Pay Ahead, Stay Ahead
Frontline Staff guidelines for referring onto the programme
1.
What is Pay Ahead, Stay Ahead? .................................................................................................... 1
2.
Who are these guidelines for? ........................................................................................................ 1
3.
What can the programme offer? .................................................................................................... 2
4.
What we’d like frontline staff to do ................................................................................................ 3
5.
Who can we support? ..................................................................................................................... 3
6.
What the programme can’t provide ............................................................................................... 4
7.
How to refer a young person onto the programme ....................................................................... 5
I.
What will happen after registration? .............................................................................................. 6
II.
If the young person doesn’t want to sign up to PASA .................................................................... 6
III.
Follow up evaluations ................................................................................................................. 7
PASA Registration Form ........................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1. What is Pay Ahead, Stay Ahead?
PASA is a 3 year programme to support young people aged 16 to 24 in Birmingham who
are either thinking about a social housing tenancy, or are a new social housing tenant
(up to 12 months in their first tenancy).
The programme offers a wide range of services aimed at improving their personal
financial management skills – staying out of debt, away from loan sharks and beginning
to save.
2. Who are these guidelines for?
These guidelines are intended for a wide range of frontline housing staff – those working
directly with prospective or new tenants: housing officers, debt advisors, care and
support staff, DV workers, outreach workers – anyone within your housing association
who comes into contact with people as part of your housing association’s work.
They are meant as a reference for staff to make the referral process into PASA easier for
both staff member and client. We would recommend attending a staff training session
to understand the project completely – your organisation should have organised this,
but if not, please see the contact details at the end of these guidelines, to see when the
next training sessions are.
1
3. What can the programme offer?
All clients will access:





A directory of organisations that can provide support around financial matters.
A guide to managing your money.
Access to a calendar of PASA events that will be on-going throughout the
programme.
Our online campaign which will keep everyone up to date with events, raise
awareness of financial issues and pass on useful tips and tools.
Other online tools for managing your finances.
If the young person is enquiring into, or on the waiting list for a tenancy, then they will be able
to access:

A 3 hour pre-tenancy workshop covering topics such as; how to cook healthy food on
a budget, what’s involved in managing your own home and how to budget, if the
young person needs further support after the workshops, then one to one
sessions are available. There are courses specifically for those who have children
living with them. In every workshop, there is the chance to talk to a PASA
representative on a one to one basis, if the young person needs confidential
support.
If the young person is a new tenant, then they will be able to access:




A 3 hour workshop on the basics of managing money as a new tenant, and what
the full costs of a tenancy are. Again, there is the chance to talk to a PASA
representative on a one to one basis, if the young person needs confidential
support.
A follow-on, 6 to 8 week financial confidence training programme. This
programme will be a more in depth training course, resulting in a certificate at
the end of the programme.
A Green Doctor visit – this will help the tenant make their home more
environmentally friendly, and therefore cheaper to run
A Home Energy Assessment to ensure that they get the best electricity, gas and
water deals that match their needs.
2
We have a number Work Placement and Volunteer Schemes that young people can to
progress to, in order to help build their skills and experience, increasing job
opportunities. These are varied, and can be offered once the young person has engaged
with the programme.
4. What we’d like frontline staff to do
We’d like you to remember the project and refer young people you may think will
benefit from it. If you’ve received a copy of these guidelines, it means that your
organisation has signed up and is committed to this project!
We’ve created these guidelines to help you understand the project, and act as a
reference if you meet someone you think is eligible. We hope that by providing them,
you’ll be better placed to explain the programme to the client.
We need to take the information from the client directly, so won’t need to ask you any
questions. However, you may decide to initiate the phone call yourself (see “how to
refer”) then hand the receiver over to your client, or you may need to pass information
to us about the client that you think is pertinent. Once we receive the information from
the client, we are unable to pass this back to you, due to Data Protection. However, if
we feel there is a safeguarding issue, we may come back to you directly.
Also, if you think that any of the young people you meet have an interesting tale to tell
about their experiences with personal finances, then we are always looking for case
studies. If the young person agrees to talk to us for this purpose, please let Emma know
on 0121 764 3887 or emma.wright@ashramha.org.uk
5. Who can we support?
The programme is for 16 – 24 year olds in Birmingham that are either:
I.
Or,
II.
Thinking about a social housing tenancy – this could be people
putting their name down on a waiting list, or have been on the
waiting list for a while.
