Tag: social welfare training

  • Getting to Grips with Changes to Childcare and Universal Credit

    Getting to Grips with Changes to Childcare and Universal Credit

    Adam Matthews, the Training Manager at Society Matters, delivers a compelling analysis of the key changes the childcare element of Universal Credit. Insights into the present state of childcare in the UK are provided along with key strategies to ensure individuals receive the full extent of the support they rightfully deserve.

    What are the Changes to Childcare Support on Universal Credit?

    There are some welcome changes for people who need financial support with Childcare when it comes to Universal Credit coming into play on Wednesday 28th June.

    The government will allow eligible parents on Universal Credit to claim back up to £951 for childcare costs for one child and up to £1,630 for two or more children. This works out as a significant 47% increase on previous support.

    Childcare support on Universal Credit had previously been frozen for several years at up to a maximum of 85% of childcare costs or £646 per month for one child or £1,108 for two or more children. It’s important to note that this increase is only available on Universal Credit and won’t be added to the ‘legacy benefit’ Working Tax Credit ‘childcare element.

    The government has also announced it will also support eligible people responsible for children with their first month of childcare costs when they either enter work or increase their hours, by providing childcare funding upfront rather than expecting people to manage the first month’s costs themselves. From speaking to many people this was proving unmanageable for many due to the combination of the cost-of-living crisis and high childcare costs.

    Where do we Currently Stand with Childcare in the UK?

    It’s quite clear that within the perfect storm of the cost-of-living crisis and high inflation, we have a childcare costs crisis. The UK as of March 2023 was the third-most expensive country for childcare in the world, based on a couple earning the average wage, according to data from the OECD.  For a couple with two young children childcare costs take up nearly 30% of their income, according to the OECD. A survey of 24,000 parents, which was published recently by campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed, found 76% of mothers who pay for childcare feel it no longer makes financial sense for them to work.

    Childcare costs have increased by a massive 44% since 2010, according to analysis from the Trades Union Congress and have risen by nearly 6 per cent just over the past year. All this has happened whilst the availability of places for Children in the UK has fallen. This means the average annual cost of a full-time nursery place for a child under two in the UK is now a staggering £14,836, according to a report by the charity, Coram. To add to this fewer than one in five (18 per cent) of local authorities in England have enough childcare places for disabled children, down from 21 per cent.

    If you compare the UK’s childcare spending support, quality of childcare and length and payments for paternal and maternity leave to other countries it ranks a lowly 36th in a recent report put together by UNICEF.

    Why are people underclaiming childcare when costs are so high?

    The childcare support available is often underclaimed similarly to other welfare benefits (approx. £19 billion a year) due to a general difficulty in navigating a complex system, a lack of awareness and digital exclusion, stigma, and the increasingly fragmented nature of support from the government.

    For example, Policy in Practice estimates £7.5 billion of Universal Credit goes unclaimed by 1.2 million eligible households this year. How many of these households may have been entitled to the childcare element but are not currently getting the support and struggling to manage financially?

    There are of course other forms of childcare support available, some of which you cant claim at the same time as the childcare element of Universal Credit including the Tax-Free Childcare for 0-11 Year olds. Add to this the current Free education and childcare for 2-year-olds, the 15 Hours of free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds the 30 hours of free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds and the outgoing Working Tax Credits childcare element and I’m sure you will agree this can become confusing and overwhelming for people responsible for children.

    There is further welcome incoming childcare support over the next few years which have been confirmed by the government. Starting from April 2024, existing childcare support will be expanded in phases. By, September 2025, working parents with children aged 9 months old to when they start school will be eligible for 30 hours childcare support. Information on the timescales and level of support can be found here.

    How can we make sure people get all the childcare they are entitled to?

    It’s really important at the moment to maximise income and to make sure people that are struggling get a full benefit check by using either the benefit calculators such as entitled to or signposting to organisations such as Citizens Advice.

    In addition to this I would recommend using the governments childcare calculator, whilst remembering some people will need extra support using the tool.

    The Childcare Choices website also gives a good breakdown of all the different types of childcare support in the UK, explains who should be eligible and how to claim and is a useful recourse to send out to people who are struggling to navigate the complex system.

