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Dear Wiltshire Money Members,

Wiltshire Money Newsletter | January 2022 | No. 1

Welcome to the latest edition of the Wiltshire Money Newsletter. This newsletter contains news, information and training opportunities relevant to supporting financial inclusion locally, regionally and nationally. You can find out more information about Wiltshire Money on our website.

In this edition:

Wiltshire Money Forum:

• New! Wiltshire Money Forum - Registration Now Open!

News and Updates:

• New! Citizens Advice Updates:

  • Energy bills are on the rise, but what help is available?

• New! MoneyHelper:

  • Money Guidance for 2022: A New Year and a New Start!

• New! Ask Us Advice Toolkit:

  • Toolkits for Support Workers and Advice Workers

Training Opportunities:

• New! Benefits Training Company:

  • Introduction to Welfare Benefits course

• Policy in Practice:

  • Budgeting support: Best practice ways to help low-income households

• Wessex Community Action Training:

  • Hidden Disabilties Training

  • Unconscious Bias Training

• England Illegal Money Lending Team:

  • Stop Loan Sharks Training

• Spurgeons Children’s Charity:

  • Course Timetable: January - March 2022

  • Domestic Abuse Courses and Christmas Donations

Shout-outs and Ongoing Campaigns:

• Wiltshire and Swindon Credit Union

• Wiltshire Digital Drive

Wiltshire Money Forum - Registration Now Open!

The theme of the next Wiltshire Money Forum will be ‘The Cost of Living’.

The Forum will take place as follows:

Date: Tuesday the 1st of February 2022

Time: 2.00 - 3.30 PM

Location: Online

Registration for the Forum is now open. Please submit your details via the registration form. A joining link will be sent to you before the Forum. The provisional agenda is as follows:

Energy bills are on the rise, but what help is available?

Households are set to see a hike in their energy bills this year, with a potential 50% increase in prices. With lots of families already struggling, this could be the tip of the iceberg for many. Our Head of Energy Policy, Gillian Cooper called on the government to take action. She said: “The government must act now to prevent the cost of living crisis from escalating further. The quickest and easiest way to provide direct help for those hardest hit will be through the benefits system.” Read more in ITV News.

Money Guidance for 2022: A New Year and a New Start!

January unfortunately often brings deeper financial woes for many households. The aftermath of the Christmas spending can frequently be felt in the New Year as inflated credit card bills start to drop, there is a long wait to January’s salary hitting the bank, and many of us feel that we are not in enough control of our finances.

However, January is also a great time to resolve to change the relationship you have with money. There are some straightforward actions that everyone can take to start to take back control of your money, improve your confidence in financial decision making and really make some positive actions in the way in which you interact with your personal finances.

MoneyHelper (www.moneyhelper.org.uk), is a free, independent and impartial money and pensions guidance website from the Government’s Money and Pensions Service, and contains some fantastic tools, tips, resources and guidance for helping you to make 2022 the year you made your money your own.

The first thing to think about, and arguably the key to improving your finances is to learn how to budget. Taking the time to manage your money better can really pay off. Learning to budget can help you stay on top of your bills and save £1,000s each year. We have a range of resources to help you with how to go about setting up a budget and how to get your budget back on track if you think you might have slipped. We have a fantastic interactive budget planner here www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/budgeting/budget-planner, knowing where every pound is being spent is a great first step to starting your savings, getting out of debt or preparing for retirement.

If you or your household are up for a really first class financial challenge, then look no further than MoneyHelper’s flagship Couch to Financial Fitness programme, you can find the details here https://couchtofinancialfitness.moneyhelper.org.uk/. Let us help you cut through the jargon and become more confident when it comes to making decisions about your money and pensions. Couch to Financial Fitness, our free and flexible ten-week plan will help you build your confidence to manage your money. Our weekly steps and helpful tools can help you cut your spending, develop core saving muscles, and create better habits for a long-term cash confident future.

• Money Essentials - Let's kick things off by helping you look at your finance essentials: how to set up and maintain a budget, stay on top of your bills, cut costs and the best ways to save.

• Money Milestones - Here’s where you can really flex your financial muscles, personalise your experience and make sure you establish long-term good habits. You can choose where you start, making this a truly flexible programme suited to your financial fitness levels.

The Money and Pensions Service via our MoneyHelper brand is simply here to help people. Find us at www.moneyhelper.org.uk or call us on 0800 138 7777.

Ask Us Advice Toolkit

Ask Us was a five year project (2016-21) funded by The National Community Lottery Fund (TNCLF) bringing three organisations - Bristol Law Centre, Bristol Citizens Advice and 1625 Independent People - together to improve access to advice for young people in hardship crisis.

