GMPA believes that responses to poverty should focus on getting more money into people’s pockets. That’s why one of our strategic priorities is to support local efforts to boost household income and financial resilience.

For many frontline organisations helping people dealing with poverty, information on where to refer people for appropriate support and advice is not always easy to find. The Money Advice Referral Tools (MARTs) aims to help these organisations and professionals by simplifying the process and putting the key information at their fingertips.

The MARTs do this by guiding you through a conversation with a person about their financial difficulties so that you can confidently:

•   refer them onto an organisation which can help them maximise their income, and/or
•   refer them to an organisation that can provide advice/help on issues that may have caused their financial difficulties, or made those difficulties worse (such as their mental health)

Money Advice Referral Tools have now been developed for six boroughs in Greater Manchester and you can download the latest version of these below. These have been created in partnership with local councils, foodbanks, other voluntary groups and people with lived experience of poverty. While the MARTs are aimed primarily for use by organisations and professionals, you are also free to access and use these as an individual.

Please note, when you click on a box below, it will first ask you for some basic details. This is so that we can keep you up to date when any changes that are made to the MARTs.

(c) Greater Manchester Poverty Action 2023. All Rights Reserved.

How to use the MART

Before you use the MART

The MART is simple to navigate but before you use it we recommend that you view the short introduction, which you can access below.

Short Guide to the MART

You can also download a short, written guide to using the MART by clicking on the button below.

Training

We also offer a short training course on the Money Advice Referral Tool (lasting approximately 90 minutes) which guides you though examples of using the MART and looks in a little more detail about having a conversation about financial difficulties.

If you would be interested in the training, please email Jon Sandsjons@gmpovertyaction.org

Feedback

If you are using one of our referral tools, we would appreciate your feedback about how you are finding it. This will help us to learn, and to improve the MARTs.

Feedback Form

Monitoring use of the MARTs

Please use this form to help us collect data about how the MARTs are used, what support people are accessing, and what support people need but cannot access.

Monitoring Form

This project is funded by The Trussell Trust, with additional support from stakeholders in localities.

Thanks also to all who worked with GMPA to develop the GM Food Poverty Action Plan in 2019, out of which this programme grew, and to the Menu for Change project and the Independent Food Aid Network who developed the concept and the ‘Worrying about money?’ leaflets on which the MARTs are based.

Chris HoughMART