The Personal Financial Wellbeing Research Conference 2024
Following the success of our annual conference 2022 (online) and 2023 (hybrid), the Centre joined hand with Money and Pension Service (MaPS) to organise another annual conference on 13th November (Wed) in Aston Business School. The day included three panel sessions exploring different aspects of recently completed or current research (academic and closely) related to all matters of personal financial wellbeing, as well as an extended poster session during lunch where we showcased our work and those of our esteemed colleagues from various organisations.
Agenda:
09:30-10:00 Registration and coffee
10:00-10:10 Welcome by Prof Andy Lymer
10:10-11:30 Poverty Alleviation – Alleviating poverty in the UK isn't a task any individual group or body can do by themselves. Making significant inroads requires coordinated efforts particularly at local level where much service provision and policy planning meets poverty head on.
Chaired by Prof Andy Lymer, this session saw Annie Robson (Citizens Advice), Clare Thomas (Age UK) and Dr Omid Omidvar (University of Warwick) sharing the results to date of work the Centre and research colleagues at Warwick and Bristol Universities, along with local partnerships across 3 districts in Worcestershire, have been engaged with over the last 2 years to improve the coordinated effort to relieve poverty in their areas - in all its forms. We also shared a new toolkit the teams have developed and are now testing across these areas that seeks to provide improved operational practices and coordination on the ground – that will in turn make meaningful differences to the effectiveness of local poverty alleviating interventions. The session included input from members of these teams working together on this extended, multi-year, project, and seek audience input into how this project can evolve further as part of an interactive session we hope all can learn something from and input into.
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11:30-11:45 Coffee break
11:45-13:15 Fraud and Personal Wellbeing – Fraud, in all its forms, presents a significant challenge for individuals and organisations both in the UK and globally. It accounts for over 40% of total crime in the UK, making it the most widespread and pressing criminal issue today.
Chaired by Dr Rasha Kassem, this session saw Andrew Lane (Cornerstone Barristers), Matthew Field (Fraud Advisory Panel) and Kirthi Kalyan (Tenet) exploring the diverse range of fraud types that threaten the financial wellbeing of individuals and their families. We will analyse recent trends in both academic research and practical strategies aimed at combating fraud, with the goal of staying one step ahead of fraudsters. Our panel comprises experts from various sectors related to fraud, who shared their insights on emerging trends in fraudulent activities and prevention techniques. We sought to clarify the evolving landscape of various types of frauds, includeing but are not limited to, romance fraud, charity fraud, benefit fraud, and pension fraud, as well as the innovative strategies being implemented to combat them.
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13:15-14:30 Lunch / Poster showcase
14:30-15:50 Real Accounts: How are households managing debt and credit? – Real Accounts is a 10-month financial diaries project led by Nest Insight partnering with the CPFW and Glasgow Caledonian University started in early 2023.
Chaired by Dr Hayley James, this session will saw Dr Anne Angsten Clark, Paul Das (MaPS), and Prof Adele Atkinson (University of Birmingham) coming together to look into the management of debt and credit amongst the low to medium income households who took part in the study, followed by a discussion on the significance and implications of the findings.
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15:50-16:00 Wrap up and close
CPFW Posters
Physical Health and Financial Wellbeing: A rapid evidence review
Masculinities in Asset Accumulation for Later Life
Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) Unequal Outcomes for the Self-Employed
News – Prof Andy Lymer is quoted on a Japanese national newspaper!
Japan has recently introduced a tax incentivised savings system similar to the individual savings accounts (ISA) started in the UK 25 years ago, receiving mixed reaction. Building on the range of research work he has done on savings in the UK, Prof Lymer was interviewed by The Asahi Shimbun, one of the top national newspapers in Japan, and provided a wide range of information on use of tax incentivised savings in the UK to help the journalist draw connections to the current situation in japan.
The resulting piece appeared in both print and online Asahi newspaper on 13th January. Full article in Japanese is available online on a subscription basis.
- 2025
- January 2024: Fluctuation Nation report launch
A new report has found millions of people in the UK face financial challenges due to income volatility, a pattern of earnings that peaks and dips rather than remaining consistent.
The Real Accounts project, launched in early 2023 to study how British households with low and volatile income manage their money, has released its final report "Fluctuation Nation" following a webinar before Christmas. The Nest Insight-led 10 month financial diary project identified the "volatility premium", which adds extra costs and creates additional strain to people with volatile income in managing their finances, particularly because financial products, policies and workplaces are all designed around the assumption of regular incomes.
Nest Insight researcher Dr Anne Angsten Clark and our lead researcher Dr Hayley James both expressed their views on what can be done to address income volatility in the webinar, which is now available to review in the Aston University press release.
We would like to thank the Yunus Centre GCU for working closely with us, and the Aviva Foundation, Fair4All Finance, and the Money and Pensions Service for their invaluable support of this project.
Linkedin- January 2025: Sedinam Ameku joining the Centre as PhD student
Kicking off the new year with a great news: The Centre has welcome a new member!
Sedinam Ameku has joined Aston University as a full-time PhD student starting this year and will be working on her research around measuring and assessing financial wellbeing under the supervision of Prof Andy Lymer, Dr Heather Kappes and Dr Lin Tian. Sedinam will also be joining the Centre as a core member to assist in some of our current projects.
Before joining Aston Sedinam was a financial literacy advocate in her home country Ghana. We will hear more from Sedinam in our upcoming annual review. Please join us to welcome Sedinam in Aston University!
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- 2024
- November 2024: Real Accounts Toolkit
As part of her The British Academy Innovation Fellowship, Dr Hayley James has put together a methodological toolkit for those interested in developing financial diaries project.
This builds on the work on the Real Accounts project, a collaborative 10-month financial diaries study with Nest Insight and Yunus Centre of Glasgow Caledonian University. The final report from the project, on the volatility premium, was launched two weeks ago.
We hope the toolkit will be useful for academics and social researchers working in the field of financial wellbeing. We would love feedback about the toolkit and do get in touch if you would like to talk to Hayley and the Real Accounts team about the methodology future.
Linkedin- November 2024: Aston for Life
Retirement is a word that might carry anticipation, excitement or uncertainty. For some, it may conjure up ideas of leisurely mornings, travel adventures and cherished moments with loved ones. For others, it’s a leap into the unknown, leaving behind the familiar rhythm of work and routine. Maybe it’s a mix of the two.
It’s never too late to start setting money aside...but according to Prof Andy Lymer, start early if you can.
