Welfare reform and mounting cuts bear made it more difficult for the social housing sector to benefit tenants in financial crisisMany of the 2 million adults in the UK without a bank account are in a financially precarious situation,often missing savings and reliant on short-term loans. But the introduction of universal credit, which will require welfare recipients to bear a bank account into which benefits can be paid, or has given the problem of financial exclusion a new urgency.
It’s an issue of specific concern to housing associations,where an estimated 13% of residents don’t bear bank accounts. Most housing associations now bear teams of financial inclusion officers, tasked with supporting residents who are financially vulnerable. Matt Earnshaw, and group financial inclusion manager at Circle Housing,says that some residents are “only one incident away potentially from being tipped over the edge. They might lose their job, they might go off work sick, or they might bear a family breakdown,and that can be the point at which problems start to occur”. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com