BIG announces £31m 'money management' drive for people in social housing1

Fundraising | Niki May Young | 22 Aug 2012

The Big Lottery Fund has awarded 37 projects a total of £31.7m to help improve the financial situation of people living in social housing across England.

The drive aims to reverse the effects of a "poverty premium" which sees people without access to basic financial products, such as bank accounts, incurring more costs by accessing funds through services such as loan sharks.

Figures from the Department for Business Innovation & Skills have shown that an estimated 310,000 people borrow £120m each year from loan sharks, paying back £450m.

BIG's Improving Financial Confidence programme has therefore awarded grants of between £568,000 and £1m to charitable and non-charitable organisations seeking to provide financial support and advice to around 150,000 tenants across England. 13 Citizens Advice Bureaux are among the awardees, receiving funding for specific projects aimed at financial education and support.

The programme is supported by Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis, who said: "Disgracefully it costs more to be poor," he said. "The poverty premium means, from household goods to energy bills, things are more expensive for those with little cash as they need to borrow to buy or don't get the direct debit discounts others take for granted.

"Sadly we still don't have compulsory financial education on the curriculum, and even then, more will be needed to help the financially excluded.

"The Big Lottery Fund's Improving Financial Confidence programme is a good step towards that," he added.

A full list of the organisations receiving funding is available here.

BIG explains its Improving Financial Confidence programme below:

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Sally H
23 Aug 2012

Martin Lewis is not the person to be fronting this unless he has given all the money. Does anyone know if he has? He is always on sofa tv telling people how to take out financial products that pay you to take them out. That may make him rich and those who take out the products even better off but it causes the added costs on the poorest. How else does he think his best buy bank accounts can pay people £100 to take out an account? Who does he think pays for all his best buy credit card deals that send freebies and introductory benefits to people who don't need credit who then cancel the card on his advice, then take out more cards? There was a lady featured on tv who used his website and she had over 80 different bank accounts taken out for freebies. This all stems from the way he makes money, paid to introduce customers to financial products. Of course products that pay people to take them out are his best buy but they and he are the root of the high costs levied on the poor.

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