The Money Hub - a vital service in East Leeds

Since March 2019 Learning Partnerships has offered a service called the Money Advice Hub, providing free and impartial advice to help with all financial and money issues. The charity views this programme as a lifeline in helping individuals break the poverty cycle. The Money Advice Hub has provided advice and delivered workshops to those most in need around debt, benefits, utility bills, better off in work calculations, budgeting and money management. Through this project we have supported over 600 people so far!

The service the Money Hub provides is vital, especially so in the deprived Inner East area of Leeds where we are based. The support we offer ensures we help to educate all on money management, to ensure that families don't have to make the decision between food and heating. Through education we prevent families having to hide from bailiffs and prevent families ending up in hostels or even worse on the street.

Despite the pandemic we have continued to provide support by telephone and have seen the demand for our services increase exponentially. However, due to the pandemic, it has been difficult to access the grants we normally rely on to fund the projects. The consequence of not being able to secure this funding is that the service will simply stop running at the end of March this year, at precisely the time when it is needed the most.

Please meet some of our service users:

Elaine* was furloughed from her job at the start of the COVID 19 pandemic and subsequently made redundant at the end of November. She was referred to the Money Hub for help with budgeting due to her reduced income. We assisted her to create a budgeting plan and provided advice and support enabling her to claim Universal Credit and Council Tax Support. Unfortunately, the Universal Credit claim was calculated incorrectly by the DWP meaning she didn’t receive any help before Christmas. We helped her appeal this and they corrected her claim and sent her an emergency payment.

Jane* was referred to the Money Hub by a friend whom we had helped previously. She had arrived in the UK in 2019 with her two small children in search of a better life. She was working incredibly long hours as a cleaner in order to make ends meet as she had been refused Universal Credit under Habitual Residence Test rules. We helped her appeal her original Universal Credit refusal and also to make a new claim as she had been living and working in Leeds for over 3 months by that point. We have also helped her with food parcels and clothes for her children during the long process of sorting out her benefits.

Jenny* had recently moved into a Council Flat and was referred to us by her Housing Officer. The Money Hub helped her claim Council Tax Support and provided her with a bed for herself and a cot for her baby. We are continuing to provide help with an incorrect £900 utilities company debt. We have helped her to gather the proof she needed to show that she did not live at the address during the period they have her billed and supplied this to the company to look into further. This is still ongoing.

We have launched this emergency appeal due to the severe funding gap to carry on this service. The pandemic has disproportionately affected the most deprived areas within Leeds. We can make that difference, please help support us so we can carry on supporting the most vulnerable in the community.

Here are some comments from service users:

*Names have been changed in order to protect the privacy of the participants.