Healthier Wealthier Families in East London (HWFinEL)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Healthier Wealthier Families in East London (HWFinEL): evaluating and extending health and wellbeing benefits of universal co-located money advice for parents of newborns
IRAS ID
333125
Contact name
Claire Cameron
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 3 months, 31 days
Research summary
The financial condition children live in when they are young can affect their health, not only in their childhood but also throughout their lives. The current cost of living crisis means many families are ‘going without’ the basics yet many people do not claim all the benefits they are entitled to or know how to solve money problems because they find it difficult to access. Parents with a newborn baby are especially likely to need financial support.
Research from Scotland (2011) shows that after getting money advice services linked up with routine health services family income can improve. We don’t yet know if linking up money advice with routine health appointments improves parents’ health and wellbeing as well as their household income. We don’t know whether making these services easy to access through linking them up has long term implications for children’s health and wellbeing. Finally, at the moment we don’t know how best health and money advice services can be organised to help mothers who are in difficulty such as those who are homeless or have only recently arrived in England.
The HWFinEL study aims to improve low-income families’ living conditions and ensure that all children have the best start in life. By providing evidence-based advice, we hope to make a big difference to the lives of families with young children wherever they live. The study is a randomised controlled study, recruiting 1,153 participants (mothers or fathers aged 16+ years old) across 8 Children's and Families Centres (CFCs) around the London Borough of Tower Hamlets (LBTH). Participants will receive 1:1 ratio of either the intervention (welfare benefits advice (WBA) co-located at CFCs) or control group (LBTH existing service as usual). The study will involve two timepoints; baseline and 6 month follow-up.
REC name
London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/LO/0337
Date of REC Opinion
20 Jun 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion