By Jon Sands, Programme Officer

Poverty can be split up by category, for example food poverty or fuel poverty, but the underlying cause is always a lack of money. While direct emergency assistance, such as a food bank parcel is often essential, it is not a long-term solution to a person’s financial difficulties. The aim of the Money Advice Referral Tools (MARTs) is to help identify appropriate, expert organisations to refer people struggling financially to, in order to maximise their income and reduce their need for emergency assistance in the future.

The MARTs are designed to guide you through a conversation with a person about their financial difficulties. They funnel down the options at each stage of the conversation, leaving you with simpler choices to make referrals to the most appropriate organisations for the person’s particular circumstances. The MART can help with making referrals to maximise income, better manage debts or address issues that may have caused or compounded financial difficulties, such as mental health, without you needing to be an expert in these areas.

There have been MARTs successfully running in Tameside and Oldham for more than a year, being used by various organisations and professionals who engage with people living in poverty. This includes the Oldham Doorstep Engagement Team, who described the MART as their “go-to-toolkit” and “best practice”.

At GMPA we have been working in recent months with partners in other localities – Bury, Manchester, Trafford and Wigan – to develop new MARTs and expand the impact of these in Greater Manchester. Each of them has been developed with feedback from local partners, as well as meaningful engagement with people with lived experience of poverty. Stockport Council have also developed a Stockport Money Advice Referral Tool, using the GMPA model.

The MART section of the GMPA website contains each of the six current MARTs, with paper versions of these also available in localities. The web page also has a short introductory video and user guide to assist with maximising the potential of the MARTs. In the first few weeks of the new MARTs being launched, they were downloaded more than 100 times and we are regularly hearing about their use in communities.

GMPA is encouraging users of the MARTs to monitor their effectiveness and impact by tracking how they use the Tools. This involves two small actions when you use the MART to make a referral:

•  Let the organisation you are referring the person to know that you have used the MART

•  Complete a short monitoring form on the MART web page which takes around 30 seconds to complete.

MARTs may be suitable for use by any organisation or professional that engages with people struggling financially but does not have the expertise to give assistance on maximising income themselves. GMPA has been directly contacting a range of organisations to make them aware of the MARTs, including food banks and referrers into food banks, housing associations, school pastoral staff and health service organisations, and will continue to do so.

We would like to thank the Trussell Trust for their continued support in making it possible to expand the reach and impact of the Money Advice Referral Tools. There are other examples of initiatives similar to the MART across the UK. These include ‘A Menu for Change’ in Scotland and the ‘Worrying About Money?’ leaflets initiated by the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN).

For more information about the Money Advice Referral Tool, please contact our Programme Officer Jon Sands.

Graham Whitham, Chief Executive Officer, GMPA

This has been a challenging year for the fight against poverty, with factors outside of our control here in Greater Manchester acting to squeeze incomes and put more households at risk of financial hardship. As we have been saying all along, there has been a poverty crisis in our city region and other parts of the UK for years. For many, the cost-of-living crisis is compounding an already dire situation in which it is impossible to make-ends-meet. We have seen first hand this year, just how challenging things are for people.

In spite of these challenges, Greater Manchester continues to step up. We now have well over 500 accredited Real Living Wage employers in the city-region – a fact we celebrated during Living Wage Week in November.

There’s more political will to tackle poverty than ever, with more of our ten councils working with partners to introduce anti-poverty strategies.  We’ve been pleased to see Bury Council, among others, adopting many of our recommendations in their strategy. Others, such as Salford and Tameside councils are voluntarily adopting the socio-economic duty, something GMPA is encouraging all public bodies to do. The duty is all about understanding the impact of decisions on people experiencing poverty.

Effective implementation of the socio-economic duty requires organisations to take into account the views, experiences, expertise and perspectives of people with lived experience of socio-economic disadvantage. Doing this effectively means going further than simply consulting people. Poverty Truth Commissions are a positive way of embedding the principles of meaningful engagement and we have been proud to run the Tameside Poverty Truth Commission (TPTC), which came to and end in November, at GMPA. You can read more about the TPTC and the recommendations coming out of it later in this newsletter.

There has also been growing interest in the ‘cash-first’ approach to poverty that GMPA and others, including the Independent Food Aid Network and Trussell Trust, have been advocating for. This means defaulting to giving people on a low income money as opposed to ‘in-kind’ support such as food parcels and energy vouchers. We know that this is the most effective way of supporting someone experiencing or at risk of financial hardship. It has been good to see Wigan and Oldham councils, among others, championing this approach.

