Category: Corporate Social Action

  • Give the gift of time to improve workforce financial wellbeing

    Give the gift of time to improve workforce financial wellbeing

    Employers may not recognise the power they have to support their workforce to improve their financial wellbeing beyond the obvious pay and benefits package, so Society Matters is on a mission to change that.

    We all know and understand the phrase ‘time is money’ and as someone responsible for leading or managing people you’ve no doubt used it more than once! But how about we switch that phrase on its head – do you think you could provide your staff the time, impetus and resources during the working day to improve their personal financial situation, with minimal cost or disruption to you?

    What we already know is that when staff are worried about making ends meet (and let’s face it there are few people who aren’t at the moment) that can have a detrimental effect on every aspect of their lives, including their work. Distraction and anxiety can lead to reduced motivation and productivity, and having to find the time to deal with financial affairs can lead to absenteeism, so ditto the point about productivity. To be fair if you’ve ever tried to call a helpline or a government department such as DWP you’ll know that the call queue can be an hour or more, so trying to fit that into your lunchbreak (because much of the available support isn’t available outside of work hours) is just not feasible.

    There’s another good reason to give your workforce some time to improve their financial wellbeing during the working day. It will provide them a focal point to take action and, depending on how you handle it, some accountability for making changes that will make a difference. When it comes to getting help with financial challenges in particular, the Money Advice and Pensions Service (MaPS) through their UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing 2010-20 shine a light on the fact that poor financial wellbeing is affecting tens of millions of people, and that employers are a community that can really make a difference with a key potential role to play in reversing the trend for people not to seek advice when they need it. MaPS evidence suggests that nearly two thirds of people have not sought financial advice, guidance or talked to someone about their finances, with those on the lowest incomes being much less likely to discuss financial matters than those on higher incomes.

    Here’s why the gift of time in the workplace can make a difference.

    When it comes to managing our personal financial affairs, let’s face it, we all have a few skeletons in the closet – those things you just haven’t got round to doing although they won’t really take long to do, but once they’re eventually done you wonder why you didn’t do it sooner. With sometimes just a few hours’ effort (often less …) not only did it clear your conscience, but it also made a positive impact on your life in some way shape or form, whether that’s been a boost to your bank balance or just managing to get your partner off your back!

    So, what are the skeletons that are in your closet right now? Just stop for 2 minutes and make a mental list – they may not be things that are necessarily keeping you awake at night, but they are definitely in the ‘wish it was sorted’ category. Maybe it’s that subscription you know you should cancel but keeps coming round every month when you’re just too late to do something about it. Or switching your bank or insurance because you know you’ll get a better deal elsewhere. Maybe selling those old clothes or books that are cluttering your home to raise money for charity – or to improve your own bank balance this month. If you haven’t thought of anything give yourself a pat on the back, and then ask someone you know the same question – they’re sure to come up with something!

    Then ask (yourself) … so what’s stopping you?   The answer is probably going to be in the realms of “I just haven’t found the time”. Fair enough, when you’re outside of work running your busy life it’s so easy to let these things slip, but really it’s probably more than that. It can also be about finding the brain space and, probably, having a lack of accountability for getting it done. Sometimes it can simply be about knowing how to do it, or even how to get started.

    If you then apply this notion to your employees, it might be reasonable to assume that at least some of them could already have a list of things they really need to do that would improve their personal financial situation but they too haven’t had the time, brain space, accountability or know-how. This isn’t going to be the answer in isolation, but every pound helps so I’d encourage you to consider supporting staff to tackle money issues during their work time as part of your financial wellbeing strategy (more on how below).

    So, what can you do to help?

    There’s a lot (talk to Society Matters about the Employer Support Programme they’re running that’s funded by the North of Tyne Combined Authority), but one very simple action you could take is to launch a ‘Time is Money 2023 Campaign’ amongst your staff, in the knowledge that giving your staff the gift of time to focus on matters associated with their financial wellbeing during the working day could be good for their pocket, as well as improving their productivity, performance and attendance – so it’s definitely a win win. How?

    10 steps plan for your Time is Money 2023 campaign

    Applying the principle of keeping it simple, here’s how you might approach your Time is Money campaign.

