Credit union fears over crisis
CALDERDALE CREDIT Union say they fear residents in the borough are going to be submerged by a cost of living avalanche.
Rising energy, food and petrol prices have all seen families’ budgets squeezed recently.
But the not-for-profit organisation, based in Halifax town centre, has warned that even more families will soon be feeling under greater pressure to make ends meet.
“We would certainly encourage people who are struggling to pay their bills to come and talk to us because if we cannot help because a loan is not the answer we can redirect people to help in other ways,” said the union’s Frances Burns. “There are insolvency solutions that may be suitable in particular cases.”
General manager Simone Armitage said: “Some of the most vulnerable people in the community are already worst affected. These are often referred to us by social services and other agencies, and for them we can offer a budget account. We look
at all regular yearly bills and split payments into a 12 month cycle. This ensures that all bills are paid on time. If there are other more high cost debt we can often pay those off at a reasonable rate of interest to allow more disposable income into
the family. The credit union has teamed up with Stop the Loan Sharks, which can seize assets from these unscrupulous people and this is then used to do good works in communities. The credit union and the Stop The Loan Sharks team are working together to put a few incentives in place to benefit the communities of Calderdale and Kirklees. People can check our social media and website for updates on that.”
Frances, who is chair of the board of directors at the credit union, said: “We are part of the council’s poverty group, and the worry is what’s going to happen going forward. We’re looking at how we can extend that to respond to a crisis, which we feel will happen in around April or May. I think we’re right at the beginning of this crisis that is going to be an avalanche. It’s going to hit everybody, we’re all going to feel it. We feel that many more people in the locality could benefit from using the budget account service with us so hopefully they will contact us. Although we are seeing more applications for loans, rate of approval is only about 45 per cent after stringent affordability checks. This means that many new loan applications are being turned down and this highlights another raft of people who may be forced into turning to loan sharks.”
I think we’re right at the beginning of this crisis that is going to become an avalanche