Vicar highlights credit unions are needed more than ever

Tuesday 16 January 2024

Vicar of St Cuthbert’s, Steve Morris has spoken out in the Church Times to highlight why he  believes credit unions are now needed more than ever for families affected by Covid-19 and recognises  Churches Mutual Credit Union as a valuable asset.

Reflecting on the lockdown and how it may affect the Church community, Steve said: “If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that no one is an island. The Churches, as significant employers in the educational, charitable, and social-care sectors, often recognise that they have a duty of care to their employees, without realising that they can be proactive in helping them to build their financial resilience by promoting credit-union membership, and through facilitating access to their services, savings, and loans direct from payroll.

“Banks are being ultra-cautious about giving out loans, and, when that happens, it opens the door to exploitative doorstep lenders — or, worse, loan sharks. In the months to come, credit unions are likely to be a point of hope and practical help, but only if people know about them.”

Churches Mutual, a credit union aimed at these groups, was launched in 2015. Today, it has 1300 members, and, after five years, has granted just under £7 million in loans.

The credit union has helped families in all sorts of situations, including helping a parent to pay for a child’s university education when the whole family was strapped for cash. “It is interesting that credit unions are not just about emergency debt, but also about quality of life and human kindness — not something that is often associated with financial institutions,” Steve added.

“Our main message is we’re here, we’re open for business and we’ll get through this together,” says Hilary Sams, CEO of Churches Mutual Credit Union. Commenting on how the credit union has operated during lockdown, Hilary added: “Working from home has always been a feature of our business continuity plan so we were able to transition to remote working very quickly and smoothly and our members have not experienced any change in service apart from our telephone number.

“We have a number of members who have asked for assistance with reduced payments during this difficult time, mainly due to changes in household income and expenditure and hope we have been able to treat them sympathetically and fairly. We are reviewing our loan products to see if a form of revolving credit would be useful to our members.”

Steve reiterated the valuable impact the credit union has in the community and reflected how it would have benefited his own family when he was younger. Steve said: “I grew up in a family who knew what it was like to have no money. My father lost his job and became ill, and we were in a terrible hole. Thankfully, family friends and relatives helped us when we needed it — lending Dad a car so that he could go out and work as a carpet-fitter. It was a miserable time, and it could have gone either way for our family. If there had been a church credit union around at the time, we would have been eternally grateful.”

Source – Church Times