Financial wellbeing in your local authority

Your council’s essential services have vast potential to support residents with their personal finances – from rent and benefits in housing to financial education in schools and pensions in social care. We can help you to build financial wellbeing for your residents, free.

Personal finances impact on all aspects of your residents’ wellbeing – our physical, mental and financial health are closely linked. Local authorities have unique levels of access to provide financial wellbeing support in key stages of life, and for those who are most vulnerable, such as looked-after children, and older people. Supporting financial wellbeing is another way you can help people in your community and improve their health and happiness, and strengthen the services you provide.

 

Financial wellbeing is about feeling secure and in control. It’s knowing that you can pay the bills today, can deal with the unexpected, and are on track for a healthy financial future.

In short: feeling confident and empowered.

At the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), we’re working with organisations like yours to build financial wellbeing across the UK, to help businesses, communities and individuals thrive.

Learn more about the UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing.

Our lives are perhaps most directly influenced at the local level – though our homes, schools, places of work, and neighbourhoods. And it’s at a local level where residents can come into contact with services and support mechanisms that can improve their lives.

Your local authority is uniquely placed to support residents’ financial wellbeing through a wide range of your services, including:

  • Offering social housing tenants support with skills such as budgeting, or offering them money guidance at key life stages such as maternity/paternity or redundancy.
  • Supporting schools and children’s services to offer children and young people a meaningful financial education, so they can make informed choices about their money in adult life.
  • Embedding our free tools and content on your websites to support residents directly with finding local debt advice, budgeting, coronavirus money guidance and more.
  • Recovering Council Tax in a way that collaborates with debt advice agencies to support people in arrears.

We can offer free, bespoke support to your different services to help you integrate free money guidance, tools and financial wellbeing strategies. Learn more about how we can support you.

Financial wellbeing in housing
Financial education in schools
 

Your council is also a large employer in your area, and is a great access point for money guidance. Learn more about how we can help you build financial wellbeing in your workplace.

Build financial wellbeing for your employees

Professionals who work with vulnerable children and young people on a day-to-day basis are well-placed to help them develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to make the most of their money now and into adulthood.

We have developed a series of regional guides to support professionals working with children and young people. There are four guides in total and these constitute guidance for leaders and decision-makers of children and young people’s services in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Build financial wellbeing for vulnerable children and young people

Our partnerships managers are based across the UK in locations near you, and bring your authority an understanding of personal financial challenges in your location, and free support to make a positive change for your employees and community.

Financial wellbeing in your location

Explore financial wellbeing challenges and solutions in your area with our regional and national insights.

We also offer local authorities:

  • Increased knowledge about your local needs through our insight and research.
  • Understanding from our research how introducing financial wellness initiatives into your area will benefit your residents.
  • Help to design and implement financial wellness initiatives strategically and effectively.
  • The opportunity to partner with us in running and evaluating pilots to improve financial wellbeing.
  • Money and pensions guidance content, tools and helplines that you can embed within your services.
  • Talk Money Week, our annual awareness campaign which reaches millions of people each November, and provides a platform for money conversations at work, home, school, and in every walk of life.

Contact your closest partnerships manager for free, bespoke support to build financial wellbeing in your local authority.

 
Stay up to date with the latest financial wellbeing work in your region: follow MaPS on social media and register for our newsletter.
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Managing money in uncertain times

Guides to support your employees and customers affected by the pandemic or rising living costs