It’s great to be out and about
A parliamentary recess can be painted by the media as a politicians’ holiday, and I guess for some it can be.
Personally, I view recess as a great opportunity to go out and meet as many organisations and constituents as possible.
It’s certainly been a busy few weeks as I have crammed my diary to ensure that I was able to do just that and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the various voluntary groups, businesses and constituents who have taken the time to meet with me in recent weeks.
One such organisation doing fantastic work is the RenfrewshireWide Credit Union.
Last week, I caught up with Karen Wallace to hear what current issues they and their members are facing.
It was great to see that the local credit union is doing innovative work to tackle funeral poverty.
This is a growing issue with the cost of funerals rising by more than 90 per cent over the past 10 years.
These costs are placing an unbearable burden on the already stretched finances of bereaved families, many of whom are getting into serious, unmanageable debt when they lose someone they love.
This is an issue that has been recently debated and discussed in Westminster.
The SNP is already taking action on funeral poverty and has published a funeral costs plan which commits to a number of tangible actions, such as using the new social security powers to launch a new Funeral Expense Assistance benefit from summer 2019.
However, it was fantastic to see that the RenfrewshireWide Credit Union has launched their funeral finance package which assists members and nonmembers alike to deal with the costs of arranging a funeral.
This is an innovative approach towards tackling funeral poverty and highlights once again the fantastic work taking place in Renfrewshire.