The UK-wide Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) and Hampshire County Council public health team started discussing a year ago the co-creation of ‘Worrying About Money?’ resources for all eleven Hampshire local authorities. Funding through the Household Support Fund has paved the way for IFAN to work with district and borough council teams to co-produce multiple leaflets and interactive versions that identify and detail key local income-focused support options. Each leaflet has been and is being shaped by local knowledge. Resources for Gosport, Eastleigh Borough, East Hampshire, and Rushmoor have already been published with leaflets and their alternative versions for Hart, Fareham, New Forest, Basingstoke and Deane, Test Valley, Winchester City and Havant to be released soon.

‘Worrying About Money?’ resources are straightforward step-by-step guides to help people facing money worries or financial crisis as well as support workers and volunteers to quickly see any available cash-first focused help that’s available and accessible. Based on learning from Scotland’s A Menu for Change project, the aim of IFAN’s UK-wide partnership work is to help people find local sources of support to maximise their incomes and access any existing financial entitlements long before crisis sets in. It can be difficult for people facing money worries to find the right support early enough to prevent problems from escalating. This resource aims to make things much easier while simultaneously reducing people’s need for food banks and other forms of charitable food aid. According to latest figures from Policy in Practice, £24 billion in income-related benefits and social tariffs remains unclaimed.

Step 1 in the guide helps to identify the financial problems someone could be facing which links into Step 2. The Step 2 options (Council Support Schemes, Maximise Your Income, Debt Advice, Benefit Advance, Hardship Payment, and Challenge a Decision) directly help people improve their financial circumstances.

In Step 3, Hampshire’s ‘Worrying About Money?’ resources list local organisations available to provide direct support in person and over the telephone with each of the Step 2 options. These organisations include local Citizens Advice offices as well as district council advice services. Every leaflet also includes an ‘Other Support’ section including a range of local and national organisations that can provide support, depending on need. Hampshire-wide organisations listed include Hitting the Cold Spots, Hampshire Domestic Abuse Partnership, Speakeasy Hampshire, Age Concern Hampshire, Inclusion Recovery Hampshire, and The Princess Royal Trust for Carers in Hampshire. There’s also information provided in all the leaflets on Healthy Start vouchers and for migrants with no recourse to public funds.

‘Good health depends on more than healthcare alone. Having enough income to meet basic needs is fundamental to living well and maintaining good physical and mental health. These ‘Worrying About Money?’ resources demonstrate Hampshire’s commitment to tackling the root causes of poverty and food insecurity through a preventative approach. By bringing together local expertise and support services, these resources are helping residents access the right financial support at the right time, to build financial resilience and stability. I would like to thank our district council, voluntary sector, community partners and IFAN whose collaboration has made this valuable resource available to residents across Hampshire.’

Simon Bryant, Director of Public Health, Hampshire County Council

IFAN has collaborated with local authority teams, advice providers, and local frontline services to co-produce localised step-by-step ‘Worrying About Money?’ resources since 2020. Leaflets, as well as online interactive, poster, translated, easy read, BSL, and audio versions are now available in over 140 local authorities in Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Distribution of leaflets depends on the needs of individual communities. For example, printed leaflets can be distributed via council tax bills, libraries, schools, GP surgeries, health visitors, social prescribers as well as police and fire and rescue services. The project has been positively evaluated twice by ScotCen in 2021 and 2024. In Scotland, the co-production and dissemination of these resources was the focus of action six in the Scottish Government’s groundbreaking nine-point plan towards ending the need for food banks.

What do we mean by taking a cash-first approach to food insecurity?

Ultimately, taking a cash-first approach to food insecurity would mean everyone is able to access a living income and a healthy standard of living for all. By cash-first approaches we mean prioritising the option of cash payments over shopping vouchers or in-kind support in a crisis, finding routes to income maximisation and access to existing entitlements, and promoting ways to identify local cash-first options and ways to maximise income at the earliest opportunity. Cash-first interventions include the £20 uplift to Universal Credit, cash-first crisis payments distributed by local authorities through the CRF, or the lifting of the two-child benefit limit.

Hampshire’s ‘Worrying About Money?’ resources are being released just as England’s new Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) is embedded in district and borough councils across the county. The leaflets and their interactive versions include details of how people can access cash-first crisis payments as well as housing payments through their district councils replacing discretionary housing payments. The localised step-by-step approach of each of the leaflets is very much in keeping with the CRF guidance on bolstering local community networks of support with ‘no wrong doors’ to help individuals build financial resilience. The ‘Worrying About Money?’ resources project epitomises a cash-first approach to food insecurity and the goal to end the need for food banks and wider charitable food aid in the UK.

The ‘Worrying About Money?’ leaflets are available as hard copies but also in interactive formats (see below). If you’d like to order copies to distribute via your organisation, please use this link or if you’d be interested in alternative versions including poster, easy read, translated, BSL, or audio, please get in touch with IFAN at admin@foodaidnetwork.org.uk. IFAN is grateful to all the district council colleagues who have been working alongside us to co-produce these resources, every one of the local partner organisations providing their invaluable details and services, and to Hampshire County Council for their support.