SLIDE 1
Wise Money Campaign
John Orton Financial Inclusion Manager & Hannah Elford Design & Communications Manager
SLIDE 2 Who are Paragon Community Housing Group?
- Formed in 2007
- Elmbridge Housing Trust & Richmond Churches Housing Trust
- 9000 properties
- Work across 10 local authority areas located in South West London
& Surrey
- General Needs, Sheltered, Supported Housing, Care Homes, Key
Worker, Leasehold
SLIDE 3 Wise Money Campaign
Financial Inclusion Group Welfare Reform Group Group includes staff from:
- Tenancy
- Income
- Welfare Benefits
- Resident Involvement
- Communications
- Finance
- IT
- Leasehold
- Directors
SLIDE 4 Wise Money Campaign – June 2012
Decided who our audience was
- Affected
- Not Affected
- Maybe Affected
- Needed to understand our residents better
- Employees
SLIDE 5 Wise Money Campaign – June 2012
Key Decisions on how we would communicate
- Make it personal – Intensive use of 1:1 contact by phone and in person
- Make contacting the right people at Paragon as easy as possible
- Paragon is supporting / helping you – significant investment in resources
- What we couldn’t do
SLIDE 6
Established a Communications Plan – July 2012
SLIDE 7
SLIDE 8
Initial Contact with Residents – July 2012
Article in our Resident magazine
SLIDE 9
1st Local Providers Forum – July 2012
Getting RPs & others together to discuss approach to WR
SLIDE 10 Internal Communication – August 2012
- Clear Updates to Board
- Communicate to staff
- Discussions at Staff / Chief Exec Briefings
- Told staff about work done by the Welfare Reform
Group
- Guide for staff to use when talking to residents
SLIDE 11
Website Pop-Up
SLIDE 12
Welfare Reform Leaflet – Sept 2012
SLIDE 13 Annual Report – October 2012
Branded envelopes
- Contained information
- n Welfare Reform
- Use of different colours
/ designs
SLIDE 14
Other ways of delivering the message
SLIDE 15 Other simple ways of getting the message out
- Changed our telephone greeting
Highlighting Welfare Reform
- Made Welfare Benefits Option 1
SLIDE 16
Paragon @ the Pictures – Dec 2012
SLIDE 17
UK Housing Awards Campaign of the Year For Wise Money
SLIDE 18 Why?
Paragon started its campaign to educate residents and staff about the changes before cuts to housing benefit were introduced Campaign publicised via mailshot to residents, pop-up on Paragon’s website and staff briefings 15 per cent increase in residents seeking help from Paragon’s Welfare Benefits Advisors Prompted rise in referrals to the advisors from other staff Three quarters of those attending the cinema event said they heard about the changes through wise money The campaign had reached many people and by the growth in residents seeking advice as a result
SLIDE 19 The Campaign since April 2013…
- Strengthening digital comms
- Trying things out
- Finding better ways to communicate
SLIDE 20
SLIDE 21
SLIDE 22
SLIDE 23
SLIDE 24
SLIDE 25
SLIDE 26
SLIDE 27
SLIDE 28
SLIDE 29
SLIDE 30
The New leaflet…. There is still room for Improvement!
SLIDE 31
SLIDE 32
SLIDE 33 What is happening now… …while we all wait for UC
- More data profiling
- Improving website
- Gathering more information
- Updating staff on WR
SLIDE 34
What else?
SLIDE 35
What else?
Jobs Clubs
SLIDE 36 What else?
- Lean Review of Arrears Procedure
- Ability to pay rent from start of
Tenancy
- Arrears Letters to look like invoices
- Process based on amount owed not
weeks of rent owing
SLIDE 37 What else?
Back 2 Work Fund
- Fund getting residents back into work
- Fund residents in the 1st few weeks of getting back into
work
SLIDE 38
- Working with those affected by the
Bedroom Tax
- Working with those affected by the
Benefits Cap
- MX Events
- In-house Money Management courses
- Improving links with Credit Unions
- Staff skills audit
- Review of key jobs @ Paragon
- Consolidation of Housing Management
- Collecting additional data held on
residents
- Refreshing data held on residents
- Access to Pay Day Lender websites
blocked
What else is happening now…
…while we all wait for UC
SLIDE 39 What next?
December / January
- Next Issue of Resident Magazine
- Review of Job Clubs
- Estate Day Promotions
- Next Xmas Cinema Event
- Review Communications Plan
February / March
- Next round of Money Mgmt Courses
- Next Local Providers Forum
- Review Welfare Reform Action Plan
- Things we haven’t thought of yet!
SLIDE 40
John Orton jorton@paragonchg.co.uk Hannah Elford helford@paragonchg.co.uk