Our Director Andy Lymer is Professor of Taxation and Personal Finance in Aston University. Recently he shared ten things you can do to financially prepare for your retirement on the Aston alumni magazine Aston For Life
You will also be able to hear from our researcher Dr Hayley James on Real Accounts, our collaborative work with Nest Insight and Glasgow Caledonian University.- November 2024: Rethinking Financial Behaviour: Rationality and Resistance in the Financialization of Everyday Life
We are delighted to introduce the newly published book Rethinking Financial Behaviour: Rationality and Resistance in the Financialization of Everyday Life authored by our associate member Dr Ariane Agunsoye!
Pension policy in the UK and US is designed on the assumption that people make informed financial decisions, consistently invest in pensions and manage diverse portfolios. Deviating from this is often deemed irresponsible and irrational. However, this assumption overlooks uncontrollable factors like caring duties, employment breaks or income limitations. Even when individuals act as expected, unpredictable market shifts can hinder long-term planning.
The third one in the Rethinking Work, Ageing and Retirement Book Series, published by Bristol University Press and Policy Press, this book redefines deviations to “rational behaviour” as logical responses to a dysfunctional system. Challenging existing theoretical discussions and policy approaches, it proposes a fresh perspective on rationality when it comes to financial practices and policy.
Interested? Get a copy of the book.
Linkedin- November 2024: UK Budget highlight
Following the Budget interview with Aston University press team last week, our Director Prof Andy Lymer published an article in The Conversation UK on impacts of changes announced for younger professionals.
Find out how the Budget is good news overall for young professionals on The Conversation.
Linkedin- October 2024: The Vice-Chancellor’s Prize Fellowship Scheme
Are you a post-doc or early career researcher looking for a next step in higher education? Are you interested in personal financial wellbeing and want to be involved in the work we do? If your answer is yes to these questions, then the Vice-Chancellor's Innovation Fellowships may open a new door for you.
As part of Aston University’s commitment to delivering excellent, transformative research, the prestigious Vice-Chancellor’s Prize Fellowship Scheme has been recently announced to provide three years of supported research, and routes to a permanent academic post to post-doc and early career researchers.
As a rapidly growing interdisciplinary research centre at Aston, our many projects encompass important social matters such as poverty alleviation, policies, taxations, small businesses, housing, health, aging, gender, fraud, gambling, energy and financial literacy. We want to support potential Fellows working on any topics related to personal financial wellbeing and interested in applying for the scheme.
If this applies to you, find out more about the scheme, and get in touch for a conversation about working with us.- September 2024: Real Accounts website launch
Led by Dr Hayley James, the Centre have been working with researchers from Nest Insight and the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health of Glasgow Caledonian University on the Real Accounts financial diaries project since early 2023.
The team have been collecting data by interviewing various UK households regularly and using digital transaction tracking to build an in-depth, in-the-moment understanding of their financial lives. The data collection phase of the project has now come to an end.
To learn more about the findings of this project, particularly in understanding financial volatility in a British context, please visit the new Real Accounts page and make sure to read the two Impact Briefs
The Real Account project is supported by Aviva Foundation, the Money and Pensions Service, Fair4All Finance and powered by Moneyhub.
Linkedin- September 2024: Thea Rasibeck joining the Centre as visiting research fellow
We are excited to welcome Ms Thea Raisbeck, Head of Research and Best Practice at Spring Housing, to join us as visiting research fellow in the Centre.
With over 17 years’ experience in a range of advocacy, research, and strategy roles within the housing and homelessness sectors, Thea specialises in homelessness, supported housing, and gendered approaches to policy, practice and provision. She is a skilled qualitative researcher with extensive experience of participatory and co-production methods, and has researched and authored several reports which have had legislative, policy, and practice impact. This includes two pathbreaking reports on unregulated supported housing, which directly contributed to a change in legislation.
Thea will be working on a research project around young people living in high cost supported housing who enter employment, focussing on the impact on their personal and financial wellbeing.
Linkedin- August 2024: The Centre recruiting PhD students
The Centre are recruiting PhD candidates for TWO fully funded 3 year studentships (a fee bursary to cover the home or overseas fees rate, plus a maintenance allowance of £19,237 per year) linked to our researchers at the Centre:
- If you are interested in understanding financial wellbeing in broader inclusive context: conceptualisation, measurement and interventions, please contact Prof Andy Lymer or Dr Lin Tian.
- If you are interested in exploring migration and financial wellbeing in later life, please contact Dr Hayley James or Dr Katie Tonkiss.
Both projects will start in January 2025 but application will close after 9th September (in less than 2 weeks!) You may want to have a word with your future supervisors, or you may apply directly via our studentships website.
Linkedin- August 2024: The Centre tackling the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals
Aston University has been ranked joint 24th in the world and 13th in the UK of ranked institutions for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)10 (Reduced Inequalities) in the latest Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings. It has also been placed in the top 20% of global universities and joint 19th of ranked institutions in the UK for SDG8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). The 17 SDGs, adopted by all United Nations member states in 2015, are a call to action to end poverty and inequality, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy health, justice and prosperity.
As an interdisciplinary research centre based in Aston, all of our researches around financial wellbeing seek to tackle at least one of the SDGs. For instance, our Real Accounts financial diaries project study how UK households on volatile income maintain their financial wellbeing on a day-to-day basis, with an aim to reduce poverty (SDG1), maintain health and well-being (SDG3), ensure decent work opportunities (SDG8) and reduce inequality (SDG10) in the UK. Our work around ethnic-minority led SMEs, energy literacy, migrants and non-citizens, the child trust fund, the effect of SEISS payment as well as social housing all seek to create sustainable cities and communities (SDG11).
With the help of Research Retold, we have created a visual to give an overview of how our various research projects speak to the 17 SDGs. Visit the CPFW project page to understand more about each of our project, or sign up to join our Annual Conference this year and meet our team in November.
Linkedin- August 2024: The Centre release report on physcial health and financial wellbeing
Building on our report on the relationship between mental health and financial wellbeing last year, our new evidence review, funded again by the Money and Pensions Service, considers the relationship between physical health and financial wellbeing.
This review echoes established findings on socio-economic health inequalities, where those with lower socio-economic status are more likely to experience poor health and have shorter lifespans due to poverty and deprivation at the household and local area level. We highlight how this sets the long-term context for interactions between physical health and financial wellbeing in the short and medium term. Experiencing poor physical health creates a burden of direct and indirect costs, while experiencing poor financial wellbeing affects physical health through increased stress and insecurity, limiting opportunities for health-supporting behaviours like eating well and exercising, while also leading people towards health-limiting behaviours like smoking and drinking.
