Financial Inclusion...

The Development Trust have begun to implement an
innovative project in collaboration with a number of our
member groups to tackle financial social exclusion in East
Finchley. We have worked closely with the Finchley
Credit Union in this regard as well as Barnet College and
the Peabody Trust Housing Association.

Barnet College and Peabody Trust have established a
successful partnership at the  Green Man Community
Centre and were granted funding from the DfES to create
and staff an IT Learndirect facility at the centre.
Alongside them at the community centre is the Finchley
Credit Union, which has become an established savings
& loan co-operative.

A management group made up of local residents has been
established to steer the development of the Green Man
and this group has helped the other organisations become
aware of the financial and social exclusion of communities
in the local area. The isolated nature of the many social
housing estates in the area; the dependence on
unscrupulous doorstep lenders; and a lack of basic skills
preventing people from making informed financial choices
 have all contributed to this exclusion.

Through the Development Trust the Financial Literacy &
Inclusion Project (FLIP) has been established funded by
Barnet College, Peabody Trust and the Hadley Trust.
A part time development worker is employed to signpost
the availability of financially inclusive services such as the
availability of financial literacy and numeracy classes,
provide assistance with completing applications for basic
bank accounts, and providing information on credit
unions.

Publicity leaflets are distributed in the local area to advertise the services available and to warn against loan sharks and predatory lenders.

Advice and Support...

Many residents using the Learndirect Centre have started
using e-mail and the Internet for the first time. However
some have complained that they cannot fully use the
Internet because they do not have a debit or credit card.
The FLIP group looked at this problem and have come
up with an innovative solution to this new form of financial
exclusion. One day per week, residents are able to shop
on the Internet at the centre, pay for the goods through
the credit union, while the payment is authorised over the
net using the Development Trust corporate debit facility.

The project already has a waiting list of individuals wishing to use the service.

Many of the service users need debt & budgeting advice.
The FLIP advisor has been referring them to a well
established not for profit debt advice service -
East Finchley Advice Service which is based at the
Neighbourhood Centre in Church Lane.

The project has been a great success judging by the
number of local residents who have switched to using the
credit union from doorstep lenders. Surprisingly, the
project has also thrown up a number of cases where
people have been sold completely inappropriate and
unusable financial products by high street banks.
A number of  service users, also regularly contact the
advisor on a range of other issues suggesting a lack of
literacy as a key factor in exclusion.

This service has funding to take it up to December 2006.