Financial Inclusion Group Partners
Middlesbrough Partnership's Financial Inclusion Working Group brings together partners from the private, public, community and voluntary sectors to co-ordinate a partnership response to promoting and improving financial inclusion across Middlesbrough.
Details of partners represented on the group are provided below.
NHS Middlesbrough’s Public Health department is represented on the FI Group. The overall aim of the NHS Public Health department is to improve the lives, health and wellbeing of the local community.
There are 2 aspects to Public Health:
1. Deals with prevention rather than treatment aspects of health
2. Deals with health issues of the local population rather than on an individual basis.
Public Health intervention aims to prevent rather than treat a disease. It does this by monitoring cases and promoting healthy behaviours.
They are represented on the FIG because we recognise the stress that can be caused by being in financial difficulty and the physical and mental health problems that can result from this stress. We want the residents of Middlesbrough to receive appropriate financial advice and support wherever possible to ensure they live healthy and happy lives.
Contact details : NHS Middlesbrough
Riverside House, 18 High Force Road, Riverside Park, Middlesbrough, TS2 1RH
Telephone: 01642 352370 Fax: 01642 352380 Email: http://mynhsmiddlesbrough@nhs.net
Five Lamps Organisation – Paul Burton
The Five Lamps Organisation provides a holistic approach to addressing financial exclusion by ensuring that our Financial Inclusion division is embedded within our other three business divisions of Youth Services; Employability (Engagement, Employability and Employer Responsive) and Enterprise. We issue personal loans to low income individuals who are unable to access mainstream financial services and are consequently reliant on unaffordable credit and predatory lenders. We currently have contracts to deliver Financial Inclusion Growth Fund through the Tees Valley, County Durham, Scarborough and Newcastle- upon- Tyne. We have a structured delivery model that targets the most disadvantaged communities with discreet advertising and progresses via freephone contact, credit checking, a comprehensive financial review, a face-to-face meeting and approval within 7 days. Alongside the loan product, we also provide debt advice and support including referrals in house to our existing programmes or externally as appropriate.
Contact Details:
Postal Address: Five Lamps Organisation, Eldon Street, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 7DJ Telephone: (01642) 608316 Website: www.fivelamps.org.uk
Christians Against Poverty – Anne Young
Christians Against Poverty (CAP) is an award winning debt counselling charity with 130 centres across the UK. Middlesbrough Community Church have a heart for serving the people of Middlesbrough and we felt that partnering with CAP to offer free debt counselling would provide a relevant service for the community.
Through our unique combination of budgeting advice, creditor liaison, provision of a CAP Account and personal support, we empower people to work themselves out of debt and transform their finances. We will help anyone regardless of beliefs or any other factor and clients are supported until they are debt free.
We are happy to work alongside partners to deliver access to debt and money advice.
Contact Details:
Postal Address: Christians Against Poverty, St Aidans Centre, Clifton Street, Middlesbrough TS5 4BZ
Telephone: 01642 241255 Email: anneyoung@capuk.org Website: http://www.capuk.org
Barclays – Helen Bloor
Barclays is a global financial institution providing financial products and services. We also have a large Corporate Responsibility programme including many initiatives e.g. in support of financial inclusion and regional, national and global community programmes.
Contact Details:
Helen Bloor, Branch Manager, 28 Albert & Station Rd Middlesbrough, TS1 1QD
Mobile: 07967092363 Tel: 01642 396142
Websites: www.barclays.co.uk www.barclays.com/community
Endeavour Housing Association – Sara Herrington
Endeavour Housing Association is a Registered Social Landlord that provides affordable accommodation in North Yorkshire, Tees Valley and South Tyneside.
Financial Inclusion is supported by attendance at various Financial Inclusion Forums and partnership meetings to promote services and activities for residents affected by Financial Inclusion.
Endeavour:
· signposts and encourage residents to affordable credit such as Credit Unions
· promotes affordable contents insurance
· has a formal referrals process in place for tenants/residents affected by debt
· provides furnished tenancies
· ensures staff are trained in financial inclusion/debt awareness
· have introduced an Enterprise Fund to support our tenants back into employment/education
· encourages tenants to use basic bank accounts
In addition to this, Endeavour is in the process of introducing a new service to tenants for them to receive a full welfare benefit check to ensure their income and benefits are maximised.
