Movement 113

poverly
Iife in aII its fullness?
Gan you help challenge debt on your own doorstep?
CHURCH ACTION
ON POVERTY
Church Actlon on Poveltt/t
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I9tgtE4It&I|&r wrlte to
Church Actlon on Povertyt
Gentral Bulldlngs, Oldham
Strc€t, Mancheeter M1 lJT,
or call 0161 236 9321.
Throughout the Bible we read how God
and his prophets railed agaanst
injustices, inequitable treatment of the
poor, the vulnerable and the most
marginalised in society. Jesus called
the poor 'blessed' while he talked of
sending the rich away empty. Through
Jubilee 2OOO, the churches were
immensely successful in highlighting
the modern day scandal of international
debt. But have we Elot what it takes to
tackle poverty and debt on our own
doorstep?
How we fail the poor
Whilst it's true that the government has made
a commitment to 'ending child poverty within
a generation', the reality is so far falling way
short of the rhetoric. For all the government's
best intentions, poverty, debt and low wages
continue to blight the lives of millions of
people in this country.
We had a month of living on f,25 per week
(Child Benefitl because we didn't get paid
until the end of the month and it took 2
weeks for the Working Families Tax Gredit
to be sorted out. By the time things were
sorted out we already owed money.t
Penny, mother of two, from the
In the work that Church Action on Poverty
has done with people in poverty over recent
years, one theme which consistently crops up
is the way in which poor peoPle feel
'invisible'. People's own direct experiences of
poverty, and their own attitudes and ideas
about what can be done to tackle it, are held
to be of no value whatsoever.
Debt on our doorstep: time to act
Mary, a lone mother living on a council estate
in south London, struggled to make ends
meet. Her weekly income from child benefit
and income support was barely enough to
keep a roof over her family's head. So when
a neighbour proposed a f-2OO loan to help her
pay off some bills, and buy a pair of new
shoes for her child, she jumped at the offer.
With no job and no bank account, she was in
no position to apply for a loan from a
mainstream lender.
However, Mary ran into difficulties with the
repayments. The neighbour reassured her by
offering her another loan of f,,500 to cover the
outstanding balance. Again, Mary strug$led to
keep up regular payments. This time she was
offered a f,,1,000 loan to help 'settle' the
debt. By last month, what began as a 92OO
loan to pay for bare essentials had turned
into a f.1,,L7O debt she had no means of
paying.
Mary was charged a rate of interest that
anyone familiar with the world of credit cards,
personal loans and overdrafts would consider
extortionate. The loans she took out were
charged at between LTOo/o and 330% APR.
But Mary was not the victim of an illegal loan
shark. Her neighbour was an agent for
Provident Financial, a completely legal
company which, since Victorian times, has
specialised in offering home credit to people
living in communities bypassed by the banks.
Provident Financial is just one of a growing
number of companies reaping huge returns
from the financially excluded.
This is why GAP set up the Debt on our
Doorstep Network - a coalition of over 150
organisations committed to campaigning for a
fair deal for people currently being exploited by
extortionate lending. Compared to many other
EU member states, where caps on interest
rates and tough licensing laws keep check on
lenders targeting the poor, the UK industry has
been left to run a devastating course. lt is an
issue the government is doing little about. >