Reports from our Back on Track team

By Saphya, Kym, Roseanna and Bayo

We asked four of our team on the frontline about their own experiences of helping people to get their lives ‘back on track’ in Southwark, Stockwell and Lambeth. They all report “huge satisfaction” in having helped every single person onboarded so far. “Not a single patient has been disappointed with the outcome”, Roseanna said, “with many very grateful for the support and advice they’ve received from the Back on Track team”.

However, it has not been easy. The team have encountered a complex mix of problems – financial, mental and physical which are usually interrelated and difficult to unpick. The team has needed to collaborate closely with GPs and social prescribers to solve these, as most peoples’ problems have developed over prolonged periods of time, typically triggered by a big change in their lives.

Bereavement and relationship breakdowns are common triggers that affect resident’s ability to function in their day-to-day lives. This often leads to a subsequent breakdown in their financial situation. So too, the onset or deepening of long-term health conditions, and depression, in particular. 

The need for face to face support 

In many cases, understanding and helping residents to address their problems can only be done face to face. “People open up in person, and only then do we find out the full extent of their debts and the factors that caused them”, says Roseanna. 

Since the lifting of lockdown, the demand for face to face support has returned swiftly, and this has helped to improve both levels of engagement and the speed with which the team can resolve problems. 

This is especially true in complex situations. For example, the team reports the case of a single parent on a low-income, suffering from depression. Long standing relationship problems with her three adult sons, including some issues of financial abuse, meant that they drained her limited income, and she accumulated a Council Tax debt of £12,000. Back on Track helped her present her case to the Council and her entire debt was eventually written off. One of her sons has now been assessed by her GP and diagnosed as a dependent, which has entitled them to benefits and lifted the household income. This has reversed her situation to a point where she is functioning normally again, enjoying better mental and financial health and now able to work full-time.

Face to face support is also often necessary in simpler cases.  A lack of digital skills can prevent people from claiming all their benefit entitlements. Helping residents navigate online forms and access the Universal Credit Gateway or switching them to a telephone service can often be a game changer. 

But it is often only by seeing people face to face that the team get a true sense of a person’s problems. In the case of a 60-year-old man living alone and recently diagnosed with terminal cancer everything had changed for him suddenly. He lost his independence, his ability to take care of himself and to cope with basic financial responsibilities was all lost. Seeing this resident led the Back on Track team to identify the need for a washing machine and apply for a grant to cover the costs of this, as well as to make other interventions which led to an increase in his monthly income of £400.   

Negative budgets                  

But in the current climate of rising living costs, the Team report that, even after maximising incomes, many residents are still unable to cover their essential outgoings or repay their historic rent and/or Council Tax arrears.  These ‘negative budgets’ are fast becoming the chief concern amongst the Back on Track team, with more residents in this position even after all interventions have been made. This has wider implications for Government, and we will seek to provide more information in our full evaluation in the Autumn. 

Full interview

Q. What’s been the best outcome so far?

Rosanna: "We did a group session where residents could drop in and talk to us. One woman who was disabled, and also looking after her disabled son, told us her Housing Benefit had been stopped. She’d reached out to the Council for help, but nobody was listening. She was angry and upset but started to open up, and we worked alongside her GP who diagnosed her son as suffering from PDSD.  This helped her to get both her Council Tax arrears and Thames Water debt written off, and her income benefits increased … she is so thankful, we’re still in touch and she’s getting her life together again.”

Bayo: “Helping a single mum to get back on track after her partner left her with three grown up sons, all over 18 years old who became a drain on her finances to a point where her debts were unmanageable. Her sons were neither working nor claiming benefit and causing her daily grief - getting involved in drugs, prison, you name it. We’ve helped turn her life around through a debt write off from the council of £12,000 and boosted her household income by assessing one of her sons as a dependent, unable to work and entitled to benefits. She is a different person already, back in the community, and working full-time again.”     

Q. And the hardest cases you’ve dealt with?

Saphya: “When you can’t get people out of a negative budget even after you’ve got them all the benefits they’re entitled to.  We’ve also applied for extra grants from charities for essential items like a cooker, organised debt repayment plans, and write-offs and they are still in the red.   It’s not as bad as before and they’re not angry - in fact they’re grateful and they find a way to survive - but it’s unsatisfying when you’ve done everything you can and can’t get them out of a hole.”  

Q. Why do people fall into debt in your experience? 

Kym: “There’s always a trigger like a relationship breakdown or a bereavement where life gets on top of people. We’ve seen how people get depressed and lose the ability to function, ignore priorities and not think about outcomes. The pandemic certainly didn’t help when people lost benefits due to missed assessments and were stuck at home suffering from anxiety and depression in some cases. Their debts are not in the hundreds, always in the thousands accumulated over months and years with people burying their head because they can’t see a way out or they turn to alcohol and drugs to cope. Back on Track has been very good at sorting these situations out and getting people back into the community again after a difficult time.”

Rosanna: "Bereavement can definitely trigger depression.  It can cause people to go to a low place where they can’t function and can’t get out of that dark space. Sometimes there’s no cover for the costs of a funeral and people need to borrow quickly which doesn’t help either.”      

Bayo: “Relationship breakdowns where a parent is left with dependants too, usually single mums. I’ve seen that quite a lot in Stockwell and it’s often a reason for falling into debt.”           

Q. How do you get them out of debt?

Roseanna: “Face to face interaction is crucial to understanding their challenges. Sometimes it’s a simple thing like helping them log onto the Universal  Credit Gateway or switching them to the telephone service. They often tick ‘yes I have access to the internet via my phone’ on a form but that doesn’t mean they can access UC online because they don’t have the digital skills.”

Bayo: “Benefits have got so complicated that people need help to apply for them, and in some cases, then reapplying for them. They don’t always know how to fill in the form correctly online and they don’t always know about additional grants they might get. We have to follow all that and research it online regularly so it’s helpful to share that information. Even getting a blue badge is difficult for some people- they need help.”    

Bayo: “Face to face is the only way to unpick the complexities behind peoples’ financial problems.  Sometimes you have to work alongside social prescribing and GPs to get them back into the community. We can help with the financial side, but we are administrative not clinical experts and where there are mental and other health problems, we can’t help directly but we’ll collaborate and sort things out together with colleagues. Problems are usually more complex than just debts and  once they feel better in themselves, they can make positive changes in their life.” 

Q. Has the cost of living crisis and rising inflation made things worse?

Kym: “It’s hard to say, most of the residents have such long standing financial problems and had negative budgets before the recent inflation and cost of living increases and even after we’ve helped them. I can’t say exactly how many people will be affected but its obviously going to be a problem.” 

Q. What improvements would you make to Back On Track?

Roseanna: “Put a big poster in every surgery not just rely on leaflets in surgeries. The poster should say ‘If money worries are affecting your health talk to us’. GPs have been good at referring patients to us who need our help but maybe not everyone with money problems talks about it with their GP.

Face to face is essential both drop- in sessions with Housing Associations for residents and also in-home visits. I’d like more space to be made available at GPs surgeries too, for the team to see patients when they are there anyway seeing their GPs. Home visits are difficult to arrange, and some patients might prefer surgeries – they’re a safe haven. It was difficult to use them in the pandemic, but I hope we can use them now.”