Contact Details:
Postal Address: Endeavour Housing Association, St Marks Court, Thornaby, Stockton on Tees, TS17 6QN
Telephone: (01642) 796200 Website: www.endeavourha.co.uk
Middlesbrough Welfare Rights Unit – Sarah Batty
The Middlesbrough Welfare Rights Unit provides advice on welfare benefits and tax credits with the aim of ensuring that Middlesbrough residents receive their full entitlement. The service provides:
· A daily telephone advice line
· Daily outreach surgeries in GP Practices and Community Centres
· Home visiting for the housebound
· Tribunal Representation
· A specialist Asian Advice service and a specialist service at James Cook Hospital
· Training on Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits for a wide range of professionals and services
· Newsletter with regular updates
· Welfare Benefit Take Up Initiatives
Contact Details:
Postal Address: Middlesbrough Welfare Rights Unit, Department of Social Care
PO Box 234, Civic Centre, Middlesbrough. TS1 2XH
Tel: 01642 729242 Fax: 01642 729986 Email: welfarerights@middlesbrough.gov.uk
DWP Financial Inclusion Champions – Ross Hume, Linda Evans, Lisa Fearn
The Financial Inclusion Champions initiative is part of the “now let’s talk money” campaign. It is designed to support the Government’s financial inclusion objectives, through the development and implementation of local level action plans, which will both support and inform other areas of the Government’s financial inclusion policy. The Champions will work on a sub regional and national basis, to build and coordinate local, regional, and sector wide partnerships in order to stimulate the demand for, and in some cases increase the supply of, basic financial services for financially excluded people.
They work to address financial exclusion under the following headings:
· Affordable credit
o Increase awareness of 3rd sector lenders
o Establish proposals for new 3rd sector lenders
· Banking
o Increase access to and take up of transactional bank accounts
· Face to face money advice and guidance
o Increase awareness of free, impartial debt advice
· Home contents insurance (HCI).
o Increase proportion of housing authorities offering insurance schemes
· Savings
o Encourage habitual savings
o Support the save Xmas campaign
The team consists of one strategic champion, and two supporting champions. Each team is hosted by a local organisation, these being Fabrick Housing Group in the Durham and Tees Valley Area and South Tyneside Council for Northumbria and Tyne & Wear. In Durham and Tees Valley we are:
Contact details:
Ross Hume
Strategic Financial Inclusion Champion
ross.hume@fabrickgroup.co.uk
01642 257815
07973 768583
Linda Evans
Financial Inclusion Champion
linda.evans@fabrickgroup.co.uk
01642 257814
07824 451094
Lisa Fearn
Financial Inclusion Champion
lisa.fearn@fabrickgroup.co.uk
01642 773650
07825 928472
Achievement Service - Children, Families and Learning - Christina Jones
My role is 14-19 Co-ordinator within the Achievement Service, a section of the Children Families and Learning Department at Middlesbrough Council. The Achievement Team work with schools and other partners to improve educational achievement and support curriculum development to deliver the five outcomes of Every Child Matters. My role within the 14-19 Team includes a focus on how well young people are supported to achieve economic well-being, including financial capability. I support schools to deliver financial capability as part of their Personal Social Health and Economic Education (PSHEE) programme and broader curriculum.
Contact Details:
Achievement Service, Children, Families and Learning Department, Middlesbrough Council, PO Box 69,Vancouver House, Gurney Street, Middlesbrough
Phone: 01642 728405 Email: christina_jones@middlesbrough.gov.uk
Cluster Groups – Brian Robinson
Brian is a resident of Middlesbrough and in this capacity represents the Middlesbrough Partnership Cluster Groups.
Contact Details:
Postal Address: C/O Louise Peel, Civic Centre, Town HAll, Middlesbrough, TS1 2QQ
Tel: 01642 729163 Email: brianrobinson3@btinternet.com
Citizens Advice Bureau – John Daniels
Middlesbrough Citizens Advice Bureau is a registered charity. It provides free, confidential advice on a wide range of subjects. It has the CLS Specialist Quality Mark for its work in welfare benefits, housing and debt. It deals with 24,000 enquiries per annum, of which 35% are debt related, and 30% benefits related.
Middlesbrough CAB supports financial inclusion through:
· The provision of debt advice, including a team of 8 debt caseworkers providing specialist advice.
· The provision of welfare benefits advice.
· The provision of money guidance (information about budgeting and financial products).
Contact Details:
Postal Address: 3 Bolckow Street, Middlesbrough, TS1 1TH
Advice Centre for personal callers: 9 Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough.
Opening hours: 10 – 3 Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri
10 – 1 Wed
Telephone Advice Line: 0844 499 4110
Available: 10 – 4 Mon, Thursday
10 – 1 Wed
1 – 4 Tues, Friday
Middlesbrough Council’s Money Advice Service (Trading Standards) – Jim McCluskey
Middlesbrough Council offers a money advice service to assist residents with multiple debt problems. The service provides practical help and advice in dealing with creditors and the courts and encourages clients to take the next steps to alleviate financial difficulties and worries. Unlike most commercial providers in this sector the service is completely free to Middlesbrough residents.
A number of outreach surgeries are provided throughout the town and a home appointment can be arranged if necessary. The service works in partnership with groups to provide assistance to targeted groups and an evening surgery is provided, recognising that many people with debt problems may be working long hours or overtime to try and bridge the gap between income and outgoings.
