11 Longfellow Road 64

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I'm actually question by question.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I'll be taking notes just here in the background as well.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Thank

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Juliet. So

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

we'll just kind of flow from a strategic,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

just question by question.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Just feel free to unmute,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

raise your hand,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

speak throughout all the questions.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I'll just gather all the input afterwards and collect something that

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

looks like a consultation response,

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

hopefully.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But the first question is just around the national living wage.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So it's just around what is the impact of the national living wage in the past year,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

particularly to the most recent four to one percent increase to

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

12 .71 in April this year.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

And they said,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

we are interested in the effect of the national living wage on the areas listed below.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So you've got employment,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

hours, earnings,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

profits,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

prices, productivity,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

et cetera,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

et cetera. You can see all the full list.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So I don't know what people's experiences have been,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

whether it's in the front line,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

definitely as people that they've spoken to around the impact

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

that this new kind of national living wage has had on people,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

if any.

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

i'm sure cat would have some like hr would have something to say on this as well actually

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

i really might be interested you know what justine or someone might

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

have some thoughts i mean from from an actual cap perspective

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

as well as a um you know we're talking from the external perspective

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I was thinking the same.

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I think slight caution with that is that I

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

think from their point of view,

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

they're representing CAP's financial situation.

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So we have to remember when we're doing a consultation responsibility,

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

it's good for us to feed in as an employer and a charity,

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

but always the bottom line will be

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

like, what?

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

in our response what represents the outcomes for our clients

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

and addressing UK poverty most.

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So that might mean we have to use

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

what they say with a bit of caution.

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I know Helen might be very

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

aware of this.

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

It's just an explanation.

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

No,

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

it's fine.

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I'm not sure what external

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

impact we've seen.

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I think it's interesting,

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

isn't it?

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Because you hear a lot of comments about

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I don't know some of the,

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I need to be careful what I say,

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

because I think some of it has been,

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you hear about it from other organisations,

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

about the fact that there's less like low entry level

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

jobs available because of not just the increase,

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

yeah, increase in national living wage,

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

but because of the increase in the,

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know,

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

previous increase in the national insurance.

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So I don't know from a job,

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

it might be good to get a job club manager's perspective on it as well.

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I think they would have a lot to say on it because they would know about what their experiences

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

are of trying to get people into those entry -level jobs.

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I mean, we know there's a massive issue with people in employment,

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

education and training,

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

but,

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know, it's what are we actually seeing,

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

like, in the job clubs and in our local services and what are our,

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know,

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I think some of them would have more of an idea,

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know,

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

worth speaking to.

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I think good job clubs,

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Juliet, or anyone else do we know?

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Is it? There's one or two around,

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

but that's Scottish.

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Is this England or is this?

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

It's also more who's going to respond with speed,

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

noting that we've got a tight deadline.

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So it might be one of the area managers that was also

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

a job club coach.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So like Nikki,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

for example, in London,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

she'll probably be able to,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

like, you'd be able to ping her.

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Yeah.

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

this is yeah no i agree i'm gonna um ask

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

pete you in a second if you've seen anything from budgets um

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

point of view but i suppose you could bring in um am

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

i still the like stats of how many of our clients still had a deficit

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

budget um in may

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

um just because then we're able to say like

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

still people are in financial difficulty um

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I don't know that we can...

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

You can have a little bit of a...

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I'm just thinking...

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

We used to be able to say how many of our clients who were in full

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

-time work had a deficit budget,

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

but with all the kind of...

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

change of DMP.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

We can't do that at the moment.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I'm just thinking with the timescale,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I'm not sure that we'll be able to pull that stat,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

but we can try.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I can point you in the directions and we'll see if you can get that stat

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

in time.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But yeah,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

it might be worth us one,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

just kind of being aware that we don't want to just fill it with anecdotes of like

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

things that we have heard on the news or hunches that we have.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But yeah,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

if we've got...

