About Financial Inclusion

There are currently 2.8 million adults in the UK without access to reliable financial advice, bank accounts or affordable credit. They pay over the odds to access their cash and often pay extremely high interest rates when they borrow money.

The people who need help are often those least likely to know how to ask for it. Whether it’s a matter of education, language or cultural barriers, they may not realise they are being penalised for not using services that most of us take for granted. They are also more likely to be nervous about changing – whether they’ve been turned down at a bank, or because they lack the language skills to have the conversation.

Just by explaining where to go for advice, facilitating access to a simple bank account, and telling them about affordable sources of credit, we can make a big difference to their lives.

The Financial Inclusion Taskforce

In 2004 the Government set out its strategy to tackle financial exclusion in ‘Promoting Financial Inclusion’, published alongside its Pre-Budget Report. It includes three priority areas: access to free face-to-face money advice, access to banking and access to affordable credit.

Financial support was set out at the Financial Inclusion Taskforce Conference in Spring 2006. It is being used to:

1. Increase the provision of face-to-face money advice
2. Introduce a growth fund to increase the availability of affordable credit. £10 million will be available to develop a scheme in which, under certain circumstances, lenders could apply for repayment to be made by deduction from benefit where other arrangements have broken down, and to administer the growth fund for third sector lenders.

The Government also established a delivery framework – including a Financial Inclusion Fund of £120 million over three years and a Financial Inclusion Taskforce to oversee progress.