MR Micawber’s memorable maxim in David Copperfield was “annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”
It’s a quote which has hung around because it’s as true today as it was in 1850.
“The single biggest issue for us is helping people with their cash flow,” says Ruth Campbell, of Edinburgh project 20 more. “When it doesn’t work, that’s how people get into trouble.”
I spoke to Ruth just over two years ago when she was setting up the 20 more project, which has a simple aim – to improve the income of every one of the 670 households which comprise Edinburgh’s Dumbiedykes estate, a stone’s throw from the grandeur of the Scottish parliament. It had just been funded by the Clore Duffield Foundation. So how is the project faring?
With mixed results, but significant successes. Only around 150 households have had the permanent £20 per week boost to their income which the project targeted. But those where income has improved have often seen much higher gains.
“With the bigger financial wins, people can be £100 a week better off,” Ms Campbell explains. Bigger gains come from maximising the income of people who are entitled to benefits they didn’t know about, she says, or from freeing people from debts, often by negotiating with power companies and other suppliers.
Meanwhile, another 100 households have benefited from one-off savings. In total, she says, weekly recurring gains now amount to £84,000 a year across the estate, while £45,500 in one off savings have been achieved.
The biggest problem is reaching people. The project is finding some households hard to reach, with only one an a half full-time workers plus half a dozen volunteers. It is also reaching out via a community shop.
The experiment is a continuing one, and contact with local families is ongoing, to try to ensure a situation which would satisfy Mr Micawber. “We are not working with people on the basis that this is a get of jail free card,” Ms Campbell explains. “We aim to be in a long-term relationship to help them manage money better in the future.”
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