Early Market Engagement - Covid 19 Money Guidance and Debt Solution

About the Money and Pensions Service     The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) brings together the free services previously delivered by the Money Advice Service, The Pensions Advisory Service and Pension Wise. MaPS offers customers guidance and appointments over the telephone, online and in person.   

The MaPS vision is: 'everyone making the most of their money and pensions.'  

MaPS is an arm's-length body sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and it has a joint commitment to provide access to the information and guidance people across the UK need, to make effective financial decisions over their lifetime.

The organisation also engages with HM Treasury on policy matters relating to financial capability and debt advice.   

For further information visit the Money and Pensions Service website www.moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk 

Coronavirus Debt Advice Support Package The coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on the economy and people's personal finances and we expect demand for debt advice services to increase. In June, MaPS secured an extra £38 million for a 'Coronavirus Debt Advice Support Package'.

Work has already been taking place to allocate this funding - designed to help providers deliver advice to more people in England who may be experiencing financial problems due to coronavirus - and we are now launching the next phase of activity.

Improving Digital Capability of Money Guidance and Debt Advice We are delighted to announce an initial £7 million of funding in 2020/21 aimed at improving our digital money guidance and debt advice offering and building our capability to allow more people to access the support they need digitally.

In the first instance, to help us understand what already exists in addition to capacity and capability in the sector, we are launching an early market engagement process covering two strands.

Creating new digital debt advice capacity in England - aimed at increasing the capacity of high-quality, free-to-customer debt advice by investing in digital services and capabilities. Improving Digital Money Guidance across the UK - aimed at improving the money guidance journey and hand-off those most in need to get intensive debt advice.

Our focus is creating an approach to holistic guidance that helps customers understand their financial picture and access the services that are best suited to meet their needs. Through earlier preventative interventions in the money guidance journey, we may ease some of the demand on the debt advice sector.

Additional information: Early Market Engagement Any organisations with an interest in Debt Advice, Money Guidance and technology focused on personal finance are welcome to join the early market engagement webinar which will be followed by a request for information.

The engagement is vital to give us a wider picture of sector capacity and capability, for instance debt advice providers' ability to invest in development quickly without compromising the quality of debt advice provided to customers.

We will use this insight to inform next steps on how we best use the funds and design the formal application process.

Want to find out more? MaPS will be hosting a webinar for organisations wanting to know more about this funding stream and to outline the next steps in the process. The webinar will take place on Wednesday 19 August at 2pm - you can register your interest using the link provided below. A link to the recording will be uploaded on Contracts Finder.

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/6014893062288218637

Interested organisations should please note that this is not a call for competition, but a desire to carry out early market engagement with the sector to support development of our commercial procurement strategy prior to any formal tender activity.

Suppliers should also note that the scope of delivery for each project strand is: England for the Creating new digital debt advice capacity; and UK for the Improving Digital Money Guidance.