Insights into Cost of Living Crisis and Data & Advocacy

Section 1: Cost of Living

• The vast majority of organisations are extremely concerned about the cost of living crisis and the impact on both the people they support and their staff and volunteers. No organisation is not concerned.
• 97% of respondents report increased anxiety amongst staff directly related to cost of living crisis with organisations also reporting reduced volunteer time and staff being unable or resistant to return to the office due to high travel costs.
• Organisations need more funding, flexible funding and additional support in order to provide staff with salary increases in line with cost of living, reduce office costs and be able to alter project targets/deliverables in order to meet needs of their organisation. They also need to be able to change their project aims to include support to food banks and other coping mechanisms.
• Organisations are extremely concerned about the people they support especially as most are already struggling. 11 of the 30 organisations are seeing an extreme impact already and 20 out of 30 predict an extreme impact in the next 6 months. Current main coping mechanisms are increased use of food banks, reducing food intake and missing appointments to save on transportation costs
• Organisations highlight the impact on different groups within the asylum system. People in hotels cannot afford to buy any extra food with their allowance and have no facilities to use the food from food banks and parcels. People living in communities face severe challenges in using their allowance to buy food and pay bills - many are seeing increased debts and resorting to food insecurity coping mechanisms.

“Organisations are asking for increased support with food banks and expenses for volunteers as partners heavily rely on volunteers to implement their projects and volunteers need the expenses.”

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Organisational Impact

• 97% of respondent organisations (29) are seeing increased anxiety among staff and volunteers related to the cost of living crisis, with 10 organisations also reporting reduced volunteer time and 8 reporting that staff are unable or resistant to return to the office due to high travel costs. Also reported are staff resignations (6 orgs), an increase in second jobs/additional employment taken on by staff (6 orgs) and an increased use of food banks by staff (6 orgs)
• “Staff & volunteers now claiming allowable travel expenses where previously they may have seen this as an additional charitable donation”
• “More requests for job / role regrading”
• Organisations have been supporting their staff in various ways. Most common adjustments made include offering more flexible working arrangements (50%) and increasing staff salaries (49%)
• Other initiatives include providing travel passes, a one-off cost-of-living payment to supplement salaries (including an heating allowance for the autumn), advances on payscale awards, increase in staff mileage rate by 25%, vouchers for volunteers, and increasing fundraising to try and cover core costs

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The top 5 adjustments organisations have made or are currently making to manage  the impact of the cost of living crisis include:

1. Offering new services related to cost of living e.g. food bank, crisis fund, referrals (43%)

2. Reviewing staff salaries and making cost of living adjustments (37%)

3. Adjusting our strategic plan (37%)

4. Budgeting for higher salaries in funding proposals (33%)

5. Contacting funders to request increases/more flexible funding (20%)

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"[We need] increased hardship grants that are flexible and ""less restricted"" so they can be allocated more easily for different services at different times"

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• Most organisations are seeing a very high impact of the cost of living crisis on the people they support. 11 of the 30 organisations are seeing an extreme impact
• Most organisations also predict an extreme impact on the people they support in the next 6 months

There are huge concerns among the organisations regarding the people they support – all respondents further elaborated on the risks of more debt, poverty, inability of organisations to respond due to financial constraints and fears about the upcoming winter.

Organisations report that they are seeing increasing numbers of people asking for more financial support and inability to afford basic subsistence items. One respondent highlighted how much dispersed asylum seekers have been hard hit specifically due to rising food prices

Organisations have highlighted the key coping mechanisms of people which are listed below. Additionally they highlight how many people could not pay their energy bills

• Increased use of food banks (70%)
• Reducing food intake (47%)
• Missing appointments to save on transportation costs (43%)
• Reducing services accessed (23%)
• Requesting online rather than in person support (20%)

 Specific groups are being impacted in different ways

Family Reunion clients

• Families choose to reunite with only a selection of their  family, leaving some behind.
• Extreme amounts of debt (Official /Unofficial),
• Link between mental health and debt is increasing exponentially.

People in Asylum hotels

• People in hotels on £8 per week are really struggling. The food provided continues to be inadequate/ inappropriate and so people want to get things elsewhere.
• In hotels people do not have access to kitchens so can't access foodbanks/ food parcels.

People living in communities

• People in dispersal accommodation receive £40 per person per week which does not meet their basic needs - many cannot afford food with the rising costs
• Bus fares have increased recently so more money goes on travel.
• The main impact currently is reduced attendance at appointments

 Ukrainian refugees

• Hosting arrangements are breaking under the financial strain. In particular, the Family Scheme is affected as neither hosts nor arrivals get any financial support. There are cases of labour or financial abuse reported as family hosts require tangible financial help with costs of arrivals.
• Generally, homelessness applications and destitution is strongly emerging among UA group regardless of the scheme (but Family schemes particularly exposed.)
• People from Ukraine, who should be able to integrate swiftly due to the rights already afforded to them and public goodwill, are struggling to find employment because of language barriers.
• Extensive anecdotal reports of Ukrainians using local food banks despite having recourse. Refugees and others with Leave To Remain are also struggling to manage on benefits.

EU nationals

• Users at risk of being priced out from Private Rental Sector.
• Overcrowding in accommodation has intensified.
• Some people are choosing 'hybrid living': not having any permanent place in the UK (due to costs and, increasingly, immigration status) so travelling back and forth between work in UK (and temp housing solutions here) and 'home' in homeland.

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Section 2: Data and Advocacy

Key messages:

• Organisations are keen to use data to inform both their advocacy and monitoring work. Many organisations are aware of the importance of data and would like to have more capacity and time to align data gathering with strategic objectives.
• There is a desire to improve data strategies and expand monitoring, evaluation and learning approaches. Currently data gathered is mainly used for collecting information on who uses services (87%), for funders as part of reporting (80%), for monitoring projects (73%) and for advocacy / influencing  (53%)
• Organisations would also like support to develop their own digital design skills which places user experience at the centre of their work. The majority would be most interested in design projects that focused on wellbeing, improving induction materials,  and involving experts by experience in design of service development.

Advocacy

• 53% of respondents have an advocacy role within their organisation
• 75% of orgs gather data to some degree to inform their advocacy work although it was noted that this was at a basic level for many

Data

• Organisations focused on wanting to have more time/ strategy in place to understand and analyse their data, wanting to put in place systems to monitor and understand the impact of their services and to create better feedback loops from data to improve their services.‍
• The main issue with data gaps was lack of capacity both from a monetary and time perspective to monitor and evaluate data and use it in a way that is strategic as well as cost of further investment

22 organisations would be interested in being contacted by the Refugee Action Good Practice team about any future digital / design opportunities

Digital

• Most organisations have some but limited digital design process experience, and the majority use in-house approaches to digital design 
• Organisations would also like support to develop their own digital design skills which places user experience at the centre of their work. The majority would be most interested in design projects that focused on wellbeing, improving induction materials,  and involving experts by experience in design of service development.