However we found only limited evidence on the impact of interventions operating at the intersection of health and financial wellbeing, with little evidence as to how these play out across different groups over time. We think there’s a need for more research and particularly interventions which address the complex relationships between financial wellbeing and both physical and mental health for everyone in the UK, something we’re going to be working on more as a centre. Read the full report.
Linkedin- June 2024: The Centre won new Aviva funding for SMEs project
Professor Andy Lymer (Centre for Personal Financial Wellbeing (CPFW)) and Professor Monder Ram (Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME)) have received over £300,000 from the Aviva Foundation to undertake a two-year project to investigate the personal and family financial resilience challenges that business founders from ethnic minority backgrounds face when they start their ventures and seek to get them to a self-sustaining state
Aston- June 2024: Dr Hayley James awarded British Academy Innovation Fellowship
As we wrap up the data collection phase of the Real Accounts project, we are very pleased to share that our researcher Dr Hayley James has been awarded a 1-year British Academy Innovation Fellowship to develop more outputs from the project.
Real Accounts, a financial diaries project in collaboration with Nest Insight and Glasgow Caledonian University, uses first-hand stories and digital transaction tracking to build an in-depth, in-the-moment understanding of household’s financial lives.
Dr James’ BA Innovation Fellowship provides space to continue the collaborative work on disseminating findings from the project and contributing to real world change by working with key stakeholders and interest groups. Watch this space for more details as this work progresses!
Linkedin- June 2024: The Centre featured at The King's Fund newsletter
Our research project studying the relationship between deprivation and financial wellbeing for Money and Pensions Service is featured in this issue of the newsletter, have a look of the newsletter now to see how our findings are contributing to the UK strategy
Linkedin- May 2024: The Centre release local deprivation report
A year ago the Centre was commissioned by the Money and Pensions Service to explore the relationship between local area deprivation and personal financial wellbeing using the nationally representative survey undertaken by MaPS in 2021.
The subject question was: holding all other factors constant, does a person living in a less deprived area enjoy better financial wellbeing than if they would in a more deprived area?
The study demonstrated various connections between poor/better financial wellbeing (as illustrated using the MaPS financial wellbeing scores applied at local levels) and indices of multiple deprivation that suggests there is evidence of a pattern at least partly explained by where you live across the UK. The results of this work will help to better target Government policy on financial wellbeing interventions nationally. A full data report is now available on the project page.
Prof Andy Lymer and our lead researchers in this project Dr Lin Tian and Dr Ngoc Dieu Linh Vi will be presenting this to the Research and Evaluation Research Group of MaPS later this month and the further refinements of this work at the Social Policy Association conference in July.
Linkedin- May 2024: Dr Rasha Kassem contributes to the UK Parliament Post note
In 2023, fraud was the most common offence against individuals with 6% of adults falling victim to it.
Dr Rasha Kassem was interviewed and quoted, reviewed the draft for credibility and had two of her papers cited in the UK Parliament Post Note on the Social and Psychological Impact of Fraud against Individuals.
For a closer look at the social and psychological implications of fraud, including risk factors and impact on those affecte, read the POSTnote.- April 2024: Prof Andy Lymer awarded a Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy
Prof Andy Lymer has been awarded a Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) – its highest membership award!
As an accounting (and specially tax) educator over the last 33 years, Prof Lymer started his career in higher education at the University of Birmingham in 1991. At this institution he eventually became a Professor (of Taxation and Accounting) as was for a time the Dean of the Business School. He was also for some years the Director of CHASM - Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management that is hosted at Birmingham.
Prof Lymer moved to Aston University in 2021 to head up the accounting department and founded the Centre at the same time. He has written and contributed to many academic research works and books over his career to date – including co-authoring the leading UK tax textbook used in business schools that formed a key part of the reason he has been given this Fellowship. He latest co-edited book explores the links between Taxation and Social Policy.
Internationally Prof Lymer has been active as an educator and researcher for many years. He currently holds honorary positions at Massey University in New Zealand and at the University of South Africa. In the latter case, this has led to the Centre being engaged with UNISA colleagues and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority of South Africa in a segmentation analysis of their recent national survey on financial wellbeing, assisting in the development of how financial education is delivered across the country.
Linkedin- April 2024: The Centre release poverty alleviation report
Since 2022, the Centre has been working with Malvern Hills District Council and their regional Financial Inclusion Partnership to develop their regional poverty alleviation strategy utilising the principles and practice of addressing grand/wicked challenges. A first year report that reviews the progress of the Partnership was published in summer 2023.
In the second year of the project the Centre has been looking into multifaceted societal challenges that span multiple domains and regions including climate change, poverty, and healthcare inequality. This part of our work explored what can be drawn on from grand/wicked challenges work done in each area to the specific challenges of poverty alleviation in practice. A new report that presents a comprehensive framework to understand and address these grand challenges under five main themes have been released by the project team. Take a look of the report now.
Do watch this space for further details of the release of a toolkit shortly on the use of the wicked challenge approach to addressing poverty alleviation based on our research work to date that we are now testing with the help of several local authorities.
Linkedin- March 2024: The Centre release harmful gambling report
Gambling can lead to significant financial harm to both the gamblers themselves and the people around them. In extreme cases, harmful gambling can lead to loss of home for those living in rented accommodation when they become unable to pay their rents.
Since July 2021 the Centre have been working with the housing and letting teams of the Birmingham City Council (BCC) to identify the factors around harmful gambling and personal financial risk in Birmingham. The work specifically looks to develop further how BCC can effectively target and support those affected by harmful gambling. It aims to reduce the numbers of those who put their tenancies at risk with such behaviour – potentially making them and their families homeless – a problem the BCC had identified as getting worse during Covid and as the cost of living crisis hit.
Our work found that 80% of those experiencing the effects of harmful gambling amongst BCC tenants say that they have had to borrow money to pay their rent. It also demonstrated that you were 4 times more likely to be in severe rent arrears if you were affected by harmful gambling.
What makes the problem worse is that harmful gambling is often a hidden and stigmatised issue. As such, affected tenants are unlikely to disclose this behaviour to their landlord until it is causing significant harm to their financial wellbeing. Specific plans to change this were needed to address this issue meaningfully.
With all the data collected, the team and the Council together developed a new strategy which comprises of a traffic light intervention system, staff and tenant awareness training and support, and a monitoring framework to enhance and evaluate interventions put in place. We are now actively looking to share this work with other landlords who similarly want to do more to support their tenants with gambling problem.
