Welcome to the Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) Podcast, launching in November 2024. Hosted by Helen Gill, founding director of marketing communications consultancy Engage Comms, and MALG CEO Bob Winnington, it is all about working together to ‘improve the lives of people in debt’.
If you work in any capacity across the debt landscape in the UK, listen in during your lunch break, on your commute, or whenever you have some downtime for inspiring insights into how collaboration and working smarter can overcome the barriers to a fairer, better system for those in financial difficulty.
Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
Episodes listed in chronological order with the latest first – scroll down to the bottom of the page to listen to the introductory episode explaining what the MALG Podcast is all about.
Episode 2, December 2024: ‘The power of partnerships’ for supporting and empowering people in financial difficulty with Genevieve Orford, Chief Product Officer at Policy in Practice
On Episode 2 of the Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) Podcast, MALG CEO Bob Winnington is at Policy in Practice’s headquarters in London to meet with its Chief Product Officer Genevieve Orford to talk about the power of partnerships.
Genevieve joined Policy in Practice – the social policy software and analytics company working with councils, government, housing providers and community organisations to reduce poverty and empower people – in December 2021. She took part in her first ever conference panel session at the MALG Conference in Leeds on 7 November 2024 where she shared insights into why partnerships are central to the success of Policy in Practice’s award winning, free ‘Better Off Calculator’.
In this episode, she and Bob talk more about the power of partnerships – why they’re so important, when they work, and what the potential challenges are. She goes into detail about how partnerships that Policy in Practice have formed through the MALG network have contributed to the development of innovative solutions that streamline access to tailored support and advice.
Episode 1, November 2024: ‘A once in 25 years opportunity to revolutionise vulnerable consumer data sharing’ with Dr Chris Fitch of Money Advice Trust
In this first episode of the Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) podcast, MALG CEO Bob Winnington has the pleasure of sitting down with someone who may be familiar to some listeners, Dr Chris Fitch. He is the Money Advice Trust’s Vulnerability Lead and Research Fellow at the University of Bristol’s Personal Finance Research Centre. As a prolific and highly engaging speaker and host of the ‘Vulnerability Matters’ podcast he’s one of if not the leading voice on fair treatment of vulnerable customers by financial services, utilities, telecoms and related firms in the UK and beyond. A researcher by trade, he delves deep into issues facing vulnerable customers using a ‘lived experience’ approach to come up with practical solutions that work.
His latest passion project is the Government’s ‘Share Once Support Register’ which will mean vulnerable customers only need to register with energy, telecoms and water companies once to access extra help. In this episode, Bob has the opportunity to ask Chris what his secret is when it comes to galvanising people and organisations to get on board with his collaborative projects and how he manages to communicate his messages so well. They discuss the 10 principles for designing consumer data sharing programmes which a group of independent experts have come up with to inform the new Share Once Support Register and we get Chris’ take on what the new Government needs to do to ensure that vulnerable customers are finally offered the service they deserve.
Introductory episode August 2024: “The game is rigged” – why we can only change the system for people in financial difficulty by working together
In this introductory episode of the Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) podcast, host Helen Gill of Engage Comms is joined by MALG CEO Bob Winnington to discuss what MALG is all about, why we’re bringing you this podcast, what you can expect from it and why, in 2024, we need game-changing solutions to ‘improving the lives of people in debt’ more than ever.
Former City trader and ‘real world’ economist Gary Stevenson said in one of his recent youtube videos that he thinks “the game is rigged” for low income households in the current economy. We’ll be talking about how MALG Members and others can work collaboratively to overcome the hurdles put in place by the pandemic and the cost of living crisis to building financial resilience for all, as we head into 2025 and beyond.