On this theme, our Cost-of-living Crisis Conference in October brought over 100 delegates from across the city region and 30 speakers from across the UK together to focus on local and practical monetary response to poverty. As well as exploring cash-first approaches, sessions focussed on benefit uptake, the Real Living Wage and supporting people to avoid problem debt.

At GMPA, we have continued to grow the team so we’re better able to support the fight against poverty across the city-region. Our programme offer in 2022 has included Money Matters. Money Matters is piloting the provision of benefits and debt advice in schools. It is helping us to reach dozens of parents in the Stretford area who might otherwise not have sought help. The financial gains (i.e. through additional benefits claimed) we have secured for parents through Money Matters currently stands at £50,000, with several months of the programme left to run.

We have also expanded our Money Advice Referral Tool (already in place in Oldham and Tameside) programme to a further four boroughs (Bury, Manchester, Trafford and Wigan). The Tool describes all the places that people can go for advice and other income maximisation support.

We have seen the difference the toolkit makes for organisations and service users. For example, a frontline family intervention worker in Tameside had been working with a client who is not allowed to hold a bank account presently. Through utilising the toolkit, the family intervention worker was able to refer the client to an organisation that could support her. In doing so, she disclosed she struggled with debt problems, and using the toolkit the family intervention worker was able to facilitate debt reconciliation.

Throughout 2022 we have continued to support the network with our regular newsletters. In addition, one of our biggest activities this year has been the launch of the Greater Manchester Poverty Monitor 2022. This resource details statistics relating to poverty from across the city region. Where possible, data is presented at a ward or neighbourhood level. We know organisations have been using this data to make a case for their services, target support and residents and inform funding bids. Supporting the network in this way is central to what we do – please keep letting us know how you are using the Monitor.

Finally, GMPA, along with others, continue to make our voice heard on the need for national action to end poverty. This includes increasingly raising our voice in the media.

We know that to end poverty in Greater Manchester will require action from national government. It is not sustainable to have millions of people struggling to afford food or put the heating on. Nor is it sustainable to expect charities and local public sector organisations to pick up the pieces. Regardless of what is happening with inflation or the wider economy, everyone should be able to afford a decent standard of living year in, year out. It should be a national ambition, led by central government to make that a reality.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

With best wishes for the festive season and for 2023.

Graham and the team at GMPA

Celebrating the Tameside Poverty Truth Commission

Poverty Truth Commissions (PTCs) bring people with lived experience of poverty together with civic and business leaders in a community, to explore what poverty means in their area and to develop solutions and recommendations for change. GMPA ran the Tameside Poverty Truth Commission until November 2022.

Closing Event

At the end of November we marked the closing of the Tameside Poverty Truth Commission, with an event at Dukinfield Town Hall. The event was a celebration of the commissioners’ achievements, in exploring poverty in Tameside and taking action to prevent and reduce poverty in their community.

We heard how much the commission had meant to the lives of commissioners, creating new friendships and helping to change perspectives and approaches to poverty in Tameside.

Commissioner Tracey shared her family’s experiences of living in poverty, recognising that there is still more to be done to support those in crisis and affected by poverty. There was also time taken to remember Karen McBride who sadly passed away in August, with Fran sharing a heartfelt poem in Karen’s memory.

The emotional event reflected the nature of the PTC itself, in being a powerful space for the sharing of stories and a focus on the need for tangible change to address poverty.

Final Report & Recommendations

The Commission has now published its findings and its recommendations for change in Tameside. You can read the report here. The Commission’s recommendations include:

•  Creating a Tameside Poverty Charter for local organisations to commit to, including involving people with lived experience of poverty in decision making.

•  Developing poverty awareness training with lived experience input, for frontline and other relevant staff in Tameside support services.

•  Declaring a poverty emergency in Tameside.

Legacy & Next Steps

We are delighted that the PTC has already started to deliver on its recommendations, creating long-lasting change in Tameside. This includes:

•  Support services now regularly co-locating in Tameside One, a key Council hub.

•  Housing associations reviewing how they interact with customers and support those in rent arrears.

•  People with lived experience of poverty being involved in reviewing and designing services, including Family Hubs within Children’s Services, and the Living Well project.