To learn more about the many findings of the project, please read our full report on our project page or get in touch with us to discuss this further.
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- March 2024: Prof Andy Lymer contributed to The Conversation
The next general election will be held no later than 28 January 2025. We are therefore likely to be hearing a lot more about taxes in the coming months, as promises to cut or raise them are often an easy win (or lose) for politicians in an election year.
To give some background on what these promises actually mean, our Director Prof Andy Lymer has published an article on the basics of UK taxes that people need to be aware of on The Conversation as part of the Quarter Life series. Read the full article.
Linkedin- February 2024: Dr Rasha Kassem featured at Fraud magazine
Dr Rasha Kassem’s achievements in combating fraud were duly acknowledged when her profile was prominently featured in Fraud Magazine, the primary publication of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
- January 2024: The Centre won MaPS funding for new physical wellbeing project
The link between financial resources and physical health has long been established. A large body of research has found working class adults to experience more physical limitations, life-limiting illnesses and reduced longevity compared to middle- and upper-class counterparts.
To explore further the relationship between finanical wellbeing and physical health in the UK, the Centre has secured a new of round of funding of £9,675 from the Money and Pensions Service to undertake a rapid but comprehensive evidence review to evaluate the latest evidence in this regard. This will connect to, and be a companion piece in effect to, the work we completed in 2023 for MaPS on financial wellbeing and mental health.
Linkedin- January 2024: The Centre won SPA fundings
Prof Andy Lymer and a team led by Dr Micheal Collins of University College Dublin and Dr Sally Ruane of De Monfort University won a Social Policy Association (SPA) funding of £2,800 to support the continuous operation of the Taxation and Social Policy group set up in 2018. Over the years the group has organised in-person event and online seminars and symposia at SPA and ESPAnet conferences, as well as published the book Taxation and Social Policy in May 2023.
Dr Hayley James worked with Dr Liam Foster of University of Sheffield and Dr Ellie Suh of University of Birmingham and won a SPA funding of £3,000 to support the set up of a Pension Policy Resarch Group within SPA and its initial running for the first two years to review and discuss key developments in the UK pension policy and beyond.
- January 2024: The Centre won Policy Support Fund for new childcare research project
Amid increasing interest in the sharing of parental leave as a pathway for equality in the workplace, the financial burden of childcare has received less attention. Existing work demonstrates that mothers in heterosexual relationships tend to shoulder the burden of childcare costs when returning to work, with implications for their financial wellbeing.
With a new round of funding of £5k from Aston’s Policy Support Fund in 2023-24, the Centre will be starting a new research project looking at men and childcare costs in 2024. Led by Dr Hayley James and Prof Andy Lymer, the project aims to understand how men with children negotiate and manage childcare costs with their partners to deliver new insights concerning the extent to which fathers navigate and contribute to this burden.
The research will involve qualitative interviews with fathers of pre-school aged children in early 2024. The findings are intended to become part of the evidence base regarding gendered inequalities within households, with a long-term goal to shape how policy responds to these inequalities.- January 2024: The CPFW Annual Review 2023
The Centre has released our debut annual review for 2023. Unlike a traditional annual report, this dynamic annual review is designed to help readers to easily pick out what interest them the most, and enable them to drill down below the headlines to look at the details of importance.
Readers will see more on how and why the Centre started, who is behind the Centre and details of a range of current or recently completed research projects, as well as what else the Centre has done apart from research. It also illustrate some of the impacts we have made so far in the first year and hints at where we are heading in 2024.Take a look now: CPFW Annual Review 2023 and let us know what you think by email, LinkedIn or Twitter.
Previous Events
- 2025
- January 2025: Dan Paskins visit
The Centre and the wider College of Business and Social Sciences co-hosted Dan Paskins, Executive Director of Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns at Save the Children UK.
Dan had an engaging session in the morning with a full room of our current students exploring what it is like to work for a large campaigning organisation specifically in the area of child poverty. After a lunch hosted by the Pro Vice-Chancellor and our Executive Dean Prof Zoe Radnor, Dan then met with a wide range of Aston staff and postgraduate students doing work in different aspects related to child poverty and welfare in the UK and overseas.
We hope this packed day will be a catalyst for more collaboration on this really key area of need for 2025 societies right around the world. It marries Save the Children’s interests and passion and reflects the heart of Aston University’s 2030 strategy, all about being inclusive, entrepreneurial and an agent of transformational change in and with the communities we are connected through our work and engagement.
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- January 2025: CHASM seminar – Harmful Gambling and Housing Precarity
Why do people gamble? This was the first thing we wanted to find out when we started our research in harmful gambling with Birmingham City Council in mid-2021.
We analysed 1000 survey responses and conducted a series of interviews to go deeper into impacts of gambling on people’s lives. We found "escape" a key reason for why people engaged in harmful gambling, while some also gambled to try and correct prior losses. The vicious cycle of harmful gambling has resulted in extreme consequences for many, including but not limited to rent arrears.
As a result of this research, we worked with our Council partners to roll out a variety of changes to operational practices, training and tracking of cases going forward. Last week our lead researcher Dr Halima Sacranie was invited by CHASM - Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management to present at their lunch time seminar, detailing our findings on the connections between harmful gambling and tenancy precarity.
Please watch this space for how this research has created real changes in tenants' lives. We also look forward to future collaboration with other councils or partners in taking this research forward.
See our full report and an exec summary of our findings and other outputs from this project on our website.
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- 2024
- November 2024: Opening the 26th Workshop on Accounting and Finance in Emerging Economies
Organised by the Accounting and Finance in Emerging Economies Special Interest Group, the 26th Workshop on Accounting and Finance in Emerging Economies was hosted at Aston University today. The annual workshop aims to bring together academics working on accounting and finance issues concerning emerging economies to raise the level of interest in the specific problems and increase awareness of real issues concerning accounting and finance in these economies.
Returning from a recent trip to South Africa, one of the strongest emerging economies in the world, Prof Andy Lymer was invited to open the workshop today. After providing an overview of the accounting department and the centre, Prof Lymer presented our ongoing work in developing financial wellbeing support across South Africa. The project, led by Prof Bernadene De Clercq of University of South Africa and in partnership with FSCA South Africa and the National Treasury of South Africa, provides a segmentation analysis of recent country wide financial capability assessment data looking at the extent to which this can support wider financial wellbeing understanding and thereby help to best target resources to the maximum wellbeing benefit across the population.
We look forward to the next phase of this impactful work in the new year. Find out more about our research projects on our project page or get in touch if you have an idea to explore with us.
