PREVENTING HOMELESSNESS PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES

Skint

The Money and Debt Advice Service, now called SKINT, has been fully operational since July 2002. It was established as a direct result of service users identifying the lack of an accessible money and debt advice service which they could access.

For many of those using services at Move On, debt is extremely common. Debt can have a profound negative influence on people’s lives, making them feel powerless, and out of control of their own lives, and making them less likely to seek out advice or assistance. Many can become fearful of every letter which arrives, often ignoring them, and storing up future problems. Often our service users lack the skills to budget effectively and manage their own finances, and a major focus is to train and support people to better manage their money to reduce their likelihood of future indebtedness.

Between July 2002, and November 2005, the Money and Debt Advice Worker worked with over 500 homeless people from the four participating organisations, with a combined debt of more than £1.2 million.

SKINT aims to reduce financial exclusion and enable people to access mainstream financial services. Activities are:

Preventative - budgeting, and money management training for groups and individuals

Reactive - assisting those in debt, to maximise their income, and manage debt which they have already accumulated. This can involve checking benefit entitlements, agreeing realistic repayment plans, and where appropriate challenging repayment demands.

The service employs one full time money and Debt Advice Worker, who is employed and line managed by Queens Cross Housing Association. The worker provides one to one and sometimes group advice sessions to each organisation. The main issues that are dealt with are council tax fines, rent arrears, electricity and gas payments and budgeting skills.

SKINT is run jointly by and for Move On, Queens Cross Housing Association, Blue Triangle Housing Association and the Simon Community.