Nearly 24 million UK adults have low financial literacy. There are already lots of financial education initiatives – but what could the government, charities and financial services sectors do to make them more impactful? Our new think paper, based on a survey of Fair for You customers, asks potential consumers, people from low income backgrounds, about financial education.
September 2024 - Fair Credit Charity supports the #FairBankingForAll Campaign
August 2024 - Gail Porter becomes Fair Credit Charity patron
Fair Credit Charity is delighted that Gail Porter, a broadcaster and former model who experienced bankruptcy and homelessness, has agreed to become our patron. Gail’s public debut as our patron was on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on 28 August, alongside a Fair for You customer, talking about the importance of affordable credit. You can find a clip on X (formerly Twitter), or hear more from Gail via LinkedIn.
June 2024 - Big Issue: a Blueprint for Change and end to illegal money lenders
Fair Credit Charity spoke to the Big Issue about the need for the next Government to tackle predatory lending as a step to end poverty. Fair Credit Charity is proud to have supported the Big Issue’s Blueprint for Change in the run up to the July 2024 UK general election.
1 in 6 people in the UK has no savings. Many families across the UK view credit as an urgent lifeline. Getting credit at all, let alone fair credit, is near impossible for many such families. It is the view of the Fair Credit Charity that the banking sector could do a lot more to support people on lower incomes who are currently financially excluded. Fair Credit Charity released a whitepaper using data and case studies from Fair for You, the ethical lender that we own and oversee, to suggest some such remedies.
April 2024 - How Financial Exclusion affected our new Trustee’s Childhood
“I remember when I was midway through secondary school and our washing machine broke down. We didn’t have the money to replace it, and, there was no way for my Mum to access credit to pay for one.” Harold Talbot-Tomlinson, our newly-appointed trustee, explains his lived experience of financial exclusion, and why it has motivated him to join Fair Credit Charity.
We are pleased to see Lloyd’s Bank investing a handsome £62m into CDFIs that specialise in lending to small businesses that often can’t get access to finance from banks. But where is the banking sector interest in personal lending CDFIs? Investing in these organisations would be in their own interests…
Regulation in the world of finance prevents hostile behaviour, both on the fringe of what the law allows and beyond. The fairness element protects vulnerable people from taking on loan commitments they cannot afford, whilst helping lenders to assess creditworthiness fairly through the sharing of data (which already happens between regulated lenders), writes Tom Levitt. It is therefore worrying to hear rumours that the Government is considering rolling back on proposals to properly regulate Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) finance.
June 2023 - Fair Credit Charity Advocates for the Fair Banking Act
Fair Credit Charity is proud to have joined the Fair Banking For All Campaign, which calls for a new Fair Banking Act. The campaign is co-ordinated by The Finance Innovation Lab. Our chief executive Simon Dukes wrote about the campaign in The Banker, and our chair Tom Levitt wrote about it in Labour List.
March 2023 - Third Sector: Charities call for changes to ‘crazy’ lending regulations
Fair Credit Charity spoke to Third Sector magazine about proposed changes to rules around credit broking. Under current rules, it is difficult for charities (and other organisations) to talk to their service users or clients about responsible lenders such as Fair for You, despite the positive impact that fair credit might have on them.
February 2023 - Measuring the Impact of Fair for You on Customer Health and Wellbeing
The Fair Credit Charity welcomes the Financial Inclusion Centre‘s independent evaluation of the health and wellbeing impact achieved by Fair for You. Among other things, the impact report showed that every £1 lent to Fair for You’s ‘core’ product customers in 2022 created health and wellbeing outcomes worth £16.68 for financially-excluded households. Read the full report here, or a summary of it on Fair for You’s LinkedIn page.
Fair Credit Charity commissioned the Centre for Responsible Credit to independently evaluate the partnership between Iceland Foods and Fair for You. Findings included a 92% decrease in food bank use, an 80% deduction in loan shark use, and improvements in financial stability, for Fair for You customers using the Iceland Food Club, which was then in a pilot phase. These findings helped make the case for the national rollout of the scheme.
Fair Credit Charity commissioned an evaluation of the impact of Fair for You’s work, to be carried out by the Centre for Responsible Credit. Its headline findings were that Fair for You had generated at least £50.5m of social value since its creation in 2015, including by helping 71% of customers move away from high-cost credit.