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- November 2024: University of South Africa presentation
As part of Prof Andy Lymer trip to South Africa, Dr Lin Tian joined him online last week to present our financial wellbeing segmentation analysis on South African consumers to the FSCA South Africa, the National Treasury of South Africa, as well as researchers and practitioners from University of South Africa working in this field.
With an aim to support financial education initiatives and enhance the financial wellbeing of diverse cohorts across South Africa, the project is a major work we've been doing with our South Africa based associate member Prof Bernadene De Clercq, involving months of in-depth analysis and exploration. Our findings have intitiated plenty meaningful and productive discussions.
We look forward to publishing our analyses in the near future, exploring practical ways to improve financial wellbeing based on these analyses. Stay tuned on our research updates on our project page.
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- November 2024: Nest Insight webinar
Dr Hayley James presented in a webinar launching the report Fluctuation Nation, the final report from the Real Accounts project. The report looks at the ‘volatility premium’ to understand the costs this causes to these households, which are both financial and about broader quality of life.
Real Accounts has been a really important project for us over the last two years and these outputs are the culmination of a lot of hard work by the team. One of our core aims is to better understand how people practice finance in their everyday lives, and to encourage changes to better support this, and we are really proud of how Real Accounts is contributing to a more realistic understanding of what it means to have a volatile income.
Many thanks to our Real Accounts partners Nest Insight and Yunus Centre o Glasgow Caledonian University who have been fantastic to work with, as well as to the Aviva Foundation, Fair4All Finance and Money and Pensions Service for their support on this project.
Watch the full webinar and read the report to learn more about Fluctuation Nation. You can also visit our programme page to learn more about the project and access other outputs.
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- November 2024: Aviva Foundation Partner learning day
Prof Andy Lymer was invited to attend the Aviva Foundation Partner Learning day with others who also have projects supported by the Foundation - sharing experiences of building financial resilience in communities, followed by an afternoon session exploring connections between mental health and money based on the research of Money and Mental Health.
Funded by Aviva foundation, our EMPOWER project in partnership with CREME Citizens UK and the The Centre for Business in Society (CBiS) at Coventry University seek to understand how ethnic minority-led businesses manage their money with an aim to create intervention to provide further support.
We have also conducted a rapid evidence review for the Money and Pensions Service earlier on to understand the relationship between money and mental health. Find out more about our project page.
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- November 2024: The Purse podcast
What does financial wellbeing really mean? It’s about more than numbers—it’s about context, emotions, and making systems work for everyone, not just a “default” customer.
Dr Hayley James was invited to join The Purse Podcast to explore how finance intersects with gender, family, and societal norms—and what needs to change to make financial systems truly inclusive.
Here are 5 key takeaways from the conversation:
-Financial wellbeing goes beyond income and savings.
It’s about how money enables people to live well. Emotional and contextual factors—like family support, access to services, and the cost of living—are just as important as financial literacy.
-Financial systems often overlook diverse needs.
Historically, financial products have been designed with a one-size-fits-all approach that can unintentionally exclude women’s experiences, such as career breaks for caregiving. Addressing these gaps isn’t about taking away from one group but ensuring everyone has access to tools that meet their specific needs.
-The “future self” retirement strategy excludes many.
For those with limited resources, imagining a future self can feel overwhelming or irrelevant. Retirement planning needs to acknowledge today’s economic realities and offer more practical, accessible solutions.
-Cultural narratives about money hold women back.
Women are often taught to undervalue their financial abilities, even when making smart decisions. Meanwhile, societal norms encourage overconfidence in men, sometimes to their detriment.
- Learning in community is a game-changer.
Financial education is most effective when it’s collaborative. Community-based learning helps people share experiences, gain confidence, and develop practical solutions together.
Hayley called for a “gender-friendly” financial systems—ones that acknowledge the diversity of people’s lives and empower them to thrive.
Listen to the full podcast to find out what else was discussed:
On Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eV3tbHXP
On Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/eThz9z2i
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- November 2024: the UK Budget interview
In an Aston University interview, our Director Prof Andy Lymer reflected on the key tax changes and other things from the latest UK Budget that will affect personal financial wellbeing after the Chancellor sat down.
Key changes that will affect personal financial wellbeing include changes to National Living Wage level (+6.7% for over 21s) - a big help to those on low incomes, and many on fluctuating incomes (the key focus of our latest work Real Accounts to be released later this month)
Increases will also be applied from next April to employER national insurance contribution (NICs) of 1.2 pp. All employers, baring the very smallest, will now be required to pay 15% NICs on all wages just over £96/week they pay to employees (currently it is 13.8% on weekly wages over £175). This will be bound to have either an effect on wage rises next year, or be passed on in prices for whatever it is that they sell (or likely both!) so highly likely will be individuals who pay a big chunk of this in the end, not the owners of most businesses. (Not that this has stopped many comparing today that it is businesses that will suffer the most - this is only partly true to the extent they can't pass this on to others)
In other good news however that might not make the main headlines you are seeing this morning, was the annoucnement of a year's for the Household Support Fund - a key lifeline for the most vulnerable in our society (although only a year again, no permanent promise. Hopefully something in this area will come in time for next year's budget).
Also there was an extension announced to the Help to Save scheme that provides significantly above market rates interest on any savings those on Universal Credit can afford to make.
These are both policies our current or recent work has explored and that we have shown really matter for those that are the most vulnerable in our society. Don't miss out on Prof Jun Du's key insights on UK businesses too at the second half of the interview.
Linkedin- November 2024: Independent Social Research Foundation workshop
Dr Ariane Agunsoye, Dr Hayley James and Prof Kate Padgett Walsh ran a workshop on Intersectional Financial Risk at Goldsmiths, University of London, with funding from the Independent Social Research Foundation. The workshop brought together researchers all over the world and from different disciplines to discuss research about the profile of financial risk across intersectional axes, understanding who is most exposed and how. It was a very successful couple of days, with great feedback from participants. Forthcoming outputs include a policy brief and a special issue with the journal Finance and Society.
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- October 2024: Research Retold poster design workshop
Ahead of our annual meeting we had the pleasure to have research communications expert Mihaela Gruia from Research Retold to deliver an online poster design workshop for researchers who have expressed interest in submitting a poster to our Personal Financial Wellbeing Research Conference this year, as well as aspiring postgraduate students and academics across the Aston Business School.