Contact Details:
The service is operated within Trading Standards at Vancouver House, Gurney St, Middlesbrough. TS1 1QP
Tel 01642 728448 Email : money_advice@middlesbrough.gov.uk
Website : http://www.middlesbrough.gov.uk
Job Centre Plus – Yvonne Bradbury, Local Partnership Manager
Jobcentre Plus is a government agency supporting people of working age from welfare into work and helping employers to fill their vacancies. Our purpose is to provide work for those who can and support for those who cannot. We support our customers by providing advice on benefits available, the conditions for receiving benefits and paying benefits accurately and on time. We also make payments or loans from the social fund where customers need additional financial support.
Contact details:
Postal address: Jobcentre Plus, Level 4 Daryl House, Bridge Road, Stockton TS18 3BW
Telephone: 01642 413724 Email: yvonne.bradbury@jobcentreplus.gsi.gov.uk
Website: http://www.directgov.co.uk
Housing & Council Tax Benefit Service – Martin Barker, Benefit Manager - Client Unit
The housing and council tax benefit service plays a vital role in respect of Financial Inclusion. By ensuring claims for rent are paid quickly, this helps customers know exactly what, if any, shortfall they would have to pay to meet their full rental liability, therefore preventing arrears at the outset of a tenancy. In addition, as the majority of benefit is now paid direct to the customer (as opposed to the landlord which was previously the case), the benefit service plays an active role in trying to ensure customers have access to basic bank accounts and offer assistance in opening accounts should the need arise. For council tax purposes, close liaison is undertaken with the revenue services department on a daily basis to prevent unnecessary recovery action being taken on customers accounts.
The benefit service also has a dedicated benefit take up officer who has been in post since March 2009. The post was identified as being critical with the amount of benefit which was unclaimed by residents of Middlesbrough and also the economic downturn. Through a series of targeted exercises, a significant number of people now receive benefit. A number of joint exercises with a variety of organisations are planned for the coming financial year with specific aim being given to customers who are working and possibly missing out on help with their rent or council tax.
Contact Details:
Postal address: Martin Barker, Benefit Manager - Client Unit, PO Box 98, 50 Corporation Road, Middlesbrough, TS1 2YQ
Telephone: 01642 726252 E-mail: Martin_Barker@middlesbrough.gov.uk Website www.middlesbrough.gov.uk
Just 4 Youth – Nathan James, Youth Development Worker
Just 4 Youth is a social enterprise company; offering a unique way of working with young people, providing young person-led delivery.
They are currently running a piece of work on Youth Employment and Debt Advisors. This involves training young people to be able to give information, advice and guidance around employment, debt awareness and money management.
Contact Details: Nathan James, Youth Development Coordinator for Just 4 Youth - Melbourne House, Newport Road, Middlesbrough TS1 5QH
Telephone: 01642 757867 Email: nathan.james@wmnt.co.uk Website: http://www.just4youth.com
The North East Illegal Money Lending Team
The North East Illegal Money Lending Team covers the twelve Local Authorities within the Government Office North East Boundary from the Tweed to the Tees. Based in the South of the region their objectives are:
To have an impact on illegal money lending, seeing more prosecutions for illegal money lending and eventually reducing its incidence across the North East
To increase the awareness of illegal money lending amongst partner agencies and third sector providers of affordable credit
To create a climate where victims can come forward, confident that prosecutions will be undertaken and convictions obtained without fear of reprisals
To change the perception amongst those lending that illegal money lending is rarely prosecuted
To develop formal relationships and processes for referring victims/enquiries to local debt advisors or sources of legal affordable credit and to record those referrals
To develop an understanding of the victims needs in the medium to long term and the interventions required for a sustained move away from illegal money lending
They have a highly motivated team comprising of 4 enforcement officers, a seconded Police Officer from Durham constabulary and two victim support Financial Inclusion officers.
The Team ask that partners provide intelligence on victims / loan shark activity so that they can tackle their heinous crimes, provide practical assistance to victims and remove or at least reduce the blight illegal money lenders cause to some of the most financially excluded communities.
Contact Details: Telephone: 0300 555 2222 Website: direct.gov.uk/stoploansharks
By text / SMS: Text loan shark and message to 60003
Email: stoploansharks@redcar-cleveland.gov.uk
Fabrick Housing – Stephen Bray, Head of Social Investment
Fabrick Housing Group is the strategic partnership between Erimus Housing and Tees Valley Housing. Together Fabrick provide just under a quarter of the town’s housing stock.
Their focus is to help build sustainable communities; places where people choose and feel proud to live. To achieve this they are increasingly working in ways that extend beyond the bricks and mortar of their core housing business.
Many of Fabrick’s residents get by on lower than average incomes. Too often those with the least money to spare end up paying more for the kind of services other people take for granted. Statistics suggest that tenants in social housing are disproportionately affected by financial exclusion (for example, not having a bank account, paying higher tariffs for fuel, taking out high interest loans). This is why Fabrick want to work together with other agencies to help their residents make their money go further by accessing the best and most appropriate financial products.
Contact details: Stephen Bray, Head of Social Investment, Fabrick Housing, 4th Floor Centre North East, 73-75 Albert Road, Middlesbrough TS1 2RU.
Email: stephen.bray@fabrickgroup.co.uk Telephone: 01642 773624