Citizens Advice's 'East of England Financial Capability and Inclusion Project'

• Description of the programme
• The study
• Key findings
• What are the costs?
• Points to consider
• Full report

Description of the programme

This project delivered financial capability and inclusion training, and job search assistance, to unemployed and economically inactive people (beneficiaries), as well as providing training for the frontline workers who support them. Work was also done to build capacity for delivery of financial capability services by providing accredited training for trainers and relevant forums.

The project provided financial capability training to 930 beneficiaries and 580 front-line workers from 128 organisations. The frontline workers came from a range of organisations, connecting with a wide variety of beneficiary groups, and estimated a collective annual reach of 23,576 people.

The study

An independent evaluation of the project was conducted by Rocket Science in 2011. This included:

• Review of project monitoring data and participant feedback forms.
• Beneficiary surveys which generated a total of 108 responses (12% of the total).
• Four focus groups and two online surveys with frontline workers. At the final evaluation stage 21 survey responses were received.
• Survey of project delivery partners which generated 13 responses.

The evaluators also considered the impact of the project in terms of its likely financial savings and social benefits, framed by a logic model which drew upon existing research evidence to show the connections between project activity and a range of outcomes/impacts.

Key findings

The evaluation found positive impacts in relation to the following outcomes:

For beneficiaries

• Financial behaviour: the follow-up survey found that 60% of participants had created a budget, 10% had talked to a credit union and 16% had sought debt advice; 47% said the topic of budgeting had most impact.
• Financial wellbeing: reported benefits included reduced stress (76%) and improved health (25%).
• Financial capability (mindset): there was a moderate rise in self-reported general confidence and confidence managing money recorded from the immediate post training feedback forms. Also, at this stage, 45% of participants planned to make a budget, 20% say they would talk to a credit union and 15% said they would seek debt advice.

For front-line workers

• Financial capability (mindset): feedback forms revealed increased knowledge about financial capability issues and almost all (96%) said they felt more confident referring clients for help with money issues.

A ROI calculation was also undertaken which estimated that, for every £1 spent on the programme, it generated £4.50 of social value. Assuming that 20% of beneficiaries will act upon the advice received and will continue to do so for at least five years.

What are the costs?

The total cost of the training provided was £257,875.

Points to consider

• Methodological limitations:
  • The evaluation design did not include a comparison group.
  • Front-line workers found it challenging to engage their clients with the financial education programme. They suggested that digital approaches could be used more effectively to engage clients and deliver the training. They found it particularly challenging to engage economically inactive people (as opposed to those already engaged with services to support their return to work).
• Generalisability/ transferability:
  • The final survey of frontline workers yielded a relatively low number of responses (12). The results should therefore be viewed with caution and should not be used to generalise to the wider population.

Full report

Full research report