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Thank you for contacting Council
Tax at the Royal Borough of
Kensington & Chelsea. Due to the
high volume of correspondence
there is currently a delay in
response times of up to 20
working days. We do apologise
for the delayed response.
The Paperweight Trust
Impact Report 2024
The Paperweight Trust
Impact Report 2024
Question: Which of the following scenarios
accurately reflects first calls to Paperweight’s
National Helpline.
A. The bailiff is at the door demanding money
I do not have
B. The Landlord has served an eviction notice
C. My husband’s solicitors have served papers
D. I have a Family Court hearing tomorrow
and haven’t completed the form.
Answer: All
These clients have unwittingly set the bar
very high indeed, leaving Paperweight with a
situation that needs to be very rapidly assessed.
In communication with outside parties
we always endeavour to meet their time
requirements but have often found that a
holding letter from ourselves can reduce time-
tension and enable a route out of the complexity
to be designed and navigated at a realistic pace.
We ensure that our commitments match our
resources, and that includes the most valuable
resource of our volunteers’ – Time.
Some clients’ problems are resolved within the
week. Others within a month. Here is a snapshot
of the past 12 months’ turn-around of cases. The
majority are resolved satisfactorily within three
months, but by necessity, especially if there are
Court appearances or several agencies involved,
so this can run into many months.
The times are from first caseworker meeting
/telephone call to the closing of the file.
We aim to start working for the client within
three working days from first contact.
Here, by way of contrast, is a redacted email
response from a London Borough to one of our
caseworkers making representations for a client:
That’s four more weeks of needless stress
for the client.
Paperweight’s opening sentence in its
Charitable Aims describes “The relief of
financial hardship and emotional stress.”
Post-script. What S.M.A.R.T.
won’t do.
All factors carefully weighed up, all boxes
crossed, will not lead to a successful business.
But it will give a good business idea a chance
to flourish.
Paperweight is not a business, even though
we expended some £340,000 for the financial
year to 31.7.23
Because of clients-in-process from one financial
year to another, it is a complex matter allocating
costs-per-client with a broad brush. In addition,
some were helped with a few phone calls,
others took very many months of meetings.
Hardly any we could not help at all.
Conservatively, looking at client numbers: last
year’s 1,945 and this year’s 2,695 we can say
for sure that at least 2,320 (being the straight
average) were helped for that £340,000
expenditure i.e. at an average cost of just £145
per client. No High Street professional could
possibly tackle the casebook for that sum.
In terms of value for money for the community
– the savings could run into £,000 s per client
We would say, with heads held high that
Paperweight is amongst the most cost-effective
social enterprises generating profits – that is
closed cases with successful outcomes – that
are just out of this world.
For example, the average
hourly rate for a family
lawyer in London with more
than 8 years of experience
is £546. And that’s just the
average. Some of London’s
top family law firms charge in
excess of £750 per hour.
A bit about stress – the
chicken and the egg of crises
and Mental Health
More than 50% of our clients tell us that their
new unwanted circumstances creates stress
and that they suffer ill Mental Health as a
result. Their complicated mental health prior
to the array of problems that drove them into
Paperweight’s arms, may also be a factor in
why their circumstance has so deteriorated.
The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute,
founded and chaired by Martin Lewis OBE
describe in detail the devastating effect of
“the brown window envelope”, the impact
of debt collections agencies tactics, and the
inaccessibility of many notional government
helplines for those suffering ill Mental Health.
At Paperweight we see these situations daily.
Our trained personnel will first and foremost
aim to gain the trust of a client who has been
badly battered by careless authoritarianism and
ill-thought procedures. The MMHPI at a high
level is painstakingly effecting changes in policy.
Paperweight’s caseworkers are interacting daily
with mental health sufferers, dealing directly
with clients terrified of their circumstance who
cannot believe that matters will improve, when
experience has shown just the opposite.
If we wish to strengthen our T we need to
successfully recruit, train and retain more
volunteer caseworkers and at the same time
reinforce our key office-based staff with skilled
managers and leaders. This is Paperweight’s
goal for 2024/25.
Conclusion
Abraham’s stars march gracefully round the
heavens. Paperweight’s clients arrive pell-mell
and in much distress, having been catapulted
out of their normal orbits. We can do far worse
than set them on a new and achievable path,
return their self-confidence, give them the tools
to face their problems, so they too can shine.
It’s the SMART thing to do.