Lancashire Households Urged to Seek Our Credit Unions in Cost-of-Living Crisis

Friday 26 January 2024

The leader of Preston City Council has highlighted local credit unions, as an alternative for support after it was revealed almost 390,000 people in the local area are classed as in financially vulnerable circumstances.

Figures from Fair4All Finance state a fifth of UK adults had less than £100 in savings even before the current financial crisis and as many as 1.1 million Brits may already be in the hands of illegal lenders,  otherwise known as loan sharks.

Leader of Preston City Council, Councillor Matthew Brown, said: “We are proud that many of Preston City Council’s workforce have signed up to save regularly with CLEVR Money credit union, a not-for-profit savings and loans co-operative. Not only do we want credit union membership to grow internally we actively promote CLEVR with many of our partners and to the wider community.

“CLEVR Money promotes sound financial management by encouraging responsible savings and giving access to affordable low-cost credit. This form of banking is particularly important as we go forward through the cost-of-living crisis and so we are very glad our staff are able to support the co-operative in this way.”

CLEVR Money is also adding a benefits calculator to its website to provide the community with easy access to the information. Anthony Brookes from CLEVR Money, said: “We’d urge anyone who is already in receipt of benefits, or somebody who is unsure whether they can claim anything, to check whether they are missing out by using a benefits calculator. In just a few minutes you could find that you are missing out on hundreds of pounds of income each month – and if this means you don’t need to take out a loan from us but can instead keep saving, we see that as a good result.”