A new tenant – from picking up their keys for the first time up to 12
months in their first tenancy. If they’ve been a social housing tenant
previously, then unfortunately they’re not eligible for the full
programme.
3
If your client does not fit the above criteria, then they are still able to access some
services:
 The directory and guide to managing your money.
 PASA events that will be put on throughout the programme.
 Volunteer project champions – providing mentoring and buddying support to
the young people on the programme (this is only for 16 – 24 year olds in
Birmingham, but they don’t have to be a social housing tenant or enquirer to
join as a volunteer).
 Our online campaign.
 Other online tools for managing your finances.
If the client is interested in any of the above features, then they can be found at:
www.payaheadstayahead.com, or through the PASA folder on the Digital Log Book.
6. What the programme can’t provide



In depth advice about how to handle debt or arrears – the young person should
be signposted to your organisation’s debt advisor, or the local Citizen’s Advice
Bureau on 0844 477 1010 (Birmingham).
Support specifically for loan sharks – we will be raising awareness of loan sharks,
and how to deal with them in our workshops. However, if you have a strong
indication that the young person is a victim of a loan shark, then you can refer
them to England’s Illegal Money lending Team’s 24/7 confidential hotline: 0300
555 2222.
Non-financial issues – this may sound obvious, but we wanted to be clear that
we can’t support young people in other areas, such as substance misuse, that
may relate to their financial position. Please use your usual referral and
signposting routes for these other issues.
4
7. How to refer a young person onto the programme
The process itself will take approximately 20 minutes and there are some things that
frontline staff will need to make young people aware of:






We will ask quite a few personal questions
Why we need to ask these questions
The data will be passed to the Big Lottery, Ecorys (the evaluators that the Lottery
have appointed) and Groundwork WM (who run the courses). If he client is a
new tenant, then we will ask their permission to give details to Energy Extra and
Groundwork for the home visits. If the client is in arrears, will not pass on their
details to that landlord or supplier (i.e. utilities)
The data will be kept safe
They can opt out at any time and ask for their information to be removed
The staff asking the questions and dealing with the data are bound by
confidentiality agreements
There are 2 main ways for someone to register on the programme:
I.
Online – there is an online registration process at
http://www.payaheadstayahead.com/are-you-eligible/ The eligibility
questions have to be answered before we can progress with the personal
details, as mentioned above.
II.
By telephone – call 0800 160 1990, where one of our members of staff
will answer the phone and guide the client through the process.
The telephone line is manned 9am to 5pm Monday to Fridays. However, if you are
ringing on behalf of a client out of hours, or no one is able to take the call in hours, then
please direct the client to the online registration process, or see the attached
questionnaire, which can be completed and sent to:
The PASA Team, Ashram Housing Association, Fairgate House, 205 Kings Road,
Birmingham, B11 2AA.
5
Please note that, due to staff capacity, the paper based questionnaire should only be
completed if the other 2 options are unavailable or difficult for the client.
We do not have a preference for the 2 options above – it’s purely to give the client a
choice as to how they sign up.
I.
What will happen after registration?
Telephone registration – at the end of the registration process, the PASA staff member
will book the client onto a workshop that’s convenient to them, ask them permission (if
relevant) for a Home Energy or green Doctor representative to contact them to arrange
a visit, then send a confirmation email. The email will contain the date, times and venue
for the workshop, confirm which PASA services the client has access to, reiterate the
details of how and where their information will be stored, and provide a PASA
mentoring buddy contact details.
Online registration – the young person will receive a phone call either later that day, or
the next day in order to book them onto a course. They will then receive an email as per
the telephone registering clients.
Paper questionnaire – we will acknowledge receipt of the questionnaire to the frontline
member of staff, and contact the young person as per the online registration. If
questions are missing answers, we will need to ask the client for a response.
II. If the young person doesn’t want to sign up to PASA
The young person is under no obligation to sign up to this programme, but we hope that
the benefits of joining will encourage them to do so. The registration process could put
some people off, but we hope that if the programme is explained properly to them, they
will want to sign up.
If the YP decides not to access it, then they are still able to access the website with the
features described in section 5. They can also change their mind – either applying online
or phoning the PASA telephone line at any point up to their first 12 months of a tenancy.
6
III. Follow up evaluations
To assess the success of this programme, and to see if we can offer additional support,
the registered clients will be contacted again in 6 months and again in 12 months’ time.