    1. Come up with a list of actions that staff could take to improve their financial wellbeing. It really doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it has some kind of impact on their income or expenditure, so that might include
      • doing something they’ve been putting off (that mobile phone supplier switch they’ve been meaning to tackle);
      • accessing training (either online or in the workplace – talk to Society Matters for options);
      • using web resources for cost-cutting or budgeting;
      • making calls to DWP, Citizens Advice or a debt helpline;
      • uploading stuff to sell on ebay, facebook or Money Magpie;
      • taking a good look at the bank statement for subscriptions they’re no longer using – and doing something about it;
      • checking eligibility for social tariffs from utilities companies;
      • checking benefits entitlements on entitledto;
      • making a tax claim for homeworking or uniform purchases;
      • telling the broadband supplier they’re leaving and get a reduced rate (works most of the time!);
      • shopping around for the best price for an energy saving gadget;
      • investigating one of the 60+ ways to make money on Martin Lewis’s website;
      • participate in an online Money Talk session with Society Matters;
      • get access to the budgeting tools on the MaPs MoneyHelper
    2. Identify some staff champions to lead the Time is Money campaign to give it a positive spin.
    3. Ask staff to make a personal pledge to participate in the campaign, setting out actions that they will take in the time provided during work time (this can be as generous as you like, but even a minimal time investment of only one hour a week over four weeks will start to make a difference).
    4. Encourage participation in the campaign with an incentive such as shopping vouchers (try and spread across as many employees as possible and keep them under the limit that would class as a taxable benefit).
    5. Provide some resources, information, training, staff champions to access any help needed with whatever they’re planning to tackle. Talk to Society Matters cic for some ideas about what will make a difference if you aren’t sure where to start.
    6. Monitor both participation and impact – look for success stories – maybe they could be the focal point of your voucher incentive – who saved the most, made the most, tackled the biggest challenge, shared their story with the most people.
    7. Share the success stories to build the momentum.
    8. Ask the question – would you have done this anyway or has this campaign given you the time, impetus and resources to do something you couldn’t/wouldn’t have done otherwise?
    9. Pat yourself on the back for using the power and influence at your disposal as an employer by giving the gift of time to improve workforce financial wellbeing.
    10. 10. Repeat.

    Good luck!

    Jayne Graham MBE FIEP

    This article is brought to you by Society Matters cic with the support of the North of Tyne Combined Authority as part of the implementation of Pillar 3 of the Child Poverty Prevention Programme which aims to alleviate in-work poverty for employers across the North of Tyne area.

  • Could your seasonal payroll goodwill be fuelling the January Blues?

    Could your seasonal payroll goodwill be fuelling the January Blues?

    We’re reading so many reports of people dreading Christmas this year, wondering how on earth, with costs continuing to soar, they can stretch already tight budgets to pay for festive treats for the family.

    So, as a responsible employer that cares about your staff, you’re no doubt thinking about what you can do to help out, and there are two tried and tested options that may be included in your usual go-to goodwill policies: the pre-Xmas bonus as a boost to December pay packets; and bringing forward the December pay date to give staff early access to cash to help with buying the turkey and trimmings.

    Nothing wrong with that – other than of course the obvious implications of a ‘long month’ ahead until the next payday. But what about lower paid staff who are topping up their household income with welfare benefits – what are the implications for them?

    How do you define ‘lower paid’ staff?

    First, just to qualify, there’s no hard and fast rule about the salary level that constitutes ‘lower paid’, but as a rule of thumb, you might want to focus on staff earning up to 10% above Real Living Wage. For someone working 37 hours/week that’s around £23k pa, and almost £25k for 40 hours/week. So let’s make our benchmark for ‘lower paid’ under £25k.

    What’s the earnings threshold to qualify for welfare benefits?

    Equally, there’s no solid income line below which someone would qualify for welfare benefits – again it’s entirely dependent on their own individual situation – whether they have children, if they or someone in their care is affected by a disability, how many bedrooms they have in their home, their overall household income, the list goes on. But to keep things simple, using around the same benchmark – under £25k – should give you a reasonable starting point. There are reportedly 6 in 10 families experiencing the benefits system who have at least one member of their household in work.

