Reducing Reoffending- finance, benefit
and debt advice and support
“Having a job; having a place to live; having enough money to support oneself; and not
using drugs are among the top five reasons listed in the survey for not going onto reoffend. All these factors directly involve money and money management.”
(MOJ/CFEB/CAB 2010)
Helen Scadding
Citizens Advice
What we do
• Face to face finance, benefit and debt advice
to resolution/ through the gate/ money skills
• National coverage- 54 cabx across all CRCs
• Specialist provision
• Money Advice Service F2F Prison and
Probation Project- West Midlands and East
• National data recording system
Money Advice Service Face to Face Prison and
Probation project
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Government funded initiative to tackle Financial exclusion by increasing
access to face to face debt advice
Set up in 2006 and is now managed by Money Advice Service
14 participants involved: 11 Bureaux and 3 independent advice
agencies, situated in the Midlands and East England
Clients are accessed in prisons, via probation and through referral from
national and local agencies that support offenders, ex-offenders and
their families.
Local partners and cross referrals- Prisoner’s, Family and Friends
service (PFFS), NACRO, Unlock, Salvation Army, local police and
hostels
Clients seen: 2012/13 – 4719 2013/14 Q1/Q2 2825
Key issues
Same problems – less chance to resolve
-Forms, phones, internet, ID
Debt increases for offender and family
Trust is criticalTime is Money (CAB) were the most trusted source of financial advice for both people in prison (47%) and
families (75%) but only 13% of those in prison had been able to access a CAB adviser.
Practicalities
Outcomes
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Bath study- £4,095 actual financial gain over 5 years and “significant rises in health
and wellbeing”.
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West Bromwich- 70 clients from offender financial inclusion project were tracked
through Delius. 63% of service users had no re-offending/breach action recorded over
a two year period.
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Money Advice Service F2F PP Project- West Midlands and East- Optimisa 360
Research project- ”most clients highlight how the advice has helped them feel more
confident, less worried, less depressed, and much more able to cope with their
situation.” “Acting on advice improves the debt situation”.
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Vale of Glamorgan CAB and NOMs Cymru money skills training. “The provision of
this training to prisoners within prisons can produce statistically significant
increases in their financial capability”.
Transforming Rehabilitation: a summary of
evidence on reducing reoffending (MOJ 2013)
• Reaching intermediate outcomes- Addressing
“In order to sustain their accommodation,
offenders may need advice in managing money and debt”.
Accommodation Needs-
• OASys does not include FBD-
“OASys assesses offenders
against the following eight key criminogenic needs: accommodation,
education, training and employment, relationships, lifestyle and
associates, drug misuse, alcohol misuse, and thinking and behaviour and
attitudes”.
Birmingham October 2013
Client is 30 year old, single male. Client recently released from prison
with severe mental health issues. Client was worried about multiple
unsecured debts and was not sure of how to cope with these. Client
stated he may commit crime again in order to repay debts. We assisted
client in obtaining his credit report and applying for a Debt Relief Order,
which was approved and client is now debt free. We also assisted in
putting together a future realistic budget for client to stick to. Client
stated that Debt Relief Order and becoming debt free has contributed to
an improvement in his mental state and that being debt free will also stop
him re offending in the future.
TR- Opportunities
• Many lessons learnt from WP (PbR, blackbox,
transparency, bid-candy)
• Three stages of intervention becomes
possible
• Possibility of spreading good practice across
all CRCs
• Through the gate joint work
TR- challenges
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Volumes
Communications with Prime
Supply chain partnership and referrals
Evaluation- fluid client base, attribution, funds
Sanctions and mandation
Protecting existing work