Turn2us annual impact 2025-2026

Thank you for reading our 2025/26 annual impact report. I hope it shows not only what Turn2us achieved, but why this work matters so urgently: too many of us in the UK are pulled into financial insecurity by systems and forces that can, and must, be changed.

We stand alongside people and families facing the relentless pressure and no-win choices of financial insecurity. Crisis support matters. Through our Edinburgh Trust's Thriving Futures Fund, delivered with local partners, four in five people initially rated financial worry at seven or above; eight months later, only 30 per cent did. Anxiety reduced, breathing space returned, and hope began to grow.

But if we help someone through hardship without tackling the conditions that pulled them into poverty, we treat symptoms while leaving causes untouched. Financial insecurity is bound up with housing, childcare, health, caring responsibilities, work and social security.

No organisation can solve something so interconnected alone. Lasting change depends on partnership with communities, charities, funders, business, researchers, policymakers and government.

Co-production is how partnership becomes real. People living with financial insecurity see the gaps in systems first: the form that is too hard, the appointment that comes too late, the support that misses the hurdle, the assumption that excludes.

Being led by that experience helps us design work that is timely, practical and effective. Because hardship is not experienced equally, our commitment to equality, diversity, inclusion and belonging must shape how Turn2us thinks, decides and acts.

This year, with CLASS on the Aquarius estate in Hulme, the barrier was not lack of information. It was isolation, ill health and having nobody with time to help.

In three months, Cat, the independent living worker, supported 22 residents with GP appointments, home adaptations, repairs and benefit claims. People began using local services, attending appointments and getting the income they needed to thrive. 

The Warm Homes Network linked our digital tools with specialist support from YES Energy Solutions and Citizens Advice Manchester. We referred 4,739 people to Citizens Advice Manchester and 3,297 to YES Energy Solutions. One family avoided further arrears and gained extra support. "We felt overwhelmed," they told us, "but having someone explain everything made a huge difference."

Financial security means living without the constant pressure of worrying about money. It means having enough stability to withstand shocks: bereavement, illness, job loss, disability, relationship breakdown or caring responsibilities. It is thriving, not just surviving.

Social security should help people regain stability when life changes suddenly. Yet too often it is described as a "burden", "dependency" or "drain". That story stops people seeking help, weakens public support and limits political courage. Changing policy matters, but changing the story matters too. Turn2us is working to do both.

Changing the story means challenging it with evidence. Our University of Bristol research on stigma, funded by Royal London, launched at the Labour Party Conference with the Fabian Society, and then in Parliament. Co-production partners with recent or current lived experience shaped the policy asks and spoke at both events.

Thank you for reading. Turn2us does not do this alone. Our funders, partners and donors invest in this work, and that investment is what puts money in people's pockets, strengthens local systems and shifts national policy.

We are looking for people who want to invest in the next stage of it. If that is you, come and talk to us.
Thomas Lawson,
Chief Executive, Turn2us and Chair, Elizabeth Finn Homes.