We’ll ask the same questions, plus 5 or 6 more to see if the programme was supportive,
helped the client with their financial management skills. The way we ask (i.e. telephone,
email etc) will be the same as the way the client agrees to be contacted, which we’ll ask
as part of the registration process.
Thank you for reading these guidelines. We’ve tried to think of everything, but if you feel
that we’ve missed some vital piece of information off, or there’s a certain aspect of the
programme you think isn’t working, we really need to know. Please contact Emma Wright at
emma.wright@ahsramha.org.uk or 0121 764 3887 to let us know, or for further
information.
Thank you
7
This form is to register on to the Pay Ahead, Stay Ahead programme. Pay Ahead
Stay Ahead is a Big Lottery funded programme that aims to support young people to
manage and get the most from their money, stay out of debt and start saving.
Eligibility check:
First of all, we need to check that you are eligible for the full PASA programme:
Are you age 16-24?
o Yes
o No
Do you live in Birmingham?
o Yes
o No
Are you a potential or new social housing tenant (i.e. up to a year in your first tenancy)?
o Yes – I’ve not moved in anywhere yet
o Yes – I’m going to pick up my keys soon
o Yes – I’m already living in social housing, and have been for less than 12 months
o No – I am a tenant, but have been living in social housing for more than a year.
o No – I’m not considering or living in social housing
If you answered yes to all three, then you are eligible for the full PASA service.
If you answered no to any question, then please see our website for useful tips
advice and resources to help you manage your money.
Full registration:
The next step is to ask you a number of questions, some of which will be of a
personal nature. Only the project team within Ashram, and our funders (the Big
Lottery and Ecorys, on behalf of the Lottery) will see the answers.
Your answers will only be passed to other partners without identifying who you are
(for a list of partners, see here). You details will not be passed on to anyone outside
the partnership. We will not pass on details of arrears to any landlord or utility
provider. The answers will be stored on a secure network and will be limited in
access to the project team.
We need to ask these questions in order to judge if the programme is successful and
the people (i.e. you!) who access this programme are the people we want to reach.
We will contact you 2 more times, a few months apart, after signing up and ask you
the same questions at a convenient time for you – this will hopefully show that our
programme supported you, and that the public money to fund this is well spent.
8
This questionnaire will take approximately 10 minutes to fill in. Please ensure you
answer all questions.
Who are you?
Name
Email
Telephone number
Current postcode of where living
Age
Have you been a social housing
tenant before?
o Yes
o No
Did a landlord or organisation tell
you about PASA?
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Accord Housing Association
Adullam Homes Housing Association
Advance Housing and Support
Affinity Sutton
Ashram Housing Association
Birmingham Co-operative Housing
Services
Birmingham Civic Housing Association
Black Country Housing Group
Bourneville Village Trust
Bromford Group
Castle Vale Community Housing
Association
Central and Cecil
Family Housing Association
Friendship Care and Housing
Fry Housing Association
No, I joined PASA on my own Accord
College or school
Employment agencies (Connexions or other
organisations)
Yes – see list below for which one:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Haig Homes
Home Group
Lench’s Trust
Mercian Housing Association
Midland Heart
Moseley and District Churches Housing
Association
Nehemia United Churches
New Outlook Housing Association
Sanctuary Housing
St. Basil’s
St Peters (Saltley) Housing Association
Trident Housing Association
Viridian Housing
Waterloo Housing Association
Yardley Great Trust
Other: please state
9
o
o
Who is your current landlord?
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Accord Housing Association
Adullam Homes Housing Association
Advance Housing and Support
Affinity Sutton
Ashram Housing Association
Birmingham Co-operative Housing
Services
Birmingham Civic Housing Association
Black Country Housing Group
Bourneville Village Trust
Bromford Group
Castle Vale Community Housing
Association
Central and Cecil
Family Housing Association
Friendship Care and Housing
Fry Housing Association
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Gender
o
o
What is your religion or belief?
