MSE Charity

The MSE Charity gives grants to UK not for profit organisations that deliver activities which make a lasting impact on how people think, behave and manage their money. It is mainly funded by the TV celebrity, Martin Lewis who was very generous to voluntary organisations during the Covid-19 emergency. We successfully applied for a grant from the MSE Charity under their “Raising the Next Generation” Programme. This aimed to build financial capability skills for those young people (aged up to 25) who need to develop them most to live more successful lives. 

Covid-19 forced nearly all our Service Users to stay indoors. Many of them had underlying health problems, including diabetes and cystic fibrosis, which forced them to ‘shield’ for 12 months or longer. This meant they become increasingly dependent on their families. The forced closure of Insight Society’s programme of visits during the Covid Lockdowns meant that young blind people didn’t have anyone outside their family to help with their personal financial planning or online banking needs. Most of our Service Users have loving and trustworthy families, but by no means all of them do. Family financial fraud is a serious problem leading to our Service Users having their Social Security benefits and other income stolen by relatives who know their Usernames, Passwords and PINS.

The project that MSE funded enabled us to train young BSVI people how to plan their own personal finances and take full control of their bank and credit card accounts. Financial independence for young blind people like this has only recently become possible through improvements in Smartphone and Computer technology. For example, voice control software called ‘JAWS’ allows banking Apps to be fully accessible to blind people for the first time. This project was extremely liberating for young blind people. By taking part in it, they were able to take full control of their personal finances in the way that is taken for granted by the great majority of 16- to 25-year-olds.