The House of Lords will next week debate the report from
the House of Lords Financial
Exclusion Committee.
The report called on Government, the Financial
Conduct Authority and banks to give greater priority to tackling
financial exclusion. The Committee found that 1.7m in the UK were
without a bank account and 40% of the working age population had
less than £100 savings, making them vulnerable to becoming
financially excluded in the event of relatively minor unforeseen
circumstances.
The Committee called for an end to the ‘scandal’ of
the poorest being charged more for products and excluded from
even the most basic financial services.
The debate will start after 3pm on Monday 18 December in the
House of Lords.
The report was
published in March and the Government responded in
November.
Commenting ahead of the debate , who Chaired
the Committee and will open the debate, said:
“Our report found shocking levels of financial exclusion across
the UK. There are more than 1.7m people in the UK without a bank
account and often the poorest pay more for services as they
cannot access online only offers or discounts for payment by
direct debit. This poverty premium causes real hardship and is
deeply unfair.
“There has been a lack of leadership from the Government on this
issue with no decisive overarching strategy in place to tackle
financial exclusion. We were disappointed that the Government’s
response to our report did not deal with that concern.
“The debate next week will give members of the Committee and
others in the House a chance to push the Government on these
issues and ask them to do more to promote financial inclusion and
stop some of the most vulnerable in society from being
ripped-off.”
will respond for the
Government
Other Members due to speak in the debate
include:
, the former Pensions
Secretary, poverty campaigner , members of the
Committee , , , , and social policy
expert Baroness
Lister