The project operated through a combination of advice and support delivery, capacity building for organisations and user involvement with the aim of leaving a legacy of what was learned over the course of the project. The aims of the project were broadly to:

• Promote learning for support agencies from advice agencies on good practice in giving information to the young people they support.

• Promote learning for advice agencies from support agencies on how to make their services more accessible to young people.

The contents of these toolkits have been developed through our experience of helping young people to navigate the busy and complex worlds of advice, information and support. We have taken feedback from the young people, support workers, advice workers and have brought emergent themes together. As is often the case in learning - we have often learned most when things have not gone well.

The Ask Us Toolkit, along with more information, can be found here.

Wiltshire Money is pleased to be able to offer our members a substantially discounted training opportunity. Citizens Advice Wiltshire has commissioned the Benefits Training Company to run their Introduction to Welfare Benefits course. There are places available with a 50% discount for Wiltshire Money members. Please see the full course description here.

Costs:

Wiltshire Money members can attend this session at half-price, for £75 per delegate.

Dates and times:

The course will run on Thursday the 17th and Friday the 18th of February from 09:45 to 12:45 - attendance is required for both days via Zoom.

How to Book:

If you would like to attend, please contact the Citizens Advice Wiltshire Training Team at training@citizensadvicewiltshire.org.uk and provide the following information:

• Name

• Organisation

• Job title

• Email address

• Written consent to share the above information with the training provider (The Benefits Training Company), so they can send relevant course materials and joining instructions.

We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals to engage fully. Please also indicate if there is any support that you might need to enable you to participate fully in this course.

Booking Deadline:

The deadline for booking is Monday 31st January. We are happy to hold a waiting list and should any spaces become available add them to the booking.

Please note that places will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Your place is not secured until you have received a confirmation email from the Citizens Advice Wiltshire Training Team.

Budgeting support: Best practice ways to help low-income households

Over one fifth of UK households have less than £100 in savings to cushion themselves against economic shocks. With Christmas gone, frontline organisations anticipate more money-related enquiries from people in need as they seek support with their household finances.

In our first webinar of 2022 we talk to advisors to hear what budgeting challenges households have, and what support they give to their customers.

Join this webinar to learn:

• Personal debt in the UK: the size and nature of the problem

• How organisations from different sectors help people to grow their financial strength

• What supporting role technology can play

Rolling programme of our Domestic Abuse Courses: Freedom and You and Me Mum

Spurgeons Childrens’ Charity would like to reming you about their rolling programme of our Domestic Abuse Courses – Freedom and You and Me Mum. Their next round will be starting in January.

Please contact the centre for more information and/or complete a Course Introduction Form.

Course Timetable - January to March 2022

Please see our poster with dates and venues for courses next year, January to March. These might be subject to change but will give everyone an opportunity to see what we are offering.

In addition to these courses we also offer support for Breastfeeding via Microsoft Teams 3 times a week and our Domestic Abuse Courses which will continue on a rolling programme.

As part of its work with the Wiltshire Inclusion Network (WIN), Wessex Community Action is offering the following training and development sessions:

• Hidden disabilities training

• Unconscious bias training

There are also opportunities to get involved in the Human Library project. More information about the project and details of how to get involved can be found here.

Free online 1-hour training seminars - could you spot a loan shark?

January dates and sessions are available here.

Links to the training will be sent to you before your session.

Wiltshire and Swindon Credit Union (WASCU) have produced a general promotional brochure as a quick guide to who they are, what they do, and how they can help. The brochure can be found here. WASCU would like to encourage you to share it with any interested parties.

The friendly WASCU team based in the Swindon office is waiting to hear from you and will answer your questions. Visit www.wascu.co.uk to find out more or call 01793 522216.

Wiltshire Digital Drive - applications open from schools, charities and voluntary organisations.

Applications are now open for the Wiltshire Digital Drive. The Wiltshire Digital Drive is a not-for-profit community interest company. Their main goal is to bridge the digital divide in Wiltshire by providing access to technology to people who fall between the cracks of not quite qualifying for government support, while at the same time being unable to afford up-to-date technology. They do this by receiving donations of old or unused laptops, tablets and PC’s from businesses or members of the general public. They spread their message mostly through referrals and word of mouth.

To be eligible, your organisation must be based in Wiltshire or a neighbouring county and be a school, nursery or pre-school, local council, town or parish council, charity, or voluntary organisation. Wiltshire Digital Drive is unable to accept applications from individuals. However, individuals are encouraged to get in touch with one of the above organisations and request that the organisation applies on their behalf. The application form is available through their website.

Contact Wiltshire Money with your local news and updates

Please remember that if you have any local news and updates that you wish to share with other Wiltshire Money members via this newsletter, please email us.