    So if your workforce includes staff who are earning under £25k, there’s a high likelihood that some of them at least will be receiving welfare benefits, and let’s assume that in most cases that includes Universal Credit. In that case, unfortunately these go-to employer gestures of goodwill – the pre-xmas bonus and the early salary payment – although well meaning, can lead to members of your staff that ironically may need the cash boost the most being out of pocket as a result, with the financial impact being felt at the end of January (and therefore the whole of February), not giving them the start to the new year they’d hoped.

    Here’s why.

    How early pay days affect staff claiming Universal Credit

    Ok, first a rider statement. Universal Credit (UC), the way it’s calculated and paid, is complex. If you would like to understand more about it Society Matters has a great 2-hour workshop – In-work Benefits – A Guide for Employers – which will help a lot. You may also find this information on UC and work from DWP useful (although it’s probably best to top up your coffee first …).

    So through this article, the plan isn’t to attempt to fully unpack the whys and wherefores but to explain enough for you to understand the impact and, hopefully, to help you to do something about it.

    UC claimants receive their payment on the same day each month and that’s determined by the date they received their very first payment.  The amount they earn in any month from paid employment will be taken into account when DWP calculate the UC payment they’re entitled to the following month. An early payday is likely to mean that the claimant – your employee – will have received essentially double the earnings in one assessment period, and that is likely to mean that their income exceeds the threshold under which they receive a top-up of their earnings through UC.

    The implications of this can be that their UC top-up is significantly reduced or even that they don’t receive their UC top-up at all (and that may mean they don’t receive support for example to pay housing and childcare costs). Added to that, qualifying for UC can be a gateway to other benefits such as Carers Allowance and Tax Credits, so they may not receive these either, and to top it all, if their income is over a certain threshold this would be classed as ‘surplus earnings’ which equates to savings, which will also have an effect on their eligibility for benefits.

    So what can you do about it?

    The best advice we can give is for you to check with your employees whether they would like to receive the advance salary payment before you go ahead with it – as it’s unlikely you will know exactly who’s claiming welfare benefits, it’s best practice to ask everyone. If you’re able to run two payrolls to accommodate both preferences then that would be ideal.

    Within any communication about a possible early pay date, you can also reference the need to budget carefully in January if they do receive the advance payment, whether they are on benefits or not, because early paydays make the distance between pay dates a long time for everyone. Specific reference in your communication to anyone claiming welfare benefits would also be a good idea, with an acknowledgment that you recognise that a change of pay date can have an impact on benefits claims – in that case, employees who hadn’t considered it beforehand will have the opportunity to look into it now so they can plan ahead for January.

    If you’d like to know more about how UC calculations work for people who are employed there are some examples here (but be warned, this is not for the feint hearted!).

    The pre-Xmas bonus trap for benefits claimants

    The same basic principles we’ve outlined above for the early payday apply to the pre-Xmas bonus. UC entitlement for people in work is calculated based on an amount DWP has determined you are able to earn and still qualify for the benefit (the  ‘Work Allowance’). Again, this is based on individual life circumstances. Anything your employee earns over their Work Allowance is subject to a 55p levy for each £1 earned until the total earnings are over the amount they would have received from UC alone.

    So, let’s imagine that you pay a pre-Xmas bonus to every member of staff. Whilst higher earners are enjoying their unexpected treat, the employee claiming benefits will have the bonus taken into account when their UC is calculated in January, and if the bonus takes them over the total earnings limit for UC this is likely to stop their UC altogether that month – plus the other qualifying benefits as already explained. If the bonus is so significant that they will earn over their total earnings limit that’s great, other than this could take them into surplus earnings with the resulting impact already explained earlier.   So really they have no option other than to decline the bonus (assuming you give them the option – although you may feel this isn’t quite the spirit of what you’re aiming to do it would be good practice to do so) or ensure your communications to staff includes a message to ensure staff set aside the money to make up the difference in their reduced benefit payment in January if they are claiming UC. But when cash is so tight it takes a lot to do that, particularly at Christmas.

    So what’s the solution?

