The Longleigh Foundation, the charitable arm of Stonewater Housing, has commissioned Clean Slate to deliver services since 2018. Since 2020, support provided to Stonewater tenants has focused on early interventions with residents who are slipping into arrears and at risk of financial crises that could ultimately lead to eviction.
Housing staff refer up to 1,000 tenants to our Quids in! money guidance service each year. We understand how, by the time tenants miss rent payments, people are likely to be behind with bills and to have run up debts. We aim to engage them with their finances, support their wellbeing and, when they’re ready, encourage those who can work to take support into employment.
Housing staff refer up to 1,000 tenants to our Quids in! money guidance service each year. We understand how, by the time tenants miss rent payments, people are likely to be behind with bills and to have run up debts. We aim to engage them with their finances, support their wellbeing and, when they’re ready, encourage those who can work to take support into employment.
Winning Hearts and Minds
Our core service reflects our money guidance methodology, (See services for more information), and Money Health-Check starts the process. By asking a series of questions around their financial wellbeing and resilience, tenants feel listened to. The personalised action plan our system generates makes them feel heard. Our money coaches’ active listening, and often their lived experience, quickly establishes a rapport and mutual respect. Trusting the process, participants are open-minded to taking next steps, working through benefits checks, income/ expenditure reviews, and an exploration of options to reduce spending, increase income, maximise savings and manage debt.
Quids in! Money Guidance operates outside specialist financial advice. We focus on engagement and promoting self-help, wrapping support around crisis interventions. For Stonewater tenants, we established a partnership with Community Money Advice (CMA) who are licensed by the FCA to provide debt advice. Together, we provide a supported pathway for warm referrals of individuals in debt crisis. We truncate the time it takes for someone in arrears to access this advice from what is often 12-18 months to just a number of weeks. It remains a huge hurdle but we are working with CMA to continuously improve accessibility.
Key outcomes:
Quids in! Money Guidance operates outside specialist financial advice. We focus on engagement and promoting self-help, wrapping support around crisis interventions. For Stonewater tenants, we established a partnership with Community Money Advice (CMA) who are licensed by the FCA to provide debt advice. Together, we provide a supported pathway for warm referrals of individuals in debt crisis. We truncate the time it takes for someone in arrears to access this advice from what is often 12-18 months to just a number of weeks. It remains a huge hurdle but we are working with CMA to continuously improve accessibility.
Key outcomes:
Confident and Future-Proof
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Although Stonewater Housing remains our operational partner, there is also practical support available to tenants from the Longleigh Foundation in the form of individual crisis grants. However, our strategic relationship with the Longleigh Foundation ensures we measure outcomes that go beyond financial outcomes. Mental wellbeing and physical health are ultimately the purpose of enabling people to deepen their financial and housing security. We have relationships with specialist agencies who have also been commissioned by Longleigh to provide health-based support.
Employment as a form of financial independence and resilience is a founding principle for Clean Slate and its money guidance programme (Quids in!). We were pleased, then, to form links with Stonewater’s employment support services, helping tenants clear the financial blockers to thinking about longer-term solutions to hardship like finding work. |
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Sound Advice
Quids in! Money Guidance has worked with over fifty housing providers since its launch in 2008. We continue to provide accessible materials to tenants across the UK, (see our range of Quids in! guides here). However, Quids in! money coaches also provide one-to-one money guidance support to tenants of L&Q housing in London as a specialist provider to its Pound Advice programme.
