Advocacy For All Money Matters Project report 2024 Version 1

Key Word List

41 Lunch club and older person sessions 42 Remembering Linda

“Things are more expensive and its harder to do things.

prices have gone up so I really have to think about what I buy and eat”

Introduction 5

Key Word List Statutory advocacy: where local boroughs have to provide certain advocacy services as a legal right.

Starting in 1997, Advocacy for All (AfA) is a people-focused charity with a long history and excellent track record of providing high-quality statutory & non-statutory one to one and self-advocacy in various South-east & South London boroughs and in Kent. Advocacy empowers vulnerable people, including those with Learning Disabilities (LD) and also Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) to have bigger voices & better lives.

Introduction 6

Key Word List

Inclusive: including everyone. Empowering: the process of becoming stronger and more confident, with more control of their lives and rights

AfA support many people who do not have a voice. The clients we work with are often isolated, are unable to access services, social and employment opportunities, suffer from poor mental & physical health & can experience abuse in a variety of ways.

This is a human rights issue, and our service is person centred, empowering and professional, providing quality services that are inclusive. We are passionate about enabling our clients to speak up.

About this report 7

This report is about the cost of living crisis and how it affects people with LD and ASC. This is a part of a two year project funded by the City Bridge Trust. This report will look at the different actitivies we did in Year 1.

The cost of living crisis in the UK started in late 2021, but for people with disabilties, COVID-19 was a time when they felt forgotten by society, isolated and starting to experience real poverty. AfA wanted to help their members tell their own stories, and share money-saving information.

The

contributors

Key Word List Contributors: people involved in writing and collecting information. Also helping with videos, podcasts and photos.

The contributors on this project are LD/ASC members who belong to three different teams. The Easy Read Team, The A Team and The Media Team.

They have been involved with presenting the project, running workshops, collecting answers, and creating social media posts, videos and podcasts. The work took place in Bromley, Bexley, Sutton. They talked to AfA staff in Swanley, and also delivered a workshop at the Positive Voices conference at Birmingham.

9 Message from Jon Wheeler

CEO of Advocacy for All

“...Everything is getting much more expensive, so working with you to find out what we (AfA) need to do to help is really important...we need to hear the things that are difficult for you... what you tell is so important.”

The above quote is taken from the first event we had for the Cost of Living project. This was the Money Matters conference in Bromley. The following pages will show all the work we have done from May 2023 to April 2024.

10 Money Matters Conference, Bromley, July 2023

In this video below we show highlights from our Money Matters conference, looking at the ‘Cost Of Living Crisis affecting people with LD/ASC.

Please click on the square to the right → to play the video for this conference.

11 What Bromley members said.

12 What Bromley members said.

What Bromley members said.

We asked the members here two questions. We wrote their answers at the bottom of the graph, and the coloured bars tells us how many times we heard those answers with the numbers on the left hand side.

Members Monthly Meeting,

Bromley Together

On the next pages, we have the responses from our members at our Members Monthly Meeting. They meet once a month to discuss what is important to them and are part of Bromley Together. The meeting took place Monday 6th November 2023.

We talked about what the cost of living crisis is, how it makes people feel and what people worry about. We then asked the members what the government can do, and what AfA can do to help.

Members Monthly Meeting Bromley Together 15

Please click on the picture of Brian with his son Jonathan to play a video message for our 25th Birthday. Bigger Voices, Better Lives. What is the cost of living crisis?

• Raising prices

• Things are more expensive and its harder to do things

• Food prices have gone up so I really have to think about what I buy and eat

• It’s higher energy bills, It isn’t very good

• Lack of stock on shelves as everything is so expensive

• Home improvements aren’t possible because materials are too expensive

16 Members Monthly Meeting Bromley Together

What is the cost of living crisis(continued) ?

• Food packages are smaller but the same price

• Child care costs are so high so I have to stay so much more and rely on my family more

• My money now only goes a short way

Everyone we interviewed said that the cost of living crisis has affected them in many ways. It has made them poorer, and nothing is being done to lower any of the prices.

17 Members Monthly Meeting

Bromley Together

How does the cost of living make you feel?

• Miserable

• Let down by the government

• Sad, angry, depressed

• Worried

• Annoyed

• Disappointed

• Stuck

• Helpless

• Stressed

• Lied to

• Out of control of things

18 Members Monthly Meeting,

Bromley Together

What worries you about the cost of living?

• How I need to spend my money now Christmas is coming

• That it will go on forever

• The prices of energy

• Being able to live of dads pension

• How I’ll cope when dads gone

• The cost of getting married and if it will ever happen

• The price of food and being able to stay healthy

• Running out of money

19 Members Monthly Meeting

Bromley Together

What worries you about the cost of living ?

• Keeping an eye on my money and keeping it safe

• Keeping a roof over my head

• I worry about everything

• Food packages are smaller but the same price

For our members, living under stress because of money worries is now becoming normal. This has meant that members now ask AfA about creating mental health projects.

20 Members Monthly Meeting Bromley Together

What can be done to help?

• The government/council could help with saving schemes

• More gift card schemes for shops to help with shopping

• Lower prices

• Ask the government for more help

• Lower fares for OAPs

• Give everyone a pay rise

• Members of the government to take a pay cut

• Put financial letters and advice in easy read

21 Members Monthly Meeting Bromley Together

What could AfA do to help?

