1. Set up in 1982, offices across Wales, 50+members of staff
Delivering projects on behalf of Welsh Government and the European Union
Our vision: For Wales to be the international leader for co-operative thinking and action
Our mission: To develop sustainable businesses and strong, inclusive communities by working co-operatively
Three Key areas of work
Enterprise Support - Free support to set up and run co-operatives and social enterprises, including employee buy-outs, community based co-ops and co-operative consortia. Business consultancy service provides paid-for support.
Digital Inclusion - Helping enterprises, community groups and voluntary organisations become more competitive and take advantage of information, services and opportunities online.
Financial Inclusion - Advising public sector organisations on how to help people avoid financial problems, and supporting credit unions in their mission to provide affordable, secure financial services to all parts of our community.

2. Your Money Your Home Phase 1
Funded by Comic Relief;
Delivered between Jan 2015 & Feb 2017
Areas covered; Anglesey, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly & Newport
Worked with 475 tenants, 211completed baseline questionnaires.

9. What did we learn?
Tenants often don’t respond/engage to early intervention
Lack of ownership/responsibility coming from tenants
Transition to UC so far away, tenants will deal with it when it happens
PRS houses many vulnerable tenants who don’t know what support is available
PRS landlords concerned- feel they aren't being listened to, those with tenants on UC found it very hard to get through to DWP contact centre.
LA are delivering additional support to help tenants, but will they have the capacity to cope with full migration.

10. Your Money Your Home phase 2
Funded by the Money Advice Service ‘What Works’ funding.
Being delivered between March 2017 – April 2018.
5 project officers working in Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent ,Cardiff and Merthyr.
Target to work with 338 tenants to improve their financial capability, sustain tenancy where appropriate and help prepare for Universal Credit.
Identify support needs and refer to appropriate services.

11. Caerphilly Meet your project officer Sofie Coghlan
Sofie is employed by Caerphilly & BG Citizens Advice to deliver the project for us.
Working with housing benefit, housing and homelessness departments within LA, and other local support services.

12. The Process
Letter sent (19/7) from HB to about 360 safeguarding claimants telling them they need to attend a review meeting
Appointment letters will start being sent weekly from today.
Tenants will be phoned/texted to confirm they are attending
Venues being used for the review meetings are;
Tuesday’s – Caerphilly Smartmoney Wales (credit union) all day.
Wednesday morning – Gilfach
Wednesday afternoon – Caerphilly library
Thursday – Bargoed Citizens Advice all day.

13. Tenant attends appointment.
Sofie will complete a baseline questionnaire to understand:
behaviour towards money, ability to budget, understanding of paying rent, universal credit, digital capability.
Based on the answers Sofie will work through sections of the work book, support tenants to apply for DHP, DAF and refer them to specialist debt advice or support services.

14. Meeting with DWP and LA leads this week
Meeting with DWP and LA leads this week. What key messages would you like me to feed into my presentation regarding UC?

15. Any questions?