@bea What’s the purpose of the experiment? I’m guessing this will work if people keep on paying, so the main KPI would be recurring payments. If that’s the case it seems to me the way the experiment is set up it will not yield good recurring payments? Why, people will forget to scan again, next month/week/day. Shouldn’t it just be a ‘direct debit’ recurring sub type thing?
My guess would be publicity, as it won’t directly generate profit for Monzo - which seems to be the aim at the moment.
Good work. Keep it up.
Is it not more part of the #NoBarrierstoBanking and try and help the unbanked become banked? - I think just saying that this is a publicity grab is a bit of a discredit.
3 Likes
Even after reading the article, I’m really struggling to see how this can work at all.
So the Big Issue seller needs to buy a Smartphone, but they can’t buy a really cheap one because Monzo keep dropping support for older versions (particularly of Android). So at least £60+ for a phone that’s running a version of Android that might be supported by Monzo for more than 5 minutes. They then have to buy a form of Identification that Monzo will accept so either £43 for a Provisional Driving License or £95 for a Passport, presumably both are things that a homeless person has little need for out of setting up Monzo.
So already we’ve made over a £100 investment. At Big Issues estimate of one mag per hour and assuming a ‘normal’ 8 hour day that’s 11 days if they spend their money on literally nothing else!
We then have to make sure we top the phone up very regularly because the Monzo app seems to like eating data because we’re not going to get a contract if we say we’re Homeless and our Occupation is selling The Big Issue.
But then the biggest thing for me is that the article says:
But as we increasingly start to favour cards over cash, Big Issue sellers are finding it more challenging to sell the magazine. 10 years ago, six in every 10 transactions were made in cash, but now it’s three in 10.
This doesn’t solve that original issue! You need the cash in the first place in order to be able to Pay It Forward! So you’re going to struggle to find that mate to buy it from if the original issue is fewer people buy the Big Issue because they don’t carry cash!
Am I just not getting it? Do all homeless people pack up their Big Issues, whip out their iPhone XS Max and jump in their car to the airport when they’re done?
Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea but I can’t see how it will work. Surely it’d be more useful if we can buy it outright with the QR code. I’d definitely buy my first ever Big Issue using it.
8 Likes
I think Monzo have been working with The Big Issue on the points you made early on… ie identification, smart phone etc. Ultimately, a smart phone isn’t needed though as Monzo is still a current account without the smart phone.
But the main thing for me is you still have to pay cash in the first place so I agree it isn’t solving the issue.
I’d like to see this model work for all magazines though. I think it could work well.
1 Like
I’m not so sure about that one. You need a Smartphone to setup the account in the first place and you can’t even check your balance at an ATM because that seems to be a LINK feature and with no Telephone Banking of any description you can’t even call them for a balance check.
4 Likes
Maybe that’s where The Big Issue help?
It seems like a total no-brainer to do this. It is why it makes me cynical as to the motive just being publicity - this creation will generate many column inches for Monzo.
People have said it is because the vendor buys the copies of the magazine with cash. Surely it is not beyond the realms of fantasy that the vendor could buy the copies from magazine HQ with the money in their Monzo account. Am I missing something obvious as to why this could not be done?
5 Likes
I would guess it is because paying with the QR code, 50% goes to the vendor and 50% goes to The Big Issue, so the vendor would be £1.25 down.
The vendor doesn’t pay £2.50 per magazine. They pay £1.25 and keep the profit.
Ah yeah my bad. Still, means they are giving away free copies until it (hopefully) gets sold on again.
1 Like
The reason it might be cash first is because of the monzo.me implementation.
You can choose the amount you want to pay via monzo.me with the first £1.25 going to the vendor.
In a hypothetical situation, people could just pay £1.25 and the big issue would never get their cut.
I know the obvious solution is a fixed or minimum of £2.50 via Monzo.me, but this is a first version and the current implementation still leaves the vendor only with the potential to gain.
I thought the minimum was £2.50? I’ve not managed to check it out yet.
That makes sense. So it would need to be a £2.50 minimum on the QR code, or two codes - one for initial sale and one for resale (not a very elegant solution).
I guess the easiest solution here is the vendor having a QR code on their badge. That gives them £2.50. Then the code on the magazine will be fine.
5 Likes
Thanks Matt. I appreciate the debate here, as I think this is a hugely important issue for our society.
