Failing to deliver

Richard gets regular support from his local Citizens Advice. He’s homeless and struggles with long-term mental health issues. He’s trying to claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP), but the letter detailing his most recent assessment was sent to a Jobcentre in an area where Richard no longer lives. This meant that he missed his appointment, which has further delayed the process, causing prolonged and unnecessary hardship.

Richard’s experience shows how letters are often a gateway for accessing essential services. But for millions of people like Richard, their living situation leaves them excluded from this essential service. This disproportionately impacts people who are homeless, people experiencing domestic abuse and people from a Gypsy, Roma or Traveller community.

Post contains vital information about our finances, medical appointments, and even legal documents. At Citizens Advice, our local offices are regularly seeing people with problems because they can’t access their post. We call this post exclusion.

“Until you’re living in an environment where there is a physical place where someone can send you a letter…you’re going to have problems.”

- Person with experience of street homelessness

This isn’t an unresolvable issue. The UK is actually far behind other countries, like Australia and Ireland, in terms of addressing it. And since 2018, Citizens Advice has worked with industry, regulators, charities and people with lived experience to develop a solution. We’re calling this ‘Address & Collect’. This is a free and accessible service, designed not only to give people access to their post, but to also restore their connection with essential services. This might be an offer of housing, attending a hospital appointment, help with managing their debts or paying a bill or council tax. The solution has been co-designed over years of research, user testing and workshops to develop a practical and genuinely inclusive offer that meets the needs of the people that need it.

Our latest research shows that, because of cost of living pressures, this sort of service is needed now more than ever. The numbers affected by issues such as homelessness and housing insecurity and the scale of financial pressures they’re facing has increased rapidly. Letters enable access to income and help us manage financial affairs — they can be a lifeline and people losing access during periods of housing insecurity can then face greater barriers to getting help and support at the moment they most need it.

We spoke to people who had experienced homelessness, domestic abuse and were from a Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community about their experiences of post exclusion during a cost of living crisis. And here are some of their stories:

Manoel’s story

Manoel was recently an asylum seeker, living in temporary accommodation. He’s been receiving important information about his health and financial support related to his asylum application via post. But some of these letters have been read and opened by other residents. This has put his personal safety at risk.

Additionally, Manoel suffered severe financial hardship because he didn’t have secure access to financial support.

He also missed important interviews with the Home Office in relation to his asylum claim.

*Maya’s story

Maya has recently separated from her partner due to domestic violence. Following the separation, Maya and her young child were made homeless, and had to stay in hotels.

Information from her social worker about her case was sent via post. But the letters were sent to a previous address, meaning Maya missed notification that her case had been closed. This resulted on missing out on accessing a refuge sooner, and her spending extra money on hotel accommodation.

*Maya’s name has been changed and her words have been read by a voice actor to protect her anonymity.

What now?

We have consumer protections enshrined in law that are supposed to make sure that access to post is universal. Yet in its current form it’s not. There is a clear gap for the millions of people who don’t have a safe or secure fixed address. But without effective regulation and governance of essential markets like post, private industries are not incentivised to deliver equitable access for people in vulnerable circumstances.

That’s why we need the Government and the regulator, Ofcom, to work together to get a pilot of Address & Collect up and running and make sure that post is truly universal. The rising cost of living has made this more urgent than ever.