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As part of the first Financial Inclusion Fund (FIF) announced in the 2004 Pre Budget Report, £45 million was allocated to increasing the provision of free face-to-face debt advice in England and Wales up until April 2008. This has now been extended by another £85m until April 2011.
The primary aim of the project is to deliver a step change increase in the number of advisers, and hence in the number of clients assisted, within geographical areas and/or social groups both characterised by high financial exclusion. This was secured around a year after launch.
A Bid Request Document to attract grant applications was launched in late 2005. Following careful scrutiny of the dozens received, a total of 16 final bids for a share of the fund were approved in March 2006. The selected bids involve many independent advice providers as well as Citizens Advice Bureaux. They include three national projects, one for Wales, and one for each English region.
The projects target specific geographic areas or social groups where financial exclusion is a major problem. Many are specially created partnerships between Citizens Advice Bureaux, members of the Advice UK network and other independent advice providers.
The Department has worked closely with leading organisations like Citizens Advice, Advice UK, the Money Advice Trust and the Advice Services Alliance, who represent the vast majority of current advice provision, to drive this work forward. We are grateful to all those who have helped us deliver such a successful project in which around 500 new advisers have been recruited, trained and deployed and over 244,000 clients seen and helped. The latter exceeds the targets for the projects. Over the 5 year period £130m will have been invested.
We have a list of contact details of the local face to face debt advice Project Managers available.
The project was independently evaluated in two stages; the first interim evaluation was carried out in 2007 and the final evaluation followed in 2008. This covered the period by which the project had achieved its steady state and was delivering at full capacity. The reports and the Department's responses are available individually on this webpage. It is pleasing to note a few of the comments which stated:
“Projects are reaching an above average number of financially excluded and vulnerable clients”
“FIF clients are overwhelmingly positive about the advice which results show has made a considerable impact on their lives (not just the original debt/money problem).”
“The client survey results are overwhelmingly positive about the FIF debt advice service suggesting the clients place a high value on the service they receive. Nearly nine out of ten (87%) clients report that the service met or exceeded their original hopes and expectations and more than nine out of tem (92%) would recommend the service to others. The results also suggest that FIF advice provides a service to those who would otherwise not receive it.”
“the FIF project has succeeded in providing additionality to the sector, both in terms of attracting new advisors to the sector and the impact extra advisors have had on client outcomes.”
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