Money Advice Service

You may have seen recent announcements in the media about the launch of the Money Advice Service. I am delighted that A4e was chosen as a key delivery partner and, since April, we have been delivering the new face to face aspect of this service. The launch yesterday introduced the online and phone services. Open to all, the service will give clear, unbiased advice on financial issues. Over 6,500 people have accessed the support so far and our advisers have been doing some wonderful work. Over 4,500 of the customers are classed as ‘financially vulnerable’ and they have been using the service to both better understand and improve their financial position.

It was nice to attend the launch of the national service in Westminster (yesterday evening), following the press launch on the BBC of the online service). I was able to share some of our case studies with the MPs and MAS staff at the event. Since the service is accessible to everyone, our advisers are helping a range of people – pensioners and students, people just made redundant, long term unemployed people, many in work and even whole families. They are helping people with queries on mortgages, insurance, savings and debt- and their work has recently help keep one customer out of jail with the support on offer.

The online service is here and will soon feature on the A4e website. It is designed for a very broad audience – whether you are working and looking to better manage finance or make an investment, or are in debt and struggling with money, it aims to provide information and signpost.

Financial worries and lack of financial capability, debt and indebtedness are some of the biggest challenges we face in the UK. A large part of A4e’s public policy work focuses on this and government responses are very fragmented. We will be making the new MAS service an integral part of the Work Programme customer journey – part of our programme for joining up different public services for our customers.