    It’s been suggested that giving vouchers instead of money in pay packets could avoid this problem for people on benefits, however please proceed with caution to avoid flouting the tax rules associated with taxable benefits. If the voucher is deemed to be a substitute for income it’s taxable and therefore needs to be declared as earnings, and therefore it counts towards income for the purpose of a UC calculation too. However, HMRC does allow ‘trival benefits’ to be paid tax-free as long as the value is below £50 – see details here. As always please check with your tax adviser before going ahead to make sure your plans qualify, because making undeclared payments will have serious consequences for all parties involved.

    You may, of course, also be considering whether to give lower paid employees a more stable uplift in earnings, avoiding bonuses altogether – good idea.

    Jayne Graham MBE FIEP

    This article is brought to you by Society Matters cic with the support of the North of Tyne Combined Authority as part of the implementation of Pillar 3 of the Child Poverty Prevention Programme which aims to alleviate in-work poverty for employers across the North of Tyne area.

  • How much does it cost to work at your place?

    How much does it cost to work at your place?

    How much does it cost to work at your place?

    Today we’re hearing the terms ‘cost of living’ and ‘cost of living crisis’ pretty much every day, in media, online and during conversations between colleagues, friends and family. But what about the ‘cost of working’?

    You’d be forgiven for not having given this any thought, as obviously you would naturally associate work with income, rather than expenditure. But if you employ staff it would be worth stepping back to have a think about how much it might cost someone to work at your place, and what you can do about it.

    Here are 5 ideas that might help.

    1. Reduce travel to work costs

    The most obvious ‘cost of work’ has to be travel. Whether that’s by car or public transport, there’s a cost attached. Some employers are helping employees to reduce this cost through initiatives such as:

    • car share schemes which can be supported through sites such as LiftShare for Work to enable colleagues to travel together to save travel costs
    • community car hire schemes such as Co Wheels that enable your staff to collect a car locally and use it for anything from half an hour
    • Travel passes, pre-paid tickets and season tickets with local transport companies can give employees access to reduced travel on public transport without the need to pay up front, such as Arriva’s Business Travel Scheme.
    • Cycle to Work schemes which make buying a bike more accessible and cheaper through salary sacrifice and tax benefits such as the Bike to Work Scheme.

    2. Provide a uniform

    If staff already wear uniforms at your workplace and have to pay for them, it would be worth making sure they know that this is a tax deductable cost. More information on .gov website here.

    If you don’t currently have a uniform could you introduce one, maybe even just a tshirt and/or sweatshirt that’s standard, to reduce the costs associated with dressing for work?

    3. Supplement the cost of home working

    Many organisations have moved to hybrid models of working over the past couple of years, with an increasing number of employees working at least 3 days a week at home. That may not necessarily be saving you costs at the workplace, unless you have chosen to reduce your space as a result. But whether you’re saving or not, there is a real cost of working at home for your staff, and recent reports have suggested that this isn’t necessarily offset by the reduced cost of travel.

    The most obvious cost is energy – think electricity consumption (monitors, laptops, phone chargers, kettle and, as Winter bites heating the home to make it comfortable for work). Are employees, particularly those on Smart Meters, advised on reducing energy consumption during the working day, as well as being supported to compare the cost of being at home and at work so they can make an informed decision as to which will work better for their pocket?

    Over and above that there are other costs to think about, such as broadband and phone. Are you checking that your employees have the best deals available to enable the level of supply they need to work effectively? Have they upscaled their broadband speed at their own cost, and is that a cost you could help out with?

    4. Action some cost-cutting around workplace culture

    Participation in workplace culture can be very costly, and has the potential to encourage people to spend what they don’t have for fear of being seen to be a stick-in-the-mud, when actually that ‘quick pint after work’ means they will have to walk home today rather than get the bus.