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

stats on how many of our our clients are facing that also if

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

we we could bring in some of the stats from the april round

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

of polling um but kind of saying like this setting the scene this is this

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

is the uk kind of situation

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

as the changes were kind of coming in.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But obviously we don't have anything since the

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

April change,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

so we don't know if those stats have changed at all.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But Pete,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

what have you been seeing from your debt advisory hat on

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

at all? I mean,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I'd be lying if I said I had any great insights into this

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

area.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So I'm not a debt advisor anymore,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

so I don't see budgets to the same level that

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I did previously when I was.

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So, yeah,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I wonder whether we could...

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

My gut instinct is a

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

number of thoughts.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Obviously,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

increasing income is good for people who are holding

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

wage because it gives them more money

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

in their pocket.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But the reality,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

for

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

a lot of them, they'll be claiming benefits as well.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

And we already know that the benefits system is...

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

My thought was whether you could look at whether

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

there's been a change in rate

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

of deficit budgets.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But again,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I'm not sure that that would necessarily just speak to this because most

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

people's income picture is a bit more complex

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

than just one income stream.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So I don't know how much information that would give us.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

The trade -off,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I think someone's already mentioned it,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

the trade -off is that,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know, increasing the national living wage is a good thing for those who are on

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

it until it forces employers not to employ

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

them. So,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

and I think there's a bit of

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

insight.

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Juliet?

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

yeah okay well we can we can leave it this year as pretty kind of

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

just general um we see uh living

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

wages as the desired kind of outcome that we need to make sure that

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

everyone's

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

got enough income coming in from wages and or social

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

security to be able to afford the essentials and

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

just go for that narrative there is research both to support and

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

to counter that concept

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

of like reduction of

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

of jobs,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

those kind of entry level jobs.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So I think because we haven't done research on that,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I think we can avoid that,

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I suppose.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Another point to bring in at this point is also to do with

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

insecure work and like the issues that we're seeing

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

with.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

people in like yes they might be earning um this

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

national living wage when they are working but they're working patterns on like

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

concrete and aren't predictable could be cancelled last minute

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

um like with the gig economy um like sometimes some

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

jobs also aren't paid but by the hour and there's the kind of complexities

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

there um so i think that it's worth bringing up that we can just use

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

kind of the buzz terms of like how

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Yes, we want living wage,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

that we want the target in the future to be the minimum

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

income standards.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

we can also be bringing in social security,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

as Pete mentioned,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

and the essentials guarantee and making sure that social security is

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

part of the equation that they're considering.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

all of those things.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I think we could even just kind of finish up the response in this section

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

by kind of...

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

reiterating and re -offering that like if they ever want to come and speak um

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

again to to any of our job club participants um then

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

they're they're welcome to

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

come and visit us as an employer of 300 staff and

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

the like.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Yeah, I was literally going to talk about this because I just wondered if there

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

was a, if we had any comparison between national living wage,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

because it's not as high as real living wage,

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

is it?

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

And just whether we can give them any,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

like any thoughts on that,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

in our experience.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

And also about,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know, it's like the carers and things,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

our contract's just exactly shocking,

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

really.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Do you know what I mean?

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I can see how it's convenient for an employer to offer somebody zero -hour contracts,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

but actually it's really,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

really tough if you are on those zero -hour contracts and you're not guaranteed income.

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

How do you budget?

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

How do you manage?

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

It's really,

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S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

really tricky.

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

And obviously some of the laws are

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

changing around that,

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

so it's worth giving a nod to that.

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

like acknowledge the changes and we'll be kind of watching to see how that impacts

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

our client base and those like and poverty

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

as a whole so yeah i think there's hopefully a scattering of different

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

things that you can weave into a result there

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

this and i think some of the stuff you touched on kind of links to our next question which

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

i then guess mostly effort um in regards to especially the stuff around

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

insecure work will go into but this question is probably the one that i think most

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

of our expertise lies in um especially that it's kind of a tiered um

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

selection of questions but especially around the benefit system and

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

barriers to work

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But I'll just read the first bit.

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

It says recent increases in the national living wage have exceeded

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

increase in average prices.