• More advice drop ins

• More lunch drop ins

• More coffee mornings

• Find out info about

• Savings

• Where to go for help

• What support is there

• Benefits

• Schemes that are available

22 Positive Voices Conference

Birmingham October 2023

Our team delivering‘Money Matters Project’ at the Positive Voices conference. It was great to meet the other self-advocacy groups and individuals, share our work with them, and hear their views on an important subject.

Please click on the square to the right → to play the video for this conference.

23 Positive Voices Conference

Birmingham October 2023

We asked the members here two questions. We wrote their answers at the bottom of the graph, and the coloured bars tells us how many times we heard those answers with the numbers on the left hand side.

Positive Voices Conference

Birmingham October 2023 24

At the end of the workshop presentation, we showed our music video based on the Abba song “Money, Money, Money”. The song lyrics were written by our members about how the cost of living crisis affects people with disabilities.

Please click on the square to the right → to play the video for this conference.

Positive Voices Conference

Birmingham October 2023

Positive Voices Conference

Birmingham October 2023

What support do you know about already that you can tell others about?

What tips do you have?

Spotify

Podcast How To Deal With Scams with

Max Finney.

In this special episode, Max talks to us about scams, what are the most common scams, and how it can feel to be a victim. Many thanks to Max for help and expertise...thanks to the media team for their contributions and producing this podcast.

Please click on the square to the right → to play the video for this conference.

Our work in numbers

May 2023 to April

30 Speak Up Sutton members responses

What is the biggest challenge for you in the cost of living crisis? What worries you?

• Not being able to pay for my supported living

• I am worried that I won’t be entitled to any other benefits

• I am worried going to supported living

• Paying for bills

• Not being able to go out to do social activities eg. coffee

• Not being able to afford anything decent when it comes to clothes

31 Speak Up Sutton members responses

What is the biggest challenge for you in the cost of living crisis? What worries you?

• Not being able to pay for activities

• Not being able to do my shopping

• Try to pay bills

• Price of food gone up

• Heat our flats

• Funding\education

• People can’t put heating on (heating bills have gone up)

• Petrol

32 Speak Up Sutton members responses

What is the biggest challenge for you in the cost of living crisis? What worries you?

• Health care

• Dentist

• Holidays are hard to find

• People are having to steal

• Paying bills

• Buying food when my parents pass away

• Rejection in the society

33 Speak Up Sutton members responses

What do you think should be done to help people with LD in the cost of living?

• Arrange more activities for people with a learning disabilities

• By giving more financial support and support from family relations

• Give to people out of the goodness of your heart

• They should make activities for people with learning disabilities

• Support people with independent living skills

34 Speak Up Sutton members responses

What do you think should be done to help people with LD in the cost of living?

• Companies sharing their profits

• Help people to gain work experience and get in house support

• Making people aware of hidden disabilities

• People should get more money when on benefits

• help each other if they need help

• increase the disability living allowance simple things in life

35 Speak Up Sutton members

responses

What do you think should be done to help people with LD in the cost of living?

• make it affordable for people to afford the

• People with a learning disability should pay less for recreational activities.

• People with hidden disabilities should be given a choice of living in a supported living home

• food and bills should be more affordable

36 Speak

Up Sutton members responses What is a message you want people in power to hear?

• Provide enough benefits support for people with a learning disability

• Have more respect

• Listen more and take action on the importance of LD issues

• Cutting down on food prices

• Make it easier for LD people to have access to benefits

• People in power should earn less and give more to people with LD

37 Speak Up Sutton members responses

What is a message you want people in power to hear?

• Understand people with a LD better

• Talk less but do more

• Create more opportunities for more employment for people with a learning disability

• The government should create more support in the education field for people with a learning disability

38 Speak Up Sutton members responses

What support do you know about already that you can tell others about? What tips do you have?

• Spend money wisely

• Think about how much money you spend on things

• Bring up issues without complaining

• Cooking skills

• Learning how to budget

• Paying your bills

• Do not spend too much money on clothes, make the ones you have last longer

39 Speak Up Sutton members responses

What support do you know about already that you can tell others about? What tips do you have?

• Get help with money problems

• Go to the bank

• Look for cheap shops

• Bargains/online

• Know how to budget

• Food banks

• Charity work

• Help the homeless

40 Speak Up Sutton members responses

What support do you know about already that you can tell others about? What tips do you have?

• Spend money wisely

• Warm hubs- Sutton

• Winter fuel money

• Personal Independent Payment (PIP)

The interviews took place in Sutton on Thursday 8th February

41

Lunch club and Older Persons group

We have run 40 lunch time sessions, with an average 4-6 people attending. The lunches are important to our members they tell us:

• “they bring people together” “they help to keep us warm in this cold weather”

• “they help us to have chats and feel part of our community”

Because of the lunch sessions, we saw a need coming out of the Cost of Living research.

42 Lunch club and Older Peoples group

We have started running our Older People’s sessions, with many members finding the challenges of getting older were made worse by the Cost of Living crisis, and vice versa.

We have been running monthly lunches, and inviting guest speakers, to help us explore this topic.

We also had guests from the NHS, local authorities and other charity sector workers. We got to hear the voices of people who this crisis is impacting in a big way, and what they feel they need and want to make things better.

Remembering Linda 43

While we were doing this research on this great project, we sadly lost our lovely Linda. Linda was a big part of this community, and one of the original members of Bromley Together. Her absence is felt by all of us.

We were honoured to call Linda our friend, and she was a true advocate. She was an incredible help on this report and all the activities by AfA.

We were honoured to call Linda our friend.