    Here are a few of the red flags you maybe need to think about in your workplace:

    • Staff socials – is there a way you could supplement the cost (even on a discrete basis for staff who can’t afford to attend but don’t want to be excluded)?
    • ‘Whip rounds’ for birthdays and leaving gifts – the pandemic did put pay to the person standing at the desk with an envelope for many workplaces, but does this still exist in your organisation? Could you maybe shift collections to online so people are able to opt in, rather than overtly opt out?
    • Sponsorships – when there’s an active workforce doing good, asking colleagues for sponsorship is an obvious thing to do when you’re fundraising, but this can be a real challenge for people. Ditto the above point, and do you have a policy to control this to avoid it getting out of hand?
    • Sweepstakes and gambling – do you have a policy about informal syndicates and participation? If not that might be something to think about.
    • Lunch clubs and staff buffets – this type of initiative can be great for team building but can also put pressure on people’s pockets, so are you able to supplement the cost and ensure that people are still invited to eat but it’s optional to contribute?

    5. Check staff know their eligibility for free childcare

    An increasing number of parents are seriously thinking about whether they can continue to afford to work with the rapidly increasing cost of childcare. Are your employees clear about what childcare support entitlements they have for children under 18, and are you helping them to take full advantage of them? Obviously there are hoops to jump through to check eligibility, but it’s worth checking because many benefits are underclaimed simply because people don’t know they are entitled. Here are some ideas and links:

    Your staff could also get hundreds of free hours childcare when their child is aged 2 to 4, by applying for:

    Jayne Graham, Associate Director for Social Action

    This article is brought to you by Society Matters cic with the support of the North of Tyne Combined Authority as part of the implementation of Pillar 3 of the Child Poverty Prevention Programme which aims to alleviate in-work poverty for employers across the North of Tyne area.

  • In conversation with … Sir James Mackey

    In conversation with … Sir James Mackey

    In this 20 minute podcast brought to you by Society Matters cic you can hear the wisdom of the leader of one of the North East’s biggest employers when Sir James Mackey, Chief Executive of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, shares his thoughts with Jayne Graham MBE on in-work poverty.

    This podcast is supported by the North of Tyne Combined Authority Child Poverty Prevention Programme.

    Sign up to our mailing list to hear future podcasts HERE or to find out more about how to get involved in the programme email socialaction@societymatterscic.com.

  • PRESS RELEASE: New partnership to work with employers to tackle child poverty in the North of Tyne

    PRESS RELEASE: New partnership to work with employers to tackle child poverty in the North of Tyne

    Employers across the North of Tyne will be invited to participate in a programme to tackle child poverty in the region thanks to a partnership between North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) and the social enterprise Society Matters cic.

    NTCA is committed to giving every child in our region the opportunity to thrive. Which is why in June 2021, Cabinet approved a Child Poverty Prevention Programme (CPPP) for the North of Tyne. 

    Working with local authority partners and school leaders, we have developed a programme made up of three pillars: 

    • Funding an innovative programme of poverty interventions in schools across the North of Tyne
    • Bringing welfare rights advice and support directly into school settings
    • Working with employers to tackle child poverty

    Society Matters will deliver the Working with Employers pillar. Their approach involves supporting employers across the North of Tyne to step up their support to employees, particularly in developing strategies to improve their financial wellbeing.

    Jayne Graham MBE, Director of Society Matters, which is the trading subsidiary of charity Citizens Advice Gateshead, believes a lot can be achieved through the programme if employers are prepared to engage.

    “Our aspiration for this programme is to improve awareness amongst employers of the realities of in-work poverty, and most importantly to support them to put in place practical measures that will make a real difference to financial wellbeing of their staff and, in turn, their families.  We have already identified best practice examples through talking to employers across the region which will be fairly straight-forward to replicate – our job is to make sure employers have the tools and support they need to take immediate action to avoid financial problems spiralling out of control.”

    Employers will be encouraged to participate in a series of workshops and masterclasses, and will be supported to undertake Poverty Reduction Audits and to work with the Society Matters team to convert the findings of the audits into detailed poverty reduction strategies.

    Cllr Karen Kilgour Cabinet Member for Education, Inclusion and Skills said: 

    “It is not poverty but opportunity which is every child’s birth right – with a fair chance in life, support and security. This should be every child’s destiny in the North of Tyne, which is why we set up our Child Poverty Prevention Programme.”

    Our three constituent local authorities Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland are working hard to address the causes and symptoms of child poverty across the North of Tyne. This is more important than ever; we know that the ongoing impacts of the pandemic have made life more difficult for too many families and households in our region. 

