Get Cents
After forty five years of never once saving, what has encouraged a Depaul service user to open a savings account?
John has eight kids and is living in Depaul’s Backlane hostel. He
survives on €196 a week out of which €63 for rent is paid straight away. He was never a saver, and nobody in his family, in this or previous generations were either, because they saw no point in leaving it behind them.
For the past three weeks, John and eighteen other men living in Depaul's Backlane hostel engaged in the Get Cents programme provided by KPMG staff. The programme is a fun and interactive way of learning about budgeting, savings, opening a bank account, getting credit etc.
John learned that a little advice goes a long way when it comes to money “Money is never easy but they made it sound that it can be managed and handled properly and its even got me thinking about saving!”. 
Other Depaul service users, like John, have found the programme extremely beneficial too. David, who is 26 and has a three year old son says that “I thought it was going to be a waste of time and I wouldn’t learn anything but I learned loads and it was great.”
He said that it has had huge impact for him and he now hopes to open a post office account and keep a written budget each week. He also got a few tips that will help him to have money for special times with his son “I get €18 a week in child maintenance. Normally I would just spend this but now I’m going to save it to do something special with my 3 year old son at the end of the year. I never would have thought of this before.”
The men really engaged with the programme and asked lots of questions pertinent to them. The reality that money lenders can charge up to 1000% in interest rates really grabbed their attention and I think we will see lots of them joining their local credit unions, which according to the facilitators is the best place to save.
Get Cents is part of KPMG's Corporate Social Responsibility programme. KPMG realise that the knowledge and skills of their staff can make a valuable contribution to people on lower incomes with limited money management awareness.
Karina Howley, who manages the CSR in KPMG and is behind the creation of the Get Cents programme tells me that “KPMG is delighted to work with Depaul on this new pilot programme of Get Cents, where our staff volunteer to teach money management skills to the clients of Depaul. It is our way of utilising the skills of our staff to make a real and valued difference to the clients of Depaul. Depaul is a forward thinking organisation working with those that are homeless and disadvantaged to get them back on the road to independent living and the skills KPMG are providing will hopefully make that transition easier.”
Three of KPMG's staff delivered the programme; Emma, James and Jenny. They all agreed that the experience brought them closer to the life of a homeless person and how difficult it is to balance a budget with only social welfare as an income source. "I have a huge empathy to their income and their struggle with what comes in and out and trying to support families. They are no different than us except they live in a hostel".
They set out to change the men’s attitude to money and they are happy enough that they definitely got them thinking about how they can get more from their meager incomes. “I was surprised by the participants and their enthusiasm for asking questions. It made the delivery easier as they volunteered questions which helped us to fit the course to their needs.”
Depaul’s Life Skills Worker, Sandra Losty sums it all up “It has been brilliant to see the guys asking questions about their own finances which shows they are really thinking about things. One man discovered the annual savings he would make by buying his favourite magazine twice monthly instead of weekly and another that his bad credit rating would not be with him for life.”
“Finding out that they didn’t actually need a utility bill to open a post office account was very positive for the whole group, as they previously believed this service was closed to them while living in a hostel. Even people who are good with their money got benefit because it reaffirmed for them that they are doing it well and working hard to get the most out of it.”
It seemed to be a great success all round and was really beneficial to everyone involved. Any day now we can expect to see John, David and the other men enroute to a post office to open a savings account. A big thank you to all from KPMG and the service users who took part.