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Has this made it easier for workers at or close to national living wage

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S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

or national minimum wage to meet their living costs?

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S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I suppose

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

that's where we can bring in some of our polling work on how

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S… Speaker 7 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

people...

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

on kind of even on wages um can be facing

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

like can be going without essentials um it

12:18

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

is worth caveating caveating that

12:23

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

though with the fact that i think

12:28

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

The changes will have come in in April,

12:31

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

so like maybe just a few days before the polling round went out,

12:34

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

but not a significant time enough for us to be able to really

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

kind of lean into that.

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So,

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S… Speaker 8 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

yeah,

12:45

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I think it's kind of a bit too

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

early for them to even be trying to see

12:53

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

how that's affecting people.

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I think it could be...

12:58

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

A point to be saying about how increases in energy costs,

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

for example, and other essentials and the high food costs mean

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

that that is putting more of a strain on households' budgets as well.

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S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I was just going to

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

make the point that whilst they seem to be leaning on this idea

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

that increases in the national living

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

wage have exceeded the increase in average prices,

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S… Speaker 6 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

which is great.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But the reality for most people is that that just makes it

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

marginally less affordable rather than all

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

of a sudden making everything affordable.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So just,

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S… Speaker 6 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know,

13:44

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

if someone's got a broken budget and,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know, their deficit is 300 quid,

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

the fact that the national living wage increases...

13:56

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

marginally outweighs the increase in average prices might mean that

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

their budget is only in deficit by £295 but it

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

still doesn't change the fact that they can't afford to live so

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

it makes it marginally better for them

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

but it's still bad and so

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you can they can obviously spin it that oh well we're

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

doing we're increasing it more than the

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

the average increase in costs.

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But if the underlying fundamentals

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S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

are like it's massively unaffordable,

14:36

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

then it's still not enough,

14:38

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

is it?

14:38

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Helen?

14:43

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

No,

14:44

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I was just going to hook on to the energy thing because I think actually,

14:47

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

let's be real,

14:48

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

they sent this out now.

14:49

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

They gave a 4 .1 % was an increase and then

14:53

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

they face a 13 % increase if they're on a standard variable tariff

14:57

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

in their energy.

15:00

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

already back in lights when they you know they've lost they've

15:04

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

lost already and I think that's just one example um uh

15:08

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

yeah it's interesting I mean I don't know if we're going to frame it with any of our

15:12

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

like debt advice work at all but if you look at um priority bills and how

15:16

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

in arrears people are I mean it's just like it's like a drop in the

15:20

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

ocean isn't it such a small small increase but yeah well

15:24

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

in you go

15:26

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Yeah, well,

15:27

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

essentially what Pete said about,

15:29

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know, if you've got this big deficit already,

15:32

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

but we do track.

15:35

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Julia,

15:36

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

are you aware that we track our deficit budget?

15:38

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But because we track that,

15:42

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

we can track the,

15:43

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know, has actually there been any big differences?

15:46

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

And we also have,

15:49

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know, from the client report and the home report,

15:52

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know,

15:52

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

the average incomes of our clients.

15:55

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

and whether we've got time to ask Helen Clark to put

16:00

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

something together about,

16:02

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know,

16:04

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

the incomes and the stuff that our clients are struggling to afford.

16:08

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

You know, they're having to borrow money still.

16:10

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Let alone,

16:14

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know, any.

16:15

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Yeah,

16:18

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

but basically it's what we said.

16:24

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I was basically about to say pretty much the same thing as you,

16:26

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Helen, if you pick me to the post.

16:29

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Just,

16:30

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

yeah, pointing where those statistics are and also bringing

16:35

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

out from the client report and deficit budgets.