Mihaela shared tips on what an engaging poster is as oppose to traditional acadmic posters, and presented many examples to show the use of eye catching graphics, easy to read and good size fonts, breathing space, plus a few unconventional posters to start a conversation with audience. She also introduced many online tools that are very helpful for academics to use throughout the thought process in producing a poster for different purposes.
Mihaela and her team will join us in-person to meet with researchers who are looking to present their work in the most engaging way.
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- September 2024: EMPOWER Saathi House meeting
Our EMPOWER project team worked with Saathi House to organise a community event last week to gather some women business leaders from ethic minority background to share their journey in entrepreneurship and the issues they have faced and overcome.
Hussan Aslam (The Centre for Business in Society at Coventry University) shared our project background and aim which is to collaborate with ethic minority business leaders to co-create interventions tailored to their specific needs. During the sharing session hosted by Saidul Haque Saeed (Citizens UK), we’ve heard first hand stories from the businesses in the room how difficult it has been for them to get business support being a woman from an ethnic minority background juggling family and business and still paying bills.
Prof Monder Ram (CREME) said we are here not only to gather information but also study what we find in order to inform policy changes. The project will soon gather 30 businesses as core participants. We are also working towards bringing about an ethnic minority businesses community where information is shared and create resilient.
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- September 2024: Gambling Commission report
Dr Halima Sacranie was invited along with Helen Shervington from Birmingham City Council (BCC), to present at a national Gambling Commission meeting the findings from our 2-year research project on Harmful Gambling and Tenancy Insecurity for BCC tenants.
Around 200 attendees including staff of the Commission, public health officials, local authority licencing officers and charities representatives joined the online meeting to understand the prevalence of harmful gambling among BCC tenants and find out how interventions could be adopted to help prevent tenancy loss as a result of harmful gambling.
Developed as part of the study, we believe the Intervention Framework can be easily adopted by other local authorities and housing providers. The new harmful gambling and tenancy insecurity survey can also be used to understand harmful gambling in different housing organisations.
The final report of the project is available on our project page. We look forward to having further conversation with other councils or housing organisations on how to redeploy this work.Image
- September 2024: Tax Research Network annual conference
As Chair of the international Tax Research Network (TRN) for 6 years, Prof Andy Lymer was involved in helping to lead the Annual Conference again hosted last week at the Cardiff Business School of Cardiff University, alongside local host team of Prof Carla Edgley and Dr Dennis De Widt, Nicky Thomas (University of Exeter) and Terry Filer (Swansea University).
The 500 person strong organisation brings together tax researchers and educators from around the world every year to share ideas and insights. With over 100 delegates from the USA, Australia, India, South Africa and across Europe, the three days conference this year included two days on the latest tax research and one day discussing current challenges in tax education.
Across the whole event, impacts of digitisation on all aspects of tax admin and tax practice was a key recurring theme - including being central to the keynote talks from Nina Olson (Director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights, USA), Prof. Erich Kirchler (University of Vienna) and Lucy C. (Deloitte Innovation).
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- September 2024: Finance and Society Conference
Dr Hayley James presented a paper on Masculinities in Asset Accumulation for Later Life, co-authored with our associate member Dr Ariane Agunsoye at the Finance and Society conference in University of Sheffield.
The two day conference provided an excellent platform for researchers working on similar topics to meet and share ideas. Our researchers had many great conversations with good potential to be taken on board as future projects.
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- July 2024: Nest Insight annual conference
Prof Andy Lymer and Dr Hayley James joined the Nest Insight annual conference in London to explore the latest research on lifelong financial security for households - including featuring our work together on the Real Accounts project, looking into incredible short term, flexible, pressures faced by those UK households on volatile incomes to deal with their everyday finances.
The Conference discussed current pension policies – what could and should be done in policy and practice to improve pensions outcomes – starting with the National Living Wage charity’s Livingpension - targeting meeting a min living standard in retirement. The conference also explored macro effects of racial inequalities, with evidence suggesting that giving more income to disadvantaged doesn’t just benefit recipients, but benefits all by improving outcomes.Image
- July 2024: Wychavon poverty alleviation workshop
Prof Andy Lymer, Dr Gary Burke and Dr Omid Omidvar organised a poverty alleviation workshop for the Wychavon District Council. Both the Council staff and the leaders of different organisations in attendance have enjoyed the workshop and looked forward to future sessions.
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- July 2024: EMPOWER Aspire & Succeed meeting
The Centre have kick-started a collaborative project with CREME to look into the personal and family financial resilience challenges that business founders from ethnic minority backgrounds face when they start their ventures and seek to get them to a self sustaining state.
Joined by The Centre for Business in Society (CBiS) at Coventry University and Citizens UK in delivery, the 2 year long project is supported by a £309,000 grant from the Aviva Foundation. We aim to work with ethnic minorities-led businesses, following their journeys with an aim to inform recommendations to help to minimise future risks to personal and family financial resilience and aid more successful business launches.
After weeks of 1-2-1s, the project team have the first local networking lunch with business owners hosted by Aspire & Succeed in the heart of the Lozells neighbourhood, with a strong mix of businesses from different backgrounds joining to create a better future for their families & community.
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- July 2024: Social Policy Association Conference 2024
The CPFW team have presented / organised across 4 symposia and four paper sessions at the SPA Conference hosted by University of Strathclyde this year.
Dr Lin Tian presented in two sessions – first on our Money and Pensions Service (MaPS)-funded work on the connections between financial wellbeing and local area deprivation, and then on our work on during- and post- Covid impacts of Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) payments to support self-employed workers, evidencing a high degree of variability of effect of this loosely targeted scheme.
Our colleagues from Nest Insight and Glasgow Caledonian University also discussed our Real Accounts financial diaries project in two different sessions – first on sharing findings on what families on volatile incomes do in terms of saving, which shows that we need to better support savings for these families and design saving products differently. In another session the team shared details of how volatile income really affects engagement with pensions, providing evidence of how challenging long term financial planning is for many.
Dr Hayley James then provided a wrap up to the pensions symposia by discussing gender gap changes in pensions – reducing in state pensions but still huge in private pensions (45% for those in their 70s currently and not likely to narrow soon).
Prof Andy Lymer was also involved in the two Tax and Social Policy Symposia with presentations linked to his book Tax and Social Policy published last year with Maggie May and Emeritus Professor Adrian Sinfield.Image
- June 2024: The Centre presenting to project findings to MaPS
The team presented three of our recent Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) funded pieces of work to their staff at a dedicated internal review session. This review covered the theme that connects this commissioned work (and much of what the Centre does) – drawing together evidence of the linkages between personal financial wellbeing with the wider understanding of what creates and maintains personal wellbeing.
