Rural Money Matters: Ways to promote financial inclusion in rural areas
- Posted on:
- Tuesday, 30th June 2009 at 10:39pm
‘Rural Money Matters: A Support Guide to Rural Financial Inclusion’ is designed to help local authorities and their local strategic partnership members understand, identify and tackle financial exclusion in rural areas.
Financial exclusion is a real challenge in rural areas:
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Over 200,000 people living in rural communities have no access to a bank account of any kind
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250,000 people have no local access to either a post office, bank or building society or cash machine
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Demand for affordable credit and debt advice is outstripping supply
Despite these significant challenges, financially excluded people living in rural areas are less visible and more difficult to reach than those in urban areas.
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provides a comprehensive overview describing the challenges and opportunities rural financial inclusion presents
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identifies financial exclusion ‘hot spots’ and clearly presents the scale and depth of the challenge
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demonstrates ways to promote financial inclusion in through case studies highlighting good practice
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helps policy makers and programmers 'rural proof' their work on financial inclusion by considering and addressing rural circumstances
The Guide has been produced jointly with DWP’s Now Let’s Talk Money initiative, with the support of the Legal Services Research Centre, Experian Ltd, Citizens Advice and a broad range of local partner organisations.
“The economic downturn is bringing in to sharp focus the need for rural people to be able to get the right financial advice at the right time. 'Rural Money Matters' provides practical advice and solutions based on the experiences of individuals and organisations around the country."
Download ‘Rural Money Matters: A Support Guide to Rural Financial Inclusion’
To support the 'Rural Money Matters' guide we've produced the latest in our State of the Countryside Updates, providing statistical analysis of the scale and depth of rural financial inclusion.
Download 'State of the Countryside Update: Financial Inclusion'
Comments
Broadband access is certainly important for improving access to services such as debt advice, online banking, etc. and the guide highlights case studies where web-based services are bringing access to advice and support to rural areas.
But the guide also highlights other actions needed to help tackle financial exclusion, including the need for more sources of affordable credit such as credit unions and community banks, access to free-to-use cash machines, the importance of face-to-face debt advice for reaching certain financially excluded individuals, and access to mainstream banking services.
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