Commissioners will continue to meet to review the recommendations and progress made against them. They will also be influencing change via local networks and forums.

We would like to thank everyone who has been involved with the Tameside Poverty Truth Commission or who has helped to make it a reality. Thank you.

The Commissions celebrating their achievements.

Boosting household income with Money Matters
By Daniel Oliver, Head of Programmes

Hundreds of millions of pounds worth of benefits are going unclaimed in Greater Manchester each year. To address this, service providers must maximise every opportunity they have to provide benefits information and advice to ensure people are claiming all of the money they are entitled to. At the same time, we must protect people from problem debt.

Money Matters is a GMPA programme delivering free debt and benefit advice to families via schools in Trafford. The work is delivered by our Financial Inclusion Officer, Elaine Riozzi, in partnership with Citizens Advice and funded by Kellogg’s.

We launched Money Matters earlier this year, with drop-ins and support available in three schools – Seymour Community Primary School, Lostock High School and Trafford College. Over the summer we also reached out to families via school holiday activities and at the pop-up school uniform shop in Stretford Mall.

Telephone support has been the preference for families, with over 60% of advice provided over the phone. This has been supported by face-to-face appointments for those who preferred to meet with Elaine in-person. Common issues have included Council Tax arrears, fuel debts and rent arrears.

We are delighted that the GMPA programme has so far resulted in excess of £25,000 in financial gains for Trafford families.

These gains have included support with accessing benefits, including carers elements of Universal Credit, as well as help with utility debts and school uniform grants. Within each of these are the stories of people living in poverty and taking steps to get through the cost-of-living crisis, including:

• A grandparent taking on more caring responsibilities for their grandchildren, to help save the family money with childcare costs.
• A family moving into their grandparents’ home as they could not afford housing and utility costs.
• A single parent who said they could not afford the gas and electric to cook with, even if they received a food voucher to get supplies in.

In October we ran a joint media campaign with Kellogg’s to raise awareness of this work, which including our CEO Graham Whitham speaking on Sky News. You can see these media updates here. The media work was also supported by YouGov polling that was commissioned by Kellogg’s, with key findings including:

• 1 in 7 parents (15%) reported that their children also worry about money because of family’s financial circumstances.
• 66% of parents on low incomes admitted that accessing the benefits they are entitled to is complicated.
• 53% are not confident that they are aware of all the benefits available to them.
• 41% said they would find it helpful to speak to an advisor at their children’s school about the different kind of benefits available to them.

We are now working with a number of additional schools in Trafford and Manchester so that we can extend the reach of the programme.

If you would like to know more about Money Matters then please contact our Head of Programmes, Daniel Oliver.

Reflections on GMPA’s Cost-of-living Crisis Conference

A huge thank you to everyone who attended our Cost-of-living Crisis Conference on October 20th at St Thomas Centre.

GMPA non-exec director Justin Watson opens the conference.

We were excited by the passion in the room for cash first responses to poverty and the need to ensure we are doing everything we can locally to maximise household incomes.

Particular thanks to our speakers, many of whom travelled from outside of Greater Manchester to be with us. A number of speakers commented on the value of bringing stakeholders together in this way and would like to replicate the approach in their area!

We’ve had lots of positive feedback on the conference and a number complimentary comments:

We have been following up directly with speakers and delegates since the conference. The event provided a good chance for people to meet with members of our team in-person for the first time. As always, do reach out to relevant members of the GMPA staff team if there are areas of work we can support you with and/or opportunities for partnership working.

Since the conference took place we have added many of the presentation slides to the website pages alongside the biographies of the speakers and information about their organisations.

By Jon Sands, Programme Officer, Money Advice Referral Tool

Part of GMPA’s strategy is to embed the voice of people with lived experience of poverty in our programmes and decision making and to encourage others to do so as well. The Money Advice Referral Tool (MART) programme has proved to be an example of the invaluable input people experiencing poverty can add.

MARTs have recently been developed for four additional boroughs in Greater Manchester – Bury, Manchester, Trafford and Wigan. Their aim is to provide organisations/professionals who deal with people struggling financially with all the information they need to refer that person onto an appropriate, expert organisation that can maximise that person’s income.

