It’s Talk Money Week. Money is an inherently sensitive topic and one we’re not so good at discussing. It’s personal. And furthermore there’s still shame attached to either managing money badly, or not having enough of it in the first place.
According to the prepaid account app Pockit, in Apr 2019 there were 1.2m “unbanked” adults in the UK. These are people who do not have a current account. They subsequently pay a poverty premium because they miss out on offers and discounts, particularly because many energy, phone and broadband companies provide better deals for those paying by direct debit. Unbanked adults are also found to have limited options when applying for credit.
Renfrewshire Affordable Credit Alliance (RACA) champions fair and honest finance. We believe that everyone is entitled to get the most from their money, because in truth, we all need to borrow money from time to time.
The good news is that in Renfrewshire, there are lots of services and organisations who support affordable credit. The Renfrewshire population has a higher than national average credit union membership, and there are some great organisations who work with people and families in vulnerable situations to support them in managing their limited budgets.
RACA is hosting online information session at 10am on Nov 11 aimed at all groups/practitioners who support clients who would benefit from making improved choices about credit. Our speakers include HMRC, Right Way Credit Union and UWS. For more info and to register click here https://tinyurl.com/y4jxy3kp
And lastly, in case you need any reminders about why financial inclusion is so important, I recently read an article written by Jack Monroe, the author and campaigner, who went some way to describing the reality of living in poverty. She said “The lasting trauma, the inability to open the mail – especially anything in a brown envelope or that looks like a bill. The holding of breath as you enter your pin at a supermarket checkout. The heart hammering if the transaction takes a fraction of a second longer than it should. The forensic calculation, with an actual calculator, walking around the supermarket agonising over what to put in the basket and what to leave out this week. The cold that gets into your bones, the damp in your home that’s worse for health than long-term smoking, the musty smell that lingers on clothes that never quite dry out.”
You can read Jack’s full article at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/26/ffree-school-meals-row-debate-poverty-desperate-situations