    Data tells us that employment is not always a route out of poverty. Besides paying a decent wage, employers can take practical steps to support employees experiencing financial insecurity.

    Employers across the region will be invited to participate in the programme, with a priority focus on those that have a high proportion of lower-paid employees with families.  

    This is more important than ever; we know that the ongoing impacts of the pandemic recent cost of living increases have made life more difficult for too many families and households in our region. 

    Read more about the programme here, or to find out how you can get your organisation involved please contact Jayne Graham at Society Matters cic at hello@societymatterscic.com.

    ENDS

    Notes for editors

    The North of Tyne Combined Authority is a combined authority with an elected mayor that was created in November 2018, when Parliament signed off on a £600 million devolution deal bringing Newcastle, Northumberland, and North Tyneside councils together in an unprecedented transfer of power and investment from Westminster to the North East. It is tasked with initiating projects to boost growth, create jobs, and create a more green, inclusive economy. North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll was elected on a promise to support communities in the North of Tyne to create and build wealth, then keep that wealth in the region.

    Society Matters CIC is a social enterprise which is the trading subsidiary of independent charity Citizens Advice Gateshead.  Society Matters CIC has developed a wide portfolio of learning and development programmes, including CPD accredited courses, workshops and webinars, designed to support people working ‘in the support system’ (spanning CVS organisations, housing, utility companies and employers) to understand the challenges being faced by individuals and families experiencing poverty, and the provision that’s available to them, to reduce the likelihood of falling into crisis.  For more information about Society Matters contact hello@societymatterscic.com

  • Now more than ever housing is an employment issue

    Now more than ever housing is an employment issue

    Why should we think about housing as an employment issue?

    It is generally accepted that a stable home is a central plank in anyone’s life. So, it stands to reason that housing is also fundamental to employment and employability. But what housing issues should we be thinking about as employers, aiming to support employee wellbeing, and as employability professionals supporting unemployed people to get back into work?

    Location, Location, Location

    Before looking at the housing challenges being faced by people on a detail level, I thought it would be useful to take a bird’s eye view first.

    The connection between housing with employment actually spans quite a broad spectrum of socio-economic issues, but location stands out as a main concern for a couple of reasons.

    • Affordability of housing within a reasonable proximity to a workplace will determine how inclusive recruitment can really be, particularly for part-time and low paid jobs (low paid is classed as those paid less than two thirds of median hourly pay). So where someone lives can be a key determining factor in whether they can work, what work is available to them, and how much they are realistically able to earn, as well as determining their overall cost of living.
    • Productivity, with a clear link between housing location and productivity this is a key factor for employers to consider. Interestingly this report from Mercers actually finds that productivity reduces in line with the length of the commute (employees commuting less than half an hour to get to work gain an additional seven days’ worth of productive time each year compared to those with commutes of 60 minutes or more), and that longer commutes appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, “with longer-commuting workers 33% more likely to suffer from depression, 37% more likely to have financial concerns and 12% more likely to report multiple dimensions of work-related stress.” It also stands to reason that employee retention suffers from long distances.

     Getting a job and keeping a job

    In light of the importance of proximity, maximum 30 minutes journey time being considered to be the optimum for productivity and personal wellbeing, it’s really interesting to note the following:

    Claimants for Universal Credit are expected to search for a job located up to 90 minutes travel from their home, a key feature of the DWP’s ‘Claimant Commitment’, the work search contract with DWP which has to be fulfilled for a claimant to successfully receive their benefit.

    We need to be thinking carefully about this when supporting people in job search activities. When they get a job will they stay in it if they live too far away, while they’re working will their productivity be impacted by the distance they’re travelling, potentially impacting on how well they are regarded by their new employer, so also affecting future job search prospects if things don’t work out?

    For current employees making sure that we really do focus some attention on supporting the welfare of staff who are commuting for over half an hour needs to be a priority for employers. Obviously the increased prevalence of homeworking has started to address this issue for some, but as we know many jobs practically can’t be done from home.

    The impact of eviction and homelessness

    Now moving on to thinking more about some of the real-life housing challenges people are facing, the worst case scenario has to be the threat of eviction and homelessness and the huge impact that this obviously has on families and employability.