In each borough the content of the MART is being developed by a mixed working group including: council officers, voluntary groups and foodbanks along with people with current experience of poverty. In some boroughs individuals with experience of poverty are part in the working group while in others, groups of people are consulted (such as a group who attend the Trust House Community Centre in Bury). In all cases though, this has brought a perspective and experience which would otherwise not have been included and has distinct and positive impacts on the final results.

For example, in one borough Tracy has formed part of the working group. Her background is an all too typical story of how unfortunate circumstances can lead to financial difficulties that spiral out of control through no fault of her own. She left a steady job after an assault that was not dealt with. Having little experience of benefits, Tracy faced a long delay before receiving a UC payment followed by sanctions, difficulty paying bills, court action and ultimately eviction and homelessness. The lack of any ability to control her situation placed her under huge stress which inevitably led to difficulties with her mental health. Tracy’s position only stabilised somewhat when she moved 200 miles to Greater Manchester.

Her experience of interactions with agencies and organisations which are meant to provide support to a person in her position, but who have frequently shown a lack of empathy or understanding, added a completely different viewpoint to her working group. Tracy’s input has had a direct influence over the wording used in the questions on the MART and to the training on how the conversation should take place between an organisation using the MART and the person struggling financially.

In addition to these, the involvement of other people with lived experience of financial difficulties has also led to:

• The prioritisation of the impact financial difficulties have on mental health and the importance placed on providing support for this
• The inclusion of specific support for people with a disability
• The inclusion of specific organisations based on their experiences as a service user

Jon Sands, MART Programme Officer

Finding people with experience of poverty to take part in a project can be problematic, not least because their participation may involve sharing difficult and emotional personal experiences, and many people may not wish to go through that. Our experience from the development of the MARTs though shows that the viewpoint they can bring is both unique and essential, and the results would have been less relevant without it.

by Penny Rimmer, GMPA Policy Officer and and Shairi Bowes at Salford City Council

The Equality Act 2010 contains a valuable tool to ensure poverty is given due consideration by public bodies when making strategic decisions and designing services: the socio-economic duty.   

This duty contained in Section 1 of the Act requires public authorities to actively consider the way in which their decisions increase or decrease inequalities that result from socio-economic disadvantage. Successive governments have chosen not to enact the duty and socio-economic disadvantage is often missing from equality impact assessments that include consideration of other protected characteristics.

One way to overcome this failure to enact the duty is for public bodies to adopt it voluntarily. At GMPA, we are working with local and combined authorities to increase the awareness and voluntary adoption of the duty as a means of creating better outcomes for those with lived experiences of poverty.

We have published a guide developed in partnership with several organisations for local authorities on socio-economic duty implementation. Our work has influenced a number of Greater Manchester councils to adopt the duty or are in the process of adopting it. Salford City Council is the latest council in Greater Manchester to have adopted the duty bolstered by our encouragement that it is a central element of a strategic approach to addressing poverty. Their experience demonstrates how the socio-economic duty can be implemented and what impacts this can have on the wider work of the council.

In March 2021, Salford City Council launched the refreshed Tackling Poverty Strategy, which brought together a range of actions to combat poverty and inequality. Included in this was a commitment to implement the socio-economic duty, to prioritise tackling inequality caused by socio-economic disadvantage.

To put this ambition into practice, the council set about creating a dedicated toolkit for the incorporation of the duty into the equality impact assessment process. A detailed framework was designed for elected members and for services, which highlighted best practice and guidance in using the duty. This was supported by an integrated training programme which included:

• Utilising specific evidence frameworks to understand how socio-economic inequality directly relates to
  communities within Salford.
• Incorporating the socio-economic duty into all stages of policy development.
• Wider awareness raising on the importance of Equality Impact Assessments, including duties under the Equality Act 2010.

To support the adoption process, the council implemented a ‘soft launch’ period, allowing them to explore how the policy could be best utilised, before following this up with a robust evaluation after six months. This evaluation is currently underway, with initial findings suggesting that the duty is having a positive impact on communities across the city.

Debbie Brown, Strategic Director for Service Reform at Salford City Council, described the socio-economic duty as ‘a crucial mechanism in [Salford’s] tackling poverty framework’, highlighting its importance in supporting the council’s proactive approach to addressing inequality’.

