Help Needed: Money Matters & Leaving Care
Hello, my name is Jacqui and I am a researcher from Shelter Cymru and I’m based in Cardiff. We have just started to research the issue of financial exclusion amongst care leavers/those due to leave care. We want to know how confident care leavers feel managing their money and whether they feel that young people should be given extra support with their finances.
We want to make sure that this group of young people are not disadvantaged in any way when it comes to managing their money and accessing financial products such as loans and credit cards. We want to use the results of our research to highlight any concerns and show decision makers and service providers where young care leavers should be better supported.
If you are a young care leaver or someone who is due to leave care soon, and are between the ages of 16-25, we’d love for you to have your say. If you don’t have personal experience of the care system then perhaps you know someone who does? If so, you could still really help by sending them this article.
We want to get the opinions of as many young people who have experience of the care system as possible. You can have your say in three ways:
- You can comment with your thoughts and opinions on the matter below this article
- You can email me your comments privately at jacquelinec@sheltercymru.org.uk or
- You can send me your email address and I will send you a short questionnaire. I will keep your responses confidential.
If you’d like to take part, then please give me your opinions on some or all of the following issues:
- Do you feel confident managing your money?
- Do you know where to go for money advice?
- Should there be more support for young care leavers to help them manage their money?
- Who do you trust with your money e.g. banks, building societies? And who don’t you trust, and why?
- If you do think there should be more advice and support for young people, where would you like this advice and support to come from?
Please also add any other opinions regarding handling your finances and/or changes you think should happen to enable young care leavers to independently manage their money and access the financial products they need. There’s no right or wrong answers so just say how you feel.
Thanks for your time - your opinion can really help to make a difference for young people leaving care in the future. We want an equal and fair society and your thoughts can help us to achieve this!
Hope to hear from you
Jacqui
Info Housing Homelessness Leaving Home
2 Comments – Post a comment
LudusLudius
Commented 69 months ago - 12th September 2010 - 12:44pm
Where were you when my friend became homeless then!?
No one helped him to get any accomodation. No one sent him any advice just we cannot help: See the other people that also say they cannot help. Or goes off on a tangent to something irrelevant!
I'll leave the comment there... as if you read this you might have the heart to want more information.
LudusLudius
Commented 69 months ago - 13th September 2010 - 17:12pm
Thanks for responding. Its a major failure in the system that he has no support and no one helping him gain housing.
I passed the information on, and hopefully now you can assist and correct the issue.