The three pieces of work covered were:
1. Our work on the comparison of MaPS Financial Wellbeing Scores with Local area deprivation (as measured by Indices of Multiple Deprivation or IMDs). This work explores the overall research question: Is there evidence that lower levels of financial wellbeing are more likely to be the norm in more deprived areas? We were able to prove in this work that sadly there is evidence this is true, suggesting we need a more differentiated intervention policy to help improve UK-wide financial wellbeing (perhaps similar to the way health improvement activity is already recognising and engaging in). To understand how this challenge varies in form across the devolved nations, read our full report.
2. A rapid evidence assessment of the connections between mental health and financial wellbeing. This work make clear the strong connection that exists between mental heath and financial wellbeing. We propose this could best be visualised as a 'double helix' to better understand the complexity of what the evidence available to date is telling us. Check out the full report and all the evidence we draw.
3. Our (soon to be ready) rapid evidence assessment of what we know about the connections between physical health and financial wellbeing. This work highlights there are many key evidence gaps to be found in how these two key aspects of wellbeing are inter-related in practice. More details on our findings will be released very soon.
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- April 2024: Dr Ariane Agunsoye presenting at CHASM webinar
Our Associate member Dr Ariane Agunsoye presented key insights from her recently published paper “Irrational or Rational? Time to Rethink Our Understanding of Financially Responsible Behavior” co-authored with our researcher Dr Hayley James on 23 April in an online seminar hosted by CHASM - Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management.
This paper shows the diverse meaning-making processes when experiencing constraints, highlighting limitations of the current asset-based welfare system. Read the paper.
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- March 2024: Research Retold book launch
Prof Andy Lymer was a contributor to a new book The Guide to Communicating Research, featuring one of his projects as a specific case study of good practice and effective use of infographics for sharing complex research results with non-academic audiences.
Authored by Mihaela Gruia, a UK based research communications expert, the book is published by her business, Research Retold, a company that focuses on assisting academics to visualise complex academic research to create impactful and easy to read reports and summaries. Having had assistance from Mihaela and her team to turn two of our completed projects into posters during a 6-week course that they offer, our manager Dixon Wong attended the book launch ceremony in The Hepworth Wakefield Museum where Mihaela shared her interesting journey.
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- March 2024: HSBC financial education for young people in Birmingham
Prof Andy Lymer attended a round table event discussing future for financial education for young people in Birmingham, hosted by HSBC UK and Councillor Sharon Thompson.
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- March 2024: James Timpson OBE visit
For the second year in a row, Prof Andy Lymer hosted James Timpson OBE DL , CEO of the Timpson Group, and a Visiting Professor of Aston Business School, for a full day of activities on Wednesday (13th).
James met with various staff members including the Vice Chancellor, Professor Aleks Subic and PVC and Business School Executive Dean, Zoe Radnor. A major advocate of the importance of effective staff wellbeing, including all aspects of financial wellbeing, James discussed his recently published The Happy Index – a book of valuable insights based on his bottom-up management approach – with staff, students and visitors.
James also spend an afternoon interacting with both undergraduate and postgraduate students, followed by a 'fireside chat' with Prof Mark Hart in the newly opened Aston Enterprise Hub in John Cadbury House.
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- March 2024: Economic Justice Action Network
Prof Andy Lymer took part in the Economic Justic Action Networking meeting organised by the Barrow Cadbury Trust, during which Mary-Ann Stephenson of UK Women's Budget Group addressed gender and economic injustice in the UK and explored what actions could be taken to make a difference.
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- February 2024: World Economic Forum
Dr Hayley James attended the Longevity Economy workshop hosted by the World Economic Foundation in Brussels and joined many interesting and important discussions about how we adapt to the longevity revolution in ways that help everyone have a more positive experience of later life. She contributed her research-based perspective, highlighting that many people are struggling to afford present commitments and we need solutions which don’t just exacerbate income and wealth inequalities, but are more suited to people’s needs.
In light of increasing longevity globally, the workshop discussed the six Longevity Economy principles formulated by the WEF and reflect on the changes needed to our social, economic and technological systems in order to achieve these principles. Read more about these principles here:
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- January 2024: The Directors Club
Prof Andy Lymer addressed "Economics in Adversity" at the Director's Club of Aston Business School, painting the crisis we now live in with daunting figures and laying out how Aston researches are making a difference during these difficult times.
Fellow speaker Jonathan Miller talked about how being progressive, approachable, collaborative and an enabler helped their business cope with a world that is changing faster than ever and adaptability a key to succeed.Image
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- November 2023: The Personal Financial Wellbeing Research Conference 2023
The Centre and the Money and Pension Service co-hosted their second joint annual Personal Financial Wellbeing research conference at the Aston University on the 15th November (Wednesday) this year. The day included a variety of sessions exploring different aspects of recently completed or current research (academic and closely) related to all matters of personal financial wellbeing.
Agenda:
09:30-10:00 Registration and coffee
10:00-10:10 Welcome by Prof Andy Lymer
10:10-11:30 Young people and financial wellbeing – Moderated by Dr Hayley James, Helen Pitman (MaPS), Carla Hoppe (Wealthbrite) and Dr Pauline Prevett (University of Manchester) looked into the specific needs of young adults and solutions targeting this specific stage of the life course in supporting financial wellbeing.
11:30-11:45 Coffee break
11:45-13:15 Poverty Alleviation – Moderated by Prof Andy Lymer, Dr Gary Burke (University of Bristol), Amanda Smith (Malvern Hills District Council) and Greg Ward (Birmingham City Council) discussed how local councils and partners can develop solutions to tackle poverty in their areas, building on the work taking place in Malvern Hill and Birmingham.
13:15-14:30 Lunch / Poster showcase
14:30-15:50 Real Accounts project – Moderated by Paul Das (MaPS), Sope Otulana (Nest Insight), Anne Angsten-Clark (Nest Insight), Elena Magli (Glasgow Caledonian University) and Dr Hayley James (Aston University) reported on the early findings from an innovative 6 month financial diaries project led by Nest Insight partnering with the Centre and Glasgow Caledonian University.
