Cohort 2026 PhD Project
About The Project
People who face Severe and Multiple Disadvantage (SMD) experience a combination of homelessness, substance use, mental health issues, domestic violence, and contact with the criminal justice system. Being among society’s most vulnerable members, they exhibit worse outcomes in domains including health, education, and employment. Consequently, they struggle with money, both in terms of availability and financial capabilities.
Economics has developed a battery of tests to measure how people deal with money and how they make financial decisions. Economics has also identified financial literacy as one of the key skills needed to succeed. The aim of this project is to better understand the economic preferences of people who face SMD and to use this knowledge to work with them to help them improve their financial capabilities.
The first step would focus on surveying people who face SMD. The survey would include tasks from experimental economics to measure aspects of their economic preferences, such as their risk, time, and social preferences. The survey will also measure financial literacy, numeracy, and general financial skills. These quantitative measures will be combined with more qualitative measures, for example interviews and focus groups, to make sure that the lived experience of people facing SMD can shape the outcomes of the research.
The second step would compare people who face SMD to people who do not. To do so, a similar survey would be repeated with people from the general population of Nottingham. This comparison would allow us to identify the main differences in preferences and the main gaps in knowledge between the two populations.
The last step would leverage the knowledge identified so far to co-create interventions aimed at improving the financial capabilities of people who face SMD. Such interventions could take the form of workshops, mentors, or role models, or help us design better financial services.
This project has been co-created with and is supported by researchers from Nottingham Trent University, University of Nottingham and partners at Framework.
Project Aims
The overall aims of the project are:
To understand the economic preferences (risk preferences, time preferences, social preferences, trust, beliefs) and skills (financial literacy) of people facing SMD.
To compare the economic preferences and skills of people facing SMD with those of the general population.
To co-design interventions aimed at improving the financial capabilities of people facing SMD.
Project Team
- PhD Candidate: Lutfi Ucal
- Lead Academic Supervisor: Dr Geoffrey Castillo (Nottingham Trent University)
- Academic Co-Supervisor: Dr Anna Tickle (University of Nottingham)
- Academic Co-Supervisor: Dr Thorsten Chmura (Nottingham Trent University)
- Community Supervisor: Taz Foster (Framework)