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
No one – I am not yet a tenant
One of the following:
Haig Homes
Home Group
Lench’s Trust
Mercian Housing Association
Midland Heart
Moseley and District Churches Housing
Association
Nehemia United Churches
New Outlook Housing Association
Sanctuary Housing
St. Basil’s
St Peters (Saltley) Housing Association
Trident Housing Association
Viridian Housing
Waterloo Housing Association
Yardley Great Trust
A private landlord, through a commercial
estate agency or just someone who owns
the house
Care arrangements (care homes or
supported fostering)
Other: please state
Male
Female
No religion
Christian
Buddhist
Hindu
Jewish
Muslim
Sikh
Other religion
Prefer not to say
10
Ethnicity
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
White- British
White- Irish
White- Other
Black or Black British- Caribbean
Black or Black British- African
Black or Black British- Other
Mixed- White and Black Caribbean
Mixed- White and Black African
Mixed- White and Asian
Mixed- Other
Other Ethnic Group- Chinese
Other Ethnic Group- Gypsy or Tra--Other Ethnic Group- Other
Asian or Asian British- Indian
Asian or Asian British- Pakistani
Asian or Asian British- Bangladeshi
Asian or Asian British- Other
Arab
Prefer not to say
What is your sexual orientation?
o
o
o
Heterosexual
Lesbians/gay men/bisexual
Prefer not to say
Do you have any illness or disability that
limits your day-to-day activities?
o Yes
o No
o Prefer not to say
Do you have any children?
o Yes – living with me
o Yes – living with someone else
o No
Do you speak English as a second
language (i.e. not the first language you
learnt)?
What is the highest educational qualification
you have achieved?
o Yes
o No
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
No qualifications
Some GCSE passes or equivalent
5 or more GCSE passes at grades A*
to C
A/AS levels or equivalent
Higher education but below degree
Degree (BSc, BA, MA)
Don’t know
11
How do you rate yourself?
My knowledge and awareness of different
financial services and products
Financial services and products includes: credit
cards, current bank accounts, savings accounts,
contents insurance
2
My ability to get the
financial services and products that meet
my needs
Are the financial products and services you choose
the right ones for you?
3
My awareness of how
much money I get and the bills I need to
pay each week / month
Do you know what money is coming in and the
amount you have to pay out on bills?
4
My ability to budget and
manage my money
Do you plan how you will spend that income, and
stick to that plan?
5
My ability to pay my rent
and keep my tenancy
Are you able to pay your rent on time each month
and keep out of arrears?
6
My ability to pay other
household bills e.g. electricity / gas
Are you able to pay bills like electricity and gas on
time?
7
My ability to sort out money
problems myself
Are you able to sort out any money problems you
have without anyone else’s help?
o
o
o
o
Very poor
Not good
Could be better
OK
o Not bad
o Good
o Excellent
o
o
o
o
Very poor
Not good
Could be better
OK
o Not bad
o Good
o Excellent
o
o
o
o
Very poor
Not good
Could be better
OK
o Not bad
o Good
o Excellent
o
o
o
o
Very poor
Not good
Could be better
OK
o Not bad
o Good
o Excellent
o
o
o
o
Very poor
Not good
Could be better
OK
o Not bad
o Good
o Excellent
o
o
o
o
Very poor
Not good
Could be better
OK
o Not bad
o Good
o Excellent
o
o
o
o
Very poor
Not good
Could be better
OK
o Not bad
o Good
o Excellent
o
o
o
o
Very poor
Not good
Could be better
OK
o Not bad
o Good
o Excellent
8
My ability to cope with
the stress and worry caused by money
problems
Are you able to cope with the stress and worry
caused by money problems or does it get too much
for you?
12
9
My ability to get
professional help and advice to sort out
money problems
‘Professional help’ includes things like an
independent financial advisor, citizen’s advice
bureau of the Money Advice Service website
10
My ability to move between
jobs without getting into money problems
Do you find it easy/ difficult to manage your money
and benefits when you move from one job to
another or from benefits to a job?
o
o
o
o
Very poor
Not good
Could be better
OK
o Not bad
o Good
o Excellent
o
o
o
o
Very poor
Not good
Could be better
OK
o Not bad
o Good
o Excellent
Your living arrangements
Who do you live with?
Is your name on the tenancy agreement?
Do you have a tenancy support worker or live in
supported/ specialist housing?
Have you ever received any advice on money
matters prior to this product such as welfare
benefits advice, debt advice or budgeting advice?
Do the housing staff you meet understand your
financial issues? And do they provide support to
you around this?
Have you been supported by anyone in rent bill
arrears?
Multiple options:
o Children under 16 yrs
o Children 16yrs and over
o Spouse/ partner
o Live alone
o Siblings under 16 yrs old
o Siblings over 16 yrs old
o Parents
o Children and parents
o Other relatives
o Flatmates
o Prefer not to say
o Yes
o No
o Don’t know
o Yes
o No
o Don’t know
o Yes
o No
o Don’t know
o Yes
o No
o Don’t know
o
o
o
o
No
Yes – Family
Yes – Friends
Yes - A local resident who helps
13
o
o
Employment/ Income
What is your working status?