    An employee asking for time off work to ‘present as homeless’ to the local authority is unlikely to be something that HR teams have been faced with too regularly, but it really is an increasing problem that has grown even before the financial challenges presented by the pandemic. Alongside the need to take time off work, just facing the prospect of viewing emergency accommodation and the anxiety of being able to find a safe and affordable home as soon as possible can have a devastating effect on mental health and wellbeing. This often results in people being unable to work or, again, can lead to performance issues in the workplace.

    If we take it back to basics, the basic physiological need for shelter as explicit in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is the very foundation of a life well lived. Right now, it’s reported that 17.5 million people in Britain are facing a housing emergency.

    That’s one in three adults, and what if you have children to think about too? With children included this number rises to a staggering 22 million people.

    A recent report ‘Heads above Water’ by the National Federation of ALMOs analysing how council tenants and landlords have fared through the pandemic, demonstrated that 80% of income officers had reported higher rent arrears, 77% had seen increased demand for support services and the same number reported increased use of food banks and increased fuel poverty. Three quarters of income officers had also seen increased demand for hardship funds across the UK in the last year. A tidal wave is upon us.

    Debt charity StepChange also reports a similar number of struggling tenants, and estimates that 150,000 are at risk of eviction. It says £370m of arrears has been built up as a result of Covid and that more than 850,000 households renting a home are worried about being evicted in the next few months, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Of these, 400,000 have already been served with an eviction notice or told they may be evicted and almost half a million other households are in arrears.

    To make the situation worse, many local authorities are stating they will not consider people presenting as homeless with rent arrears for social housing, forcing people into the private rented sector with less security from eviction and poor living conditions, in part because private renters don’t feel able to complain to their landlord for fear of a retaliatory eviction. A number of local authorities have also stated that, unless they receive further funding, they will not be able to keep giving vital discretionary housing payments to tenants in critical need of them to keep them in their homes.

    The rise in eviction and possible homelessness is an issue we cannot afford to ignore if we care about improving prospects of employment and employability. Support mechanisms need to be in place for people facing housing struggles, and whether they are employed or unemployed will bring its own challenges, but irrespective of employment status the challenges are significant when it comes to being ready and able to work.

    What can we do to help?

    The three most common triggers of homelessness in the last year were reported to be households no longer being able to stay with families and friends (32%), the loss of a private tenancy (13%) and domestic abuse (12%).

    Even with increased government intervention through the pandemic the threat of homelessness has spiralled, and now the lifting of the eviction ban combined with the end of other government support – such as the job retention scheme, £20 uplift to Universal Credit and discretionary housing payments – which has kept millions of people above the poverty line and safe in their homes, over the next few months there are a lot more problems still to come.

    There’s no question that housing is now in crisis as a result of the pandemic, for all of the wrong reasons, and people are significantly more likely to be facing housing-related issues than ever before, whether they are employed or not.

    And because the landscape is ever-changing it’s hard to keep up. That was the driver for Society Matters’ launch of a new Housing Matters workshop, to ensure professionals supporting people to retain and gain employment are clear about the challenges being faced by the people they’re aiming to support, and to ensure they are aware of the practical help that’s available to families who are struggling with tenancies in both social housing and private rented accommodation.

    Together, our priority needs to be to encourage people to be open about housing issues they’re facing, so they can be helped as early as possible.

    People need to be helped to preserve the security of a safe home as a keystone. Only with this in place can they be expected to make positive progress towards, or hold down, a decent job.

    By facing up to the complexities and challenges of the housing struggles that are being faced by so many people, there’s a greater chance for us to pass on the practical steps that can be taken to ensure that the priority of employment does not get left behind through a need to focus on basic survival.

    Jayne Graham MBE and Adam Matthews, Society Matters cic

    Society Matters cic’s mission is to mobilise knowledge so the system works, it works for everyone, and it powers the changes we need to be an equal and inclusive society.

    We achieve this through a programme of unique and affordable social welfare and welfare benefits training and support services, designed and delivered by experts who have acute, front-end knowledge, and with social value embedded at their very core, so you can be sure we can help you to make your mark.