16:37

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

If we can,

16:38

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I'm not sure that Helen Hart will be the best person for it,

16:40

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

but if we can try and get someone from the data and insight team to

16:44

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

run us a quick report with what people,

16:49

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

our clients who are earning an income,

16:53

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

from wages rather than social security what their experiences are then that

16:57

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

would be probably more kind of valuable than being able to talk about our client

17:02

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

base as a whole but if we can't do that then still being able to talk about

17:06

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

the stats from our clients as a whole and talk about how actually within our

17:10

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

client base as with most of the kind of people on in

17:14

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

households in lower incomes

17:16

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

actually they are receiving some money from wages and

17:21

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

some money from social security and that can fluctuate month in month out and

17:25

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

that like that is part of the equation so actually

17:29

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

the national living wage for example can't be seen in isolation needs

17:34

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

to be seen with within the wide picture of social security as a whole

17:41

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I'll move on to question two in this section.

17:43

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

We touched on it already,

17:45

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

but essentially the question is just what's happened around the quality of work recently.

17:49

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So that's contract types,

17:51

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

flexibility of contracts,

17:52

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

treatments in the workplace.

17:54

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So I think it links to kind of stuff we're talking before around insecure work,

17:57

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

et cetera, et cetera.

17:58

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

And then what are the drivers of these changes,

18:02

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

do you think?

18:03

S… Speaker 6 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Julius?

18:06

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Yeah, I think we've because we've got the Barrist work report and so

18:10

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

it's worth kind of just picking up from there and kind of referring out to that.

18:14

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

And you can steal some of the statistics from the

18:18

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

January round of polling that we did around specifically.

18:22

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

then focusing on work.

18:24

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So there's some interesting stats there.

18:26

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I think we could acknowledge that

18:30

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

actually we can't yet talk about fully

18:34

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

the impacts of the April changes because it's too early

18:38

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

to have seen that outplayed.

18:42

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

because of the kind of like uncertainty of the job market

18:47

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

at the moment that is still having an effect so whether actually

18:51

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

it has or hasn't had much of an effect on like work

18:55

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

quality and flexibility and availability at the moment like

18:59

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

even if

19:01

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

it's identified that there hasn't been any changes on all

19:05

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

of those.

19:05

S… Speaker 7 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Like,

19:06

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

people are still feeling the anxiety around,

19:09

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

oh, what will happen because of AI,

19:11

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

what will happen because of this,

19:12

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

that and the other.

19:12

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

And you can kind of pull out probably some of the quotes that we had from the focus

19:16

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

group with the job clubs in the Barrett's work report.

19:21

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Like,

19:22

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

pull out some of those senses of,

19:24

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

like, people being unsure what their future,

19:28

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

like, job prospects look like.

19:30

S… Speaker 6 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

And

19:34

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Angani?

19:35

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Yeah, so one of the things we measure in the client reports each year

19:39

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

is what prevents you from getting a better job,

19:42

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

essentially, increasing your income.

19:44

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

And usually,

19:46

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know, things like lack of confidence,

19:48

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

mental health,

19:48

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you know, is the biggest driver.

19:50

S… Speaker 5 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But there is then numbers for lack of childcare or

19:54

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

in rural areas,

19:55

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

transport.

20:00

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Again, it won't give us anything from April,

20:02

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

but it will tell us what's been happening the last few years.

20:04

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Anything

20:12

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

else around that particular part?

20:15

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

It kind of links to the next question as well in regards to what are the barriers preventing

20:20

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

people from getting a new job,

20:21

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

particularly one that is better paid.

20:23

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

It's kind of what you've touched on already there,

20:24

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Helen.

20:25

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I don't know what I was about to say there.

20:28

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

And Julia as well.

20:32

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But any other input on that particular part?

20:35

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Yeah, Julia.

20:36

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Yeah, so I'd definitely be seeing that stat from client report that

20:41

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Helen Canning mentioned.

20:43

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But then also,

20:44

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

yeah, we could literally,

20:45

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

and you'll probably see that this is how we've done it sometimes in past

20:50

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

responses, like just bullet point,

20:52

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

like these are the different barriers that we see.

20:54

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So you can just pull that from the barriers to work report.

20:58

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I might give an explanation under each of them.

21:01

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

If you look at the kind of barriers to work summary briefing,

21:05

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

that's probably as good a place as any to start to pull out

21:09

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

some of those kind of stats with that.

