Plus to run an advice session with people who had been made redundant from Toshiba; as a direct result of this, 25 people had been able to go straight back into employment with the help of tax credits;

(xix)

personal debt was approximately £60,000 per person which included credit cards, loans and mortgages;

(xx)

development of the financial inclusion pages on the Council’s website including the possibility of using interactive software would be delayed due to the corporate review of the website;

(xxi)

infromation on the breakdown of schools and the take up of free school meals would be provided; this would assist in targeting those localities with the greatest need.

(k)

a trained debt adviser had been working along side housing officers and as a result of this 42 householderd had been assisted with reprossessions;

(l)

five per cent of people that had used the services provided by Routeways and the Citizens’ Advice Buraeu had learnt about them vias the debt advice pages onteh Council’s web pages;

(m)

the service provided by the Citizens’ Advice Bureau was accessible from 9am – 5pm; the feasibility of increasing accessibility of the service was being investigated.