Introducing Digital Money Coaching September, 2015

Digital Money Coaching is a new and exploratory volunteer role that has been identified as a way to help clients - who may otherwise face digital exclusion - engage with an increasingly online world. A Digital Money Coach helps a client develop the digital skills necessary to engage with financial services and products online. This can be in a one-to-one setting, or by facilitating access to an online suite. By doing so, they can build their financially capability through using online and mobile banking; price comparison sites; energy switching sites and accessing local and national government services such as welfare benefits. Money Coaches also provide ‘ assisted digital’ client support - helping clients complete specific tasks online. This activity includes, but is not restricted to, job searches, accessing and managing online Welfare Benefit accounts, bidding on social housing and making complaints What is Digital Money Coaching?

Nearly 20% of the UK population – 9.5 million people - lack the basic online skills needed to send and receive , use a search engine, browse the internet and complete online forms. The cost of this digital exclusion has been estimated at £ 560 per household as people fail to get the best deals online. The UK government has launched a “ Digital by Default ” strategy which will undertake end-to- end service redesign of all transactional services with the aim that the majority of UK Citizens will access them online. Currently only 15% of people living in deprived areas have used a government online service or website in the last year, compared to 55% nationally. Citizens Advice research has shown less than half (44%) of clients have internet access in their home. A third of clients responded that they don’t have access to the internet at all (29%). Why is it needed?

étude Noun An etude is a short musical composition, typically for one instrument, designed as an exercise to improve the technique or demonstrate the skill of the player. Fundamentally, it is a self-contained tune or melody that contains an array of transferrable skills that can be used for many different pieces of music. The thinking behind the Etude model Digital Money Coaching is built up around the Etude idea. What this acknowledges is that c ertain activities – such as doing an online debt test, for example – mean that the client needs to be comfortable doing the following: Switch on an online device. Use a mouse/touchscreen. Open an internet browser. Find the correct website. Navigate a website internally. Fill in an online form. Print any results from the test. Any and all activities are designed to build on preceding ones, not only giving clients engaging tasks to complete but also indirectly embedding key skills for them by embracing active learning.

Overview of the topics covered

There is no need to do full 60-minute ‘sessions’. A single activity is still a valid intervention, and can take place in a much more digestible 5-10 minutes. Not all the activities require online access. Some key ones - such as keeping paperwork organised – can be carried out in a one-to-one discussion, but are still key and foundational skills. The Digital Money Coaching Toolkit is there as guidance: if an advisor would prefer to use a different website or resource to teach something, they are always welcome to do so. The Toolkit is not prescriptive: picking any one activity does not immediately dictate what the next one will be. Each activity comes with recommendations, but if an advisor feels that they don’t want to adhere to this, they don’t have to. Key points around Digital Money Coaching

The Digital Money Coaching Toolkit won the Unite-IT award for ‘Vulnerable groups at risk of exclusion’, a European-wide award presented to Citizens Advice in Belgrade on 24 th September What happens next? Digital Money Coaching is an innovative and new approach towards a new volunteering role, but is still in the pilot stages. The Toolkit is provided for all local Citizens Advice and partner organisations to use, but is still very much a ‘ work-in-progress’ and should be used as such. New versions will be uploaded online at regular intervals, in response to continued feedback and practical testing.

For any further information or feedback, contact us at

Christy McAleese Team manager David Mahon Forums / Training & resources Hannah Luck Forums / Communication & information The Financial Skills for Life team Also - Basam Diablos Financial capability development consultant

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