“The Cash First approach forms part of the Scottish Government’s response to financial hardship and their aim to reduce the need for emergency food provision. ACVO will co-design the Cash First Project in Aberdeen alongside partner organisations with the aim of breaking the cycle of repeated financial crises. There are hopes that the project will also reduce reliance on food banks within Aberdeen City, positioning them as a last resort for emergency help.”

The Scottish Government recognise that the main reason why some people are compromising on food is insufficient and insecure incomes. A human rights approach is needed to ensure that everyone can afford an adequate diet.

This will require a co-ordinated rights-based plan to improve the response to crisis, as well as preventative actions to secure household incomes for the longer term. The Cash First approach aims to tackle these concerns and reduce the need for emergency food provision across the country.

Those in poverty have a much more challenging and often un-dignified experience when trying to access food.

There are many barriers in place for those in poverty when accessing food and essentials in crisis. It can often be a lengthy process accessing food banks; finding your local food bank, awaiting a professional referral, the costs and time associated with travelling to and from the food bank, not forgetting the time it takes an individual to initially seek help due to the stigma and embarrassment that can be associated with accessing emergency food. A process that often then must be repeated again in anything from a couple of days to a week later.

Providing emergency food banks can also be challenging and complex for the third sector; especially due to the heightened pressures during the cost-of-living crisis.

Food bank teams need to fight the ever-growing demand for emergency food whilst facing a reduction in their food donations and funding to cover essential running costs. They have hopes and dreams to expand their services in line with the needs of the community but don’t have the space, time or capacity to be able to do this due to the unpredictable nature of emergency food provision.

Food parcels and in-kind support cannot solve poverty and food insecurity, but raising incomes can. Cash first provides people directly with money or pathways to money when they are facing crisis, alongside adequate advice and support which is fundamental to a Cash-First approach.

Cash First will look to streamline and support existing referral pathways to ensure those in poverty are improving their access to ‘wrap-around support’ to prevent future hardship. This will include advice regarding benefits, housing, employment and health.

Why Cash First?

• Cash First provides people directly with money and/ or pathways to money when they are facing crisis – this can be through vouchers, cash payments or direct payments.
• It offers flexibility and choice for people to decide what their immediate needs are and choice in what they wish to spend the money on; that might be purchasing the essentials, buying school shoes for their child, or paying an energy bill.
• Cash First can be an effective and dignified form of support for people facing financial crisis.

The Aberdeen Cash First Project

ACVO is co-designing the Aberdeen Cash First project alongside partner organisations with the aim of breaking the cycle of repeated financial crises. There are hopes that the project will also reduce reliance on food banks within Aberdeen City, positioning them as a last resort for emergency help.

A high proportion of those accessing emergency food banks within Aberdeen City are single males from the age of 18 to 45 – with a number of those from the demographic facing repeat crises when in receipt of Universal Credit.

The Aberdeen Cash First project will focus on this demographic by establishing a flexible crisis fund to those facing financial emergency. The crisis fund will offer flexible options via vouchers, cash payments or direct payments – for example, to household utility suppliers.

Get in touch

Future updates surrounding Cash First will be available on the ACVO website at acvo.org.uk/cashfirst

but please get in touch with Amy Duncan, Cash First Network Co-ordinator, at amy.duncan@acvo.org.uk, if you have any further questions surrounding Cash First or our Aberdeen project.