15:50-16:00 Wrap up and closeIn addition to the panel discussions, we also showcased below posters of new and emerging research in the field of personal finance during the lunch session:
CPFW Posters
Harmful Gambling and Tenancy Loss
Money and Mental Health
Migrants and Non-citizens
Local Deprivation and Personal Financial Wellbeing
External submission
Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP): Employee wellbeing – Powering possibility for good financial futures
Nest Insight: Opt-out payroll saving is a popular and powerful nudge
Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management (CHASM): Precarious lives and financial behaviour – An investigation into the impact of insecurity on saving and pension planning
Centre for Business in Society (CBiS): Improving the public’s financial wellbeing in challenging times
University of Bristol: Does a Working Class Background Tend Towards a Life of Economic Stress?
Univeristy of Manchester: Managing money in later life: mental capacity assessment and support
Nottingham Trent University: Debt advice and financial capability: best-practice for professionals and policymakers working with prisoners, offenders, and ex-offenders- October 2023: Gambling Harms Research Colloquium
Prof Andy Lymer and Dr Halima Sacranie attended the interdisciplinary Gambling Harms research colloquium (as part of the International Interdisciplinary Colloquium 2023) in Bristol and showcased our two year research in gambling harm with Birmingham City Council which explored the impact on sustaining tenancies in social housing in a poster.
- September 2023: TRN Conference 2023
Prof Andy Lymer attended the Tax Research Network annual conference hosted by the Centre for Tax Law at University of Cambridge during which more than 130 delegates from around the world shared their latest research in tax.
After two days of great tax debate and discussion on past, present and future, as Chair of the Network Andy also led a Tax Education Day to discuss how educators are including SDGs in their tax education, innovative ways to provide more effective feedback, how to build and keep attention, best cater for different learning styles and more.- August 2023: International Conference on Taxation
Prof Andy Lymer visited South Africa to join the International Conference on Taxation hosted at the University of Pretoria and chaired a panel on “Barriers to implementing distribution justice in taxation - what gets in the way of creating better equity in tax systems?” in response to the conference theme “Distributive Tax Justice in the Global Economy”.
- July 2023: Social Policy Association Conference 2023
The CPFW joined over 250 researchers, teachers, students and practitioners of social policy from the UK and overseas at the University of Nottingham to share research findings, promote social policy in teaching and learning, and advance the role of research in policy making.
In respond to this year’s theme of “Rising Inequalities and Poverty”, Prof Andy Lymer and Linh Vi presented their findings on the recent research on financial wellbeing and deprivation funded by the Money & Pensions Service, noting that, holding other factors constant, residents living in more deprived areas is prone to poorer financial wellbeing, due to income-related factors such as employment, health and education. The research also revealed that older people, white people, individuals with good mental health, and those with lower levels of education are more susceptible to the effects of neighbourhood deprivation on their financial wellbeing.
On the second day Dr Hayley James joined Prof Lymer to present on the findings from a rapid evidence review with Money & Pensions Service on the relationship between mental health and financial wellbeing, showing that the pandemic and the cost of living crisis have significantly worsened both the mental health and financial wellbeing of growing numbers of people across the UK. The report highlights the need for more research to systematically explore the relationship. The full report is available here.- February 2023: Society Matters: Tackling the cost of living crisis: What can we do?
As part of Aston University’s Society Matters LIVE! Series, Prof Andy Lymer and Dr Hayley James of CPFW ran an interactive session on tackling the cost of living crisis, with a focus on what can be done. The cost of living crisis is having a serious impact on people’s financial wellbeing. Recent budget announcements provide some support, including maintaining the value of benefits in real terms, but this is only the tip of the iceberg and many benefits have not kept pace with inflation in previous years. Many UK citizens now face real challenges of navigating cost pressures across multiple fronts. The scale of the crisis necessitates radical solutions that take account of real life experiences.
The audience were encouraged to participate throughout the session, and the Padlet link can be access here to see the suggestions raised. The slides from the event are available here. View a summary report of this event.
- February 2023: Cost of Living Crisis: Can research really make a difference?
Andy Lymer is professor of taxation and personal finance and director of the Centre for Personal Financial Wellbeing at Aston University. His inaugural lecture explored how research can play a pivotal role in understanding and responding to the cost of living crisis.
Professor Lymer asserts that research challenges practices and behaviours and offers new ways of thinking, in particular in this case, about our relationship with money and wealth that could aid in addressing the current issues faced.
If done well, research can also help to develop improved resilience and financial wellbeing that will better prepare us all for similar future challenges – both personally and as a society. In Andy’s lecture, he will highlighted what differences research can make to this ‘wicked challenge’ and suggests areas in which more work is needed.
- February 2023: Aston Business School Research Seminar
The CPFW team elaborated on the principles of personal financial wellbeing and the mission of the Centre as an interdisciplinary research hub.
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- December 2022: College of Business and Social Sciences Research Showcase
The CPFW team took part in the BSS Research Showcase and connected with many visitors who are interested in personal financial wellbeing.
- November 2022: Researching Personal Financial Wellbeing Conference 2022
The Centre held a joint conference with the Money and Pensions Service as part of Talk Money Week 2022. The event explored how research activity from a wide variety of different perspectives is helping to understand what is happening and how research should play a role in aiding the development of solutions to address these challenges.
- November 2022: James Timpson OBE visit
On behalf of Aston Business School (ABS), the Centre hosted James Timpson, CEO of the Timpson Group
On 2 November, James delivered a public lecture to a full lecture theatre on ‘how to run a successful business without being a horrible boss’, in which he outlined his philosophy of a business built on kindness, trust and treating all staff as colleagues, not employees. He was joined by two colleagues who specifically detailed the work they do with ex-offenders – who make up over 10% of the group’s workforce.
On 3 November, James spent the day meeting staff and students in small groups to discuss how this works in practice in his retail businesses, showing how it really is possible to be both successful and kind – sadly, not features always exhibited by businesses but one, he argued strongly, that matters more right now than ever before.
- September 2022: The Birmingham Financial Inclusion Partnership workshop
The Centre was delighted to host the September meeting of the Birmingham Financial Inclusion Partnership, which brought together a wide range of stakeholders to address the challenges of poverty facing the city.
- June 2022: Malvern Hills District Council Future Workforce Programme Workshop
Following the summit, the CPFW team and the MHDC working group came together to brainstorm on workforce policies that can tackle the wicked challenges in the long run.
- May 2022: Malvern Hills District Council Poverty summit
As part of the CPFW poverty alleviation project, the team organised a day out with the Malvern Hills Distrcit Council to explore the hidden problem of poverty as part of the wicked challenges in personal finance project by serious play.
- April 2022: Business South Housing Summit
Our Director attended the summit to share the finding of our report on the Impact of Housing Quality and Neighbourhoods on Customer Wellbeing, one of the outputs from the Wicked Challenges in personal finance project.