Money Carer Foundation: Anglia Research partner features in Parliamentary Review

Anglia Research regularly works with The Money Carer Foundation (MCF), finding long-lost family for its clients. Now we’re delighted to report that MCF has been featured in The Parliamentary Review 2017, which aims to share best practice among policy makers and business leaders.

MCF is an award-winning organisation that provides daily money management services working with a range of clients across the UK. Their clients may lack the capacity to manage their own finances because of a range of disabilities or long-term health conditions. These needs may also increase their risk of being financially exploited by other people.

Having developed a number of innovative solutions to protect clients from theft, and carers from accusations of theft, it was selected to showcase its approach in the finance category of The Parliamentary Review.

“At MCF we don’t accept that problems are there to be worked around. Instead we take ownership of the problem and solve it,” says CEO Sean Tyrer.

“We act as a corporate appointee for most of our clients, managing their welfare benefit entitlements and using these funds in their best interest. One of the main problems we faced was how to provide our clients with a simple and easy to use bank account service that would allow carers to buy day to day items for clients in a secure way.”

The carers shopping card

Working with its banking partners, MCF came up with the carers shopping card and Monika – a monitoring system capable of spotting suspicious transactions and issuing alerts. These allow MCF to provide shopping money to carers in a way that protects both clients and carers.

In line with MCF’s remit as a social enterprise, it has expanded the service to solicitors and charities who also manage the finances of people at risk of abuse, and in May 2017 the carers shopping card was launched to consumers nationwide.

The information vacuum

Another problem MCF have faced is that their clients are often referred to them with hardly any details about their background.

“This is particularly the case with older people who sometimes simply appear on the radar of a council social care department with very little information about their past. They might then be referred to us for ongoing support with only the most basic facts provided,” explains Sean.

Typically, MCF tackled the problem head-on, recruiting their own network of independent social workers to gather better quality information about their clients’ circumstances, and instructing Anglia Research to trace their clients’ relatives.

Partnering with Anglia Research allows MCF to put families back in touch with one another, as well as provide carers with opportunities for understanding and interaction through the Books for Memories project, using memory books, film, music and even food to evoke the past.

“When you know about someone’s background, you can make decisions that are relevant and important to them, and thus improve their quality of life,” Sean comments. “Considered and informed money management can be a catalyst for better outcomes for clients, and that’s what we’re aiming for.”

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