At a glance: Annual Report and Accounts 2023/24

I’m delighted to be able to say that in 2023/24 we delivered against all our key performance indicators in each of MaPS' core functions. 

In doing so, we exceeded targets in the following areas:

• the number of debt advice clients served (112%)
• the number of money guidance sessions delivered (105%)
• pension guidance sessions delivered (101%)
• Pension Wise appointments attended (112%)

Providing money guidance to the public is a key part of our statutory remit – it’s how we make sure everyone is making the most of their money and pensions. We do this through MoneyHelperOpens in a new window, our customer-facing service that joins up money and pensions guidance to make it quicker and easier to find the right help.

In 2023/24 we worked hard to improve the customer journey and direct people to tools that are relevant to them. 

MoneyHelper exceeded its targets in 2023/24, achieving 12.4 million ‘engaged sessions’ – the number of visits to the MoneyHelper website lasting longer than 60 seconds, referrals to partners in less than 60 seconds and tool completions less than 60 seconds.  

Importantly, our money guidance service continued to receive positive feedback from those using the service – across the full year, the customer satisfaction score was 90%, the customer understanding score was 92%, and the customer resolution score was 87%. 

We also support the public to access money guidance through our Money Guiders programme, which aims to improve the status and quality of practitioner-led money guidance across the four UK nations, and by signposting to trusted partner organisations.

We know that planning for later life is crucial to financial wellbeing, and engagement with pensions and planning helps people to work towards the standard of living they hope for in retirement. 

MoneyHelper’s pensions guidance

For pensions guidance, we delivered 263,000 sessions – equivalent to 101% of our 260,000 target. We also saw 635,000 completions of pensions guidance tools (106% of our 600,000 target)

Pension Wise

Pension WiseOpens in a new window is a service from MoneyHelper, backed by government offering free, impartial guidance to over 50s with defined pension pots. 

In 2023/24 number of Pension Wise appointments attended reached 112% of its target.  

We also began building the functionality for a new digital appointment service to make it easier for customers to access our Pension Wise service. This service, Pension Wise Digital was launched in July this year.

Learn more about our pensions work

Among many activities undertaken by MaPS in the debt space in 2023/24, we completed the implementation of the new debt contracts and commenced work on a new longer-term debt commissioning cycle, including community- based commissioning and the tender for the Mental Health Crisis Breathing Space. 

Through these new contracts with suppliers and through our grant arrangements, we served over 600k people. This was 64k more than expected – equivalent to performance of 112% of target.

A total of 25k Debt Relief Orders (DROs) were successfully administered, against a target of 24k (103% of target).

We also continued to commission research into debt, such as our annual debt needs survey, in order to make sure our work continues to be informed by the ‘voice of the consumer’.  

Learn more about our debt work

Ensuring the entire nation is engaged with financial wellbeing is a key part of our work. Throughout the organisation we continue to work with partners of all sizes, from all sectors, to encourage the uptake of our services and promote the UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing. 

Among the highlights of 2023/24, was setting up an agreement with Netmums (an online parenting platform with two million registered users) where MaPS colleagues answer daily financial wellbeing questions referring answers to MoneyHelper. 

We also saw extensive engagement in our Talk Money Week campaign, and continued to fund and test projects that deliver financial education training to teachers and practitioners, and projects that offer direct delivery of financial education to children and young people in vulnerable circumstances.  

For more detail on activities promoting the aims of the UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing, you can read our six-monthly progress reports: 

• England

• Northern Ireland

• Scotland

• Wales 

From a financial perspective, MaPS performed strongly against the mid-year forecast submitted to the DWP. This is one key measure that MaPS is monitored against, and in 2023/24, MaPS ended the year with financial outturn within 1% of the mid-year forecast. Final outturn was total expenditure of £167.4m (including capital spend excluding right of use, depreciation and amortisation) against a forecast of £168.5m. This reflects the strongest performance of MaPS as an organisation since its inception and demonstrates the continued maturity in MaPS’s financial management capabilities.

And all of this, in a year with so much change. Between relocating our head office to Bedford, my appointment as CEO and the continuous development of our services, we have managed to deliver these results while providing a seamless service to customers. 

If there is anything this year has shown me, it’s what an important organisation I have joined, and the enormous impact it can make in ensuring people's financial wellbeing and inclusion. I look forward to seeing what we’ll achieve in 2024/25.