Early intervention debt advice for social housing tenants can prevent homelessness caused by debt related evictions says a new report.
Commissioned by The Hyde Group, Does debt advice pay? A business case for social landlords was written by the Financial Inclusion Centre and funded by Friends Provident Foundation. It includes the first ever toolkit for measuring the cost benefit of financial inclusion services.
The report demonstrates clear benefits to the Government, housing providers and social housing tenants for investing in early intervention debt advice - particularly in the context of the recession, high cost of living and welfare reforms such as Universal Credit.
Steve White, Hyde Group Chief Executive, said:
"The timing of this report couldn't be better, with the introduction of Universal Credit; social housing tenants will need to manage their finances more independently than ever before. Social landlords preparing for the challenges of Universal Credit must promote financial well-being, provide earlier support and take early and decisive action when escalating problems are identified.
"Social landlords should be encouraged by the Government and Local Authorities to step in and help society's most vulnerable people with in-house debt advice.
"Now is the time to invest in debt advice, and this report describes exactly how this can be achieved: by providing our residents with the financial confidence and knowledge to enable them to stabilise their financial situation."
The research, which involved close working between all partners, studied the practices of Hyde and six other leading housing associations - Affinity Sutton, AmicusHorizon, Circle, Metropolitan Housing Partnership, Southern Housing Group and Wandle.
To read the full report click here.