It’s important to appreciate that despite substance abuse undoubtedly being a factor in homelessness, there are other factors that are evidenced as either a cause or consequence of homelessness such as mental health, physical health, unemployment, a lack of protective relationships, lack of education, suffering abuse, educational attainment, adverse childhood experiences, and structural factors such as housing supply and affordability, unemployment, welfare and income policies. Specifically concerning the causes (as opposed to consequences) the government suggests that it’s useful to think about “risk factors” (e.g. mental health, substance abuse, educational attainment) and “triggers” (e.g. job loss, relationship breakdown). In addition, there factors that are interconnected, for example mental illness may be exacerbated by substance abuse. The point is that I do agree with you that it’s a complex issue and we should be looking for solutions to the root causes. However, I respectfully disagree with you that homelessness is a drug issue.
In terms of solutions, whilst the government forecast to have spent £20.4bn on housing benefit in 2017-18 there is a recognised upward trend in costs of accommodation in the UK. Indeed you cite Crisis, who say that the housing benefit freeze restricts access to accommodation. For example, someone needing a one-bedroom property will find housing affordable in just 20% of the country. Therefore with rising numbers of people in temporary accommodation we need to find long-term housing solutions with the appropriate services wrapped around them.
In their comprehensive “Everybody In: How to end homelessness in Great Britain (2018)” Crisis cite the importance of more housing (100,500 social homes per year), building on the legislative responsibilities laid out in The Homelessness Reduction Act (2017) to provide a greater preventative legal safety net for people at risk of homelessness, mapping out a consistent definition of homelessness and breaking down stereotypes of what homelessness is, accurately measuring data (e.g. who is turned away from hostels as well as numbers that stay), critical-time interventions to housing & financial support, and discharge arrangements between prison, hospitals or other institutions. One of the most significant solutions is Housing First which is an evidence-based approach to tackling homelessness for those with multiple and/or complex needs (e.g. substance dependency) - permanent housing with flexible support provided by those with a smaller caseload. This solution results in about 80% of people remaining housed.
That all being said, we recognise that we are only a small part of the solution at the moment. By supporting the Big Issue we are making steps to improve access to mainstream services for those who are financially excluded, a small but significant part of supporting those individuals out of homelessness. We will undoubtedly learn lessons and understand what works through this pilot programme, and ultimately we hope to play a greater role in what is a complex set of factors that contribute to homelessness.
5 Likes
Hi Chalky,
You’ve raised some great points here, and the biggest one (in my opinion) is being able to buy the magazine outright with the QR code.
The reason that the QR code on the magazine isn’t suitable for the initial transaction is exactly as has been pointed out: the transaction is split 50/50 (up to £2.50 - anything extra goes to the original vendor), and as the vendor pays for the magazine upfront (£1.25) so that initial transaction would leave them making £0 on transaction number 1. That said, being able to make the first transaction upfront is something we were really in favour of, but ultimately the Big Issue wanted to focus on the re-sellable aspect of this pilot (they’ve already explored a pilot with several sellers having an izettle). However this is so good to hear, and I am 100% with you. If this moves beyond a pilot to a nationwide programme, I believe it’s essential you re able to make that first transaction in a number of ways.
The second major point about the upfront investment is another fair point. For the pilot we identified those sellers who had a phone & ID beforehand, but if this moves to a full rollout these are challenges that aren’t intractable but equally aren’t easy to solve. We are exploring the types of ID we can accept, and I would love it if there was flexibility as to what we could accept. Regarding the cost of a phone, obviously a phone has benefits beyond doing your banking, but ensuring sellers have access to a suitable phone is something that ourselves and the Big Issue will have to work hard on.
Thanks again for these points and I’ll make sure to bring these up with the Big Issue 
7 Likes
Hey @anon2804742,
Thanks for the additional insight. I can see how the initial purchase is a bit more complicated.
Maybe a combination of the iZettle Trial and what Monzo is doing might be a winner, they’ll be able to withdraw their iZettle funds into their Monzo account presumably.
Please do keep us posted on how it’s going. I’ll have to give it a try when it makes it over to Rotherham/Sheffield.
1 Like
This, at least, isn’t necessarily true. You can get an Alcatel U3 3G (running Android 6, supported by Monzo) from giffgaff for £20. You have to buy a minimum £10 goodybag with the phone (one-off), but essentially you can get an unlocked Android phone to run Monzo for £30.
After that, you could not use the SIM (to avoid having to pay for mobile service) and just use free WiFi to access Monzo. Alternately, giffgaff have a £5 goodybag which lasts for a month and provides 500MB of data, which would be more than enough for managing a Monzo account. So, yes, these are significant costs, but not quite as unachievable as the £60+ phone. And this is for people who don’t already have one, a lot already do. I actually think the phone is the more solvable issue, it’s the ID and initial purchase that are trickier.