    If you’re looking for social solutions, Society Matters cic is your perfect partner. We have a training calendar or workshops we provide with regularity which you can book onto as an individual or employee.

  • 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.

  • Why our courses can now earn you CPD points

    Why our courses can now earn you CPD points

    At Society Matters cic we’ve built a reputation for delivering great training that people need and want. But we’re also not resting on our laurels. We’re continuing to learn from our customers as much as our customers learn from us, and we listen.

    When we were asked why our courses weren’t accredited by the CPD Certification Service we had to ask ourselves the same question. Most of our training is delivered to professionals so it stands to reason that you’d want to align the time you’ve spent on our courses and workshops with your other professional development.

    So in the Autumn last year we set ourselves the target of getting at least 10 of our courses accredited by the CPD Certification Service within 12 months, and we’re already well on our way, with 3 courses already accredited and 3 more planned this side of Easter.

    What does CPD Certification mean?

    First of all CPD is a mark of quality. We are proud of the wonderful feedback we receive on our course content and delivery approach, but also recognises that having independent endorsement is so important.

    With CPD certification our customers can have absolute confidence in the quality of the material, the content and the delivery approach, so the learning opportunity will have the best possible impact on both personal and organisational development. For training to be awarded CPD certification it will always have been independently assessed and scrutinised to ensure integrity and quality to a high level.

    Over and above this, by attending a CPD certified course our customers are awarded CPD points which holds a genuine value in professional development terms, whether that’s simply through the CPD certificate we award after the training, or a serious contribution towards the continuous professional development standard expected by your professional body.

    CPD Certified courses – at the same affordable price

    We’ve prioritised the development of our most popular social welfare courses, and are proud to have now achieved CPD Certification, as well as being able to keep our prices at a level we know our customers can afford.

    Get to Grips with Universal Credit (5½ CPD points)
    Get to Grips with Personal Independence Payment (5 CPD points)  and
    Introduction to Current Welfare Benefits (3½ CPD points)

    Next up are our popular ‘Managing and Stress and Avoiding Burnout’ and ‘Mental Health Awareness’ courses, both of which have had rave reviews so you can book now with confidence that CPD accreditation will be in place by the time you attend.

    If there’s a course you’re keen to see CPD certified let us know, and we’ll keep you posted on progress over the next few months. If you haven’t already, sign up to our mailing list so we can keep you updated.

  • I’m on a mission to make a difference …

    I’m on a mission to make a difference …

    As a proud non-exec Director of social enterprise Society Matters cic I’m on a mission to make a difference. Alongside my talented co-Directors, our wonderful staff team and our parent charity Citizens Advice Gateshead, we have a vision of a fair society for all, with lives well lived.

    So what does that mean? To me, that means we are determined to help people in need to achieve their potential in life, to help families living in poverty, with disadvantage and deprivation, to become more self-reliant, resilient and move towards a lifestyle that is stable and secure. 

    You might say – “well good luck with that” – and yes, it is a huge job. 

    And it is one that is becoming more challenging daily while Covid takes its toll and employment – life itself – is ever more precarious.  Even people who are in employment are struggling to make ends meet and dealing with insecure jobs.

    So, to achieve our ambition we have looked really closely at the part Society Matters cic can play – how our small but perfectly formed team can help to support people on a journey that leads to them ultimately supporting themselves.

    Mobilising lived experience and specialist knowledge into the system

    Proper support for people in need is crucial to enable them to emerge from poverty and avoid the traps that come along with it that often have long term impacts.  Debt, health problems, fuel poverty, housing and the knock-on impacts on education and social isolation are only a few examples of issues that that put people in crisis situations that are difficult to get out of.  

    The Social Welfare system is there to provide such support but its complexities mean that people do not always get their entitlement and in many cases do not even realise they are eligible for benefits.  Accessing support can be difficult and not for the faint-hearted.  Not the best situation when you’re worried where the next meal is coming from or where you can get the bus fare to work.

    So to help people access the support they need our approach is to mobilise the knowledge that resides in the advisers who deal with the complications of the system on a daily basis. The value of those experts, whose knowledge is second to none, and who have made a tangible difference to people’s lives, can’t be over-estimated.  So those advisers have invested their lived experience and specialist knowledge into the design, development and delivery of cutting edge training which is now delivered in a virtual classroom by Society Matters cic.

    This is not training you can get from a book or a website. It’s coming at social welfare problems from the people perspective – not just relaying policy and practice. If you are one of the hundreds of people who have received this training, you’ll have the tools in your toolkit to really help people to navigate the social welfare and benefits system, and to get the best possible outcome for them and their families through your work.

    We need more people to be able to help more people 

    Like I said, this is a big job. So we’re on a mission to spread this acute, front-end knowledge far and wide.

    On the ground, that means more people accessing the benefits they so desperately need, more people avoiding crisis points, more people moving out of poverty, more people taking the step from benefits to employment – more people reaching their potential. More people living their lives as well as they can. Isn’t that what we, as a society, should expect for everyone?

    And of course, through the pandemic the public have grown a heightened awareness of the close connection between society and the economy. Through engendering more people with spending power the local economy gains, so we all gain. Did you know that in Gateshead alone in 2019-2020 the advice and information given to people by our parent charity Citizens Advice Gateshead  gained £7.8m additional income, most of which will have been spent locally – mind blowing!

    Just think what could be done across our region with a bit more know-how.

    Knowledge is power – Society Matters is mobilising knowledge through its training so the Social Welfare system provides the means to progress for people who need and want to battle successfully against poverty. And it’s already working.  Front line staff we’ve trained are picking up on potential problems with their users at early stages and averting crises like eviction and arrears, and people are being able to work through their disabilities because they have the right support to do so, because they’ve been helped in the right way to get what they needed.  Critically, through mobilising knowledge the trained support staff feel confident and empowered in their work, and the service users relieved – what’s not to like in such a great result. 

    This is real social value.

  • Pay It Forward Charity Discount Fund launches

    Pay It Forward Charity Discount Fund launches

    Pay It Forward Charity Discount Fund Launches

    The team at North East social enterprise Society Matters cic has decided to take positive action to support the community and voluntary sector to access its critical social welfare training by asking for donations into a Charity Discount Scheme that has been launched today.

    “Local charities and voluntary organisations play such an important role in supporting people who are facing life challenges that, let’s be honest, would be difficult for most of us to comprehend. Before Covid-19 those problems existed, but now demand on the community and voluntary sector is even greater than ever. The Pay It Forward Charity Discount Fund is our call to the people who would love to help but aren’t sure how to do it.”

    By contributing to the Pay It Forward Charity Discount Fund, donors will be directly supporting charities and local voluntary groups to build their social welfare knowledge in areas such as Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments (PIP), so they have the confidence to help the people who approach them for support to navigate these really complex benefits. 100% of hundreds of participants on Society Matters’ courses so far have said that the training will improve their ability to support their clients effectively, so the team is determined to make sure the community and voluntary sector get the best chance possible to make their mark, by having the knowledge they need to help people in the best way possible.

    “Knowledge and understanding of benefits across the whole of the social welfare support system is crucially important, but at the moment it is severely limited, and at worst it’s really out of date. Our social welfare training, which has been developed in partnership with our parent charity and social welfare experts Citizens Advice Gateshead, puts this right.”

    In an attempt to help the local community and voluntary sector in their local area in Gateshead, the social enterprise recently decided to donate 12 free places to community and voluntary sector organisations in Gateshead for their Get to Grips with Personal Independence Payments (PIP) course which is delivered in a virtual classroom environment. The places were taken up immediately, demonstrating the huge demand.

    Then Training Manager Adam Matthews explained about their recent campaign “We couldn’t believe it – the 12 free places were snapped up in a matter of hours and we now have a waiting list of another dozen people or more who need to attend so they can properly support people in their communities. That’s spurred us into action to set up this fund!”

    Society Matters works nationally delivering social welfare training to people and organisations in the social welfare system. This includes social housing organisations, employability services, national charities such as CentrePoint, and other organisations you might not expect that want to understand more about the impact of welfare benefits on their customers, such as utility giant Northumbrian Water which recently had staff participating in a Get to Grips with Universal Credit course that’s been shifted online since lockdown.

    If you would like to know more about the Pay it Forward Charity Discount Fund and how you can get involved click here.

    To make your mark with a donation, please click on the Donate button below, or get in touch to arrange for us to send you an invoice. Every pound counts.