21:11

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But yeah,

21:12

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

feel free to kind of just almost pick and dump from there and

21:17

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

then also point them in that direction to find out more.

21:20

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I was just thinking,

21:23

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

was mental health one of those?

21:26

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

reasons that i just wonder if we need to say anything about that in terms of

21:30

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

what we're seeing certainly amongst our clients increasing mental health

21:34

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

and that um is it embarrassed to work julia that

21:39

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

comment where it says um why could people not it's the psychosocial

21:43

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

and health um and yeah there's physical health and mental health but yeah like that's

21:47

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

probably a good idea to also pull that out particularly as a

21:52

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

We're certainly seeing it amongst the debt clients,

21:54

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

aren't we?

21:54

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

And lack of confidence was a big one as well,

21:57

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

if I remember rightly.

21:58

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I might

22:05

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

skip over the next question because we've just touched on it in regards to how is access and

22:09

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

cost of childcare and transport affected workers' ability to move into work or a better

22:13

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

paying job?

22:14

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

It's basically what you were saying there before,

22:17

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Helen G.

22:18

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But any of the input on this one?

22:20

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Yeah, just the only thing to flag as well that we have in previous times

22:24

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

is just also reiterating the...

22:29

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Not only do they need to look at the cost of childcare and transport and

22:33

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

the effects of that,

22:33

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

but also the pay of the childcare sector and the transport

22:38

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

sector and the availability of high quality

22:42

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

childcare and that role in helping with social

22:46

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

mobility.

22:46

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

And so as a charity aiming to try

22:51

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

and address poverty in the UK,

22:53

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

like childcare in particular can't just be looked at in isolation of the impacts.

22:57

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

that has on working parents also needs to be covered.

23:00

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

The

23:09

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

final question in this section is what has been

23:13

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

workers' experience around the universal credit system and how the minimum wage

23:17

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

interacts with it?

23:18

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

How have these influenced workers' approach to how many hours they

23:22

S… Speaker 3 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

work and whether they move into a better paying job?

23:31

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Pete, a question for you.

23:32

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Have they addressed it yet?

23:34

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Because I know that we have flagged in the past that they didn't have third party access

23:38

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

to clients' universal credit portal.

23:42

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Has that changed now?

23:43

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Not aware.

23:45

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Okay,

23:46

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

then that's something that we can reiterate here if we want.

23:50

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

It's probably worth checking with a debt

23:54

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

advisor.

23:54

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Potentially check with someone like Jonathan Wormsley.

24:00

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

I'm not aware,

24:01

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

but he may know more.

24:05

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

It's a very simple question

24:09

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

to ask.

24:10

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

Yeah,

24:12

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

because that's something that we've pushed for in the past.

24:14

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

So if we can get that...

24:16

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

in here as well um these guys aren't probably the people for

24:20

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

it but at the same time the more that we can say in all potential places we could

24:24

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

say it the more we kind of pressure on that one and another

24:29

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

thing we can kind of be talking about is just the complexities of

24:33

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

people's lives um and kind of you can be bringing up some of the kind of

24:37

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

messages that come out through the client report um but just how

24:41

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

almost there's multiple

24:44

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

things going on in people's lives simultaneously so to budget when

24:48

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

you've got uncertain income coming in when you're not sure about kind of

24:52

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

the like how to navigate social security system well you've got unexpected costs

24:56

S… Speaker 4 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

coming and you've got like problem debt like

25:00

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

complexities of people's lives meaning that actually it's not just a simple

25:04

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

like interaction between universal credit system and the minimum wage

25:08

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

there's actually kind of more complexity there um but

25:12

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

i would say we probably don't have much say about kind of

25:16

S… Speaker 1 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

um

25:18

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

like whether it's necessarily affected people's hours.

25:21

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

But you could just double check with when you are speaking to

25:25

S… Speaker 2 (11 Longfellow Road 64)

a job club manager like Nikki,

11 Longfellow Road 64

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