Cllr Sharmina August, Lead Member for Inclusive Economy, Anti-Poverty and Equalities, also highlighted the advantages of voluntarily implementing the duty: ‘By recognising socio-economic disadvantage and the issues that arise from this, we can identify key ways of not only mitigating inequality of outcome but also creating opportunities for progression and empowerment for communities across Salford. We want to actively show Salford’s approach to tackling poverty and encourage innovative solutions to these issues. The socio-economic duty is a major part of this process and gives a consistent framework across our council services to do so.’

More information is available on our webpage here

The government has no strategy to tackle poverty

In the mini-budget statement on September 23rd, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled his “growth plan”, announcing the country’s largest package of tax cuts in 50 years. He axed the 45% income tax band for people who earn over £150,000, a policy that has since been reversed, and removed the cap on bankers’ bonuses.

It isn’t just these policies that favour the rich. Measures such as cutting stamp duty and capping energy prices will disproportionately benefit the rich.

The government’s measures are a win-win for the richest in the country, whilst the poorest households who have been struggling for years but even more so now, have been abandoned. The Resolution Foundation said that despite Monday’s U-turn, the richest households would still gain almost 40 times as much as poorer families from policies announced in the mini-budget. Their initial analysis suggested only 12% of the gains will go to the poorest half of households, who will be just £230 better off on average next year.

Instead of targeted measures to mitigate the impact of rising costs, the government has chosen to punish low-income households by introducing a tougher benefits policy for around 120,000 part-time workers.

It is impossible to justify the decisions made to drive growth when we are facing the biggest drop in living
standards for generations. The IMF has criticised the government’s proposals, warning that tax cuts could speed up price rises and increase inequality.

Furthermore, according to a 2020 study by LSE’s International Inequalities Institute, keeping tax low for the rich does not boost the economy or jobs. They used data from 18 OCED countries, including the UK and US, over the last five decades and found major tax cuts lead to higher income inequality.

The government does not have a strategy to tackle poverty, and the lack of action will increase inequality throughout the country. This will take an enduring toll on the poorest communities and younger generations to come.

At GMPA, we believe we need a new up-to-date cost-of-living support package that is targeted at low-income households, i.e. those who need the most support. This should be the first step to better long-term planning to address poverty that includes scrapping damaging policies such as the bedroom tax and two child limit on certain benefits.

Call for Conference content

With the rising cost-of-living set to hit low and modest income households even harder in the autumn, Greater Manchester Poverty Action (GMPA) is holding a one day conference exploring local, practical responses to the cost-of-living crisis. The event will take place on Thursday October 20th in central Manchester. The conference is aimed at organisations working to respond to poverty at a local level.

The conference will create spaces for leading policy makers and practitioners to come together to learn from impactful examples of good practice, with a focus on sharing practical ideas for replicating and scaling up existing initiatives at a local level in Greater Manchester and beyond.

We are putting out a call for contributors. If you have a project that helps address the financial challenges facing low income households that others could learn from, please let us know. We’re keen to hear from organisations across the public, private and VCSE sectors.

Sessions should focus on at least one of the following:

• Maximising household income, including through the benefits system, local authority delivered welfare support (local welfare assistance schemes, Household Support Fund, Council Tax Support etc…) or employment.
• Cash first responses to poverty – this should include innovative ways of prioritising giving people experiencing or at risk of financial hardship money over in-kind support (such as food parcels and energy vouchers). This might include grant provision through the VCSE sector or a housing provider, or a cash first approach to local welfare delivered by a local authority.
• Reducing outgoings, including through support with debt management and providing access to goods and services at low cost.
• Increasing financial resilience and the ability of households to respond to financial shocks by supporting access to savings products and affordable credit.

We are particularly interested in projects that have proactively involved and engaged people with lived experience of poverty in design and delivery. Contributors will receive free attendance at the conference and details of their organisation and project will be included in printed and online conference materials.

If you would like to deliver a session, please email with the following:

• Name, job title and organisation
• Contact email address and phone number
• Proposed name for your breakout session
• A short description of your session (not more than 500 words)
• An indication of the proposed learning style for your session (e.g. workshop, presentation, world café)
• An indication of any resources or support you may need for your session.

Alternatively, if are unable to run a session but would like us to include details of your work in the online and printed conference materials please email with the following:

• Name, job title and organisation
• Contact email address and phone number
• A short overview of the information you would like to provide to delegates.

To keep costs to delegates low we are seeking sponsorship for the conference. If this is something you’re able to support, please email Graham.