What is your typical weekly or
monthly income?
Is this weekly or monthly?
others with these matters
Yes - Housing staff
Yes - Support agencies, such as
credit unions or Citizen’s Advice?
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Employed full time
Employed part time
Self-Employed
Unemployed
Retired
Full time student
Full time carer
Unable to work due to illness/ disability
o
o
o
Weekly
Monthly
Jobseekers Allowance (JSA), Income Support
(IS), or Employment Support Allowance (ESA)?
Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Personal
Independence Payment (PIP) or any other
disability related benefits?
Housing benefit or council tax benefit?
o If you are receiving housing benefit does it
pay for all of your rent?
o Yes
o No
Child tax credits or working tax credits?
Universal Credit?
Yes, but none of the above
No
£
Are you currently receiving benefits?
If so, which ones:
o
o
o
o
o
o
Financial position
Do you have a Post Office Card Account? (Note:
please include accounts held either in your name
or joint names)
Do you have a current account or a basic bank
account that is provided by a bank, building
society or credit union? (Note: please include
accounts held either in your name or joint names)
Are you a member of a Credit Union?
Do you have home contents insurance?
o
o
o
o
o
o
Yes
No
Don’t know
Yes
No
Don’t know
o
o
o
o
o
o
Yes
No
Don’t know
Yes
No
Don’t know
14
Housing Finance – for new housing tenants only (not prospective)
Are you currently behind with your rent
payments?
If yes, approximately how much rent do you owe?
How many weeks rent do you owe?
If you have them, are you behind with your
service charge payments?
Do you currently have a notice of seeking
possession (NOSP)?
Do you currently have a suspended possession
order?
How many times have you been evicted from a
property?
o
o
o
Yes
No
Don’t know
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
0
1
2
3
4
5
5+
Don’t know
Yes
No
n/a
Yes
No
Don’t know
Yes
No
Don’t know
0
1
2
3
4
5
5+
Don’t know
£
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
15
Continued over the page
Other finance
A loan from anyone including those held either in
your name or joint names?
o No
o Yes:
o From a bank or building society
o From a payday lender, such as
Wonga or Cash Converters,
pawnbroker or a company that
collects payments from your
home
o From a credit union or other
community finance organisation
o A loan from an unlicensed lender
who charges interest
o From a friend or family member
who doesn’t charge interest
o From a friend or family member
who does charge interest, either
to you, or to others
Goods bought on credit (including hire purchase,
mail order, rent-to-buy) e.g. Brighthouse or on a
store card (Note: please include accounts held
either in your name or joint names)
Are you currently behind with the repayments on
any of these loans?
Are you currently overdrawn on any current or
basic bank account?
Are you within a pre-arranged overdraft limit?
Do you currently have an unauthorised overdraft?
Do you have any credit cards that you hold in
your own name or jointly with someone else?
Have you been unable to make the minimum
payment on your credit card at any time in the last
6 months?
o
o
o
Yes
No
Don’t know
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Yes
No
Don’t know
Yes
No
Don’t know
Yes
No
Don’t know
Yes
No
Don’t know
Yes
No
Don’t know
Yes
No
Don’t know
16
o
o
o
Do you currently have a loan from the Social
Fund?
Are you in behind with any of these payments? :
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Yes
No
Don’t know
Electricity or gas bill
Water rates
TV licence
Telephone, mobile phone, broadband or
TV package (e.g. Sky, Virgin)
Council Tax
Any other bills such as Court Fines or
child maintenance?
No – I’m not behind with any of these
payments
Don’t know
Workshop options:
The next step with PASA is to come along to one of our workshops. They are
informal, fun sessions where you don’t have to speak in front of a group of people,
and can get some one to one support from the trainers around your personal
finances.
I would prefer a workshop in the following area of Birmingham:
o North
o West
o South
o Central
o East
Is there any reason why you would find it difficult to attend a workshop?
o No, I can attend a workshop
o I can only attend weekend workshops
o I can only attend evening workshops
o I have at least one child under 5, so would need childcare facilities
o I haven’t got any money spare for travel, at the moment
o Other reason (please let us know):
Questions asked by:
Staff name:
Signature:
17
Date:
18