Flourish Homes tenants needing urgent financial assistance will now get more of the help they need, thanks to a £10,000 loan being made by the local housing association to West Mendip Credit Union.
Flourish Homes, which is a member of the Aster Group and has more than 4,000 homes in Frome, Glastonbury, Shepton Mallet, Street, Wells and 51 surrounding villages, already has close ties with the philanthropic financial provider through its anti-poverty strategy. This seeks to tackle the financial exclusion and debt problems that an increasing number of tenants are experiencing.
The money, which will be ring fenced to help Flourish Homes residents, will help tenants experiencing financial difficulties as well as enabling West Mendip Credit Union to expand its valuable service into the Frome area. The new service to tenants aims to:
- encourage people to save
- provide an affordable alternative to the doorstep loan companies that can charge tenants 170 percent APR on the money they borrow
- provide financial services to people unable to get bank accounts, allowing them to enjoy direct debit discounts on utility bills
- provide emergency loans to prevent eviction, and to prevent imprisonment for non-payment of council tax
“We know from our own research that many of our households live on less than £200 a week and about 80 percent of our tenants receive some form of state benefits,” explained Flourish Homes’s Income Recovery Manager Terry Pitfield. “Our anti-poverty strategy seeks to help make their money go further, through work with organisations like the Credit Union, as well as ensuring our homes are energy efficient to get household bills down. We also work with a lot of partner agencies to tackle other issues related to poverty like increasing access to training and education opportunities and improving the health of our tenants.
“Through our debt and welfare work we will be assessing those tenants that we believe will gain from the work of the Credit Union. They have to show that they want to solve their debt problems and are committed to getting their finances onto a more orderly footing. Once a member of the Credit Union, they will then be able to benefit from other services, like getting basic bank accounts which they might not be able to get elsewhere. It will also encourage people to save for the future.
“Our partnership with the local Credit Union will assist many tenants in financial difficulty, helping them to sort out their money worries and put them on a more stable footing for the future, which is a key aim of our anti-poverty strategy.”
West Mendip Credit Union’s Co-Chair Terry Clay welcomed the new partnership with Flourish Homes: “This gives us a valuable opportunity to expand our work into the Frome area. Credit Unions don’t just offer low-cost loans – more importantly they offer people an ethical way to save, not just for those on a low income but also people who want to save in the knowledge that their money is being used to invest in the local community. We will be publicizing soon when credit union services will be available through Saturday morning sessions in Frome library, when people from all sections of the community of Frome will be encouraged to join.”
Flourish Homes also offers free advice to its tenants through its Debt, Welfare and Benefits Counsellor who can be contacted on 01749 334402
