Toynbee Hall and SAFE: Services Against Financial Exclusion
Offering financial information and education
Toynbee Hall is a voluntary organisation that was established in 1884 to alleviate poverty in the East End of London, an area with a history of deprivation. Toynbee Hall has a tradition of developing innovative services. Indeed, Child Poverty Action Group started at Toynbee Hall in 1965. A more recent addition is SAFE: Services Against Financial Exclusion. SAFE was launched in March 2002 and currently offers financial information and education, promotes access to basic bank accounts and to the Saving Gateway, a government pilot savings scheme. SAFE also works in partnership with Toynbee’s free legal advice service, The Environment Trust and Quaker Social Action to promote confidential debt advice and access to free training opportunities and micro-finance (through the Community Finance and Learning Initiative).
The problems underpinning financial exclusion are interlinked and need to be addressed jointly as well as individually. Financial inclusion is a key part of the Government’s social inclusion policy and it has applied pressure on its departments to review, reform and regulate where necessary. Others have taken up the baton, including various policy makers, the Financial Services Authority (whose job it is to promote public awareness of UK financial systems) and the voluntary sector. Some financial institutions have also made costly, if, in some cases, half-hearted steps towards promoting financial inclusion. ‘Joined-up doing’ (as well as thinking) is needed to ensure financial inclusion becomes reality.
There are many initiatives being established across the country with the aim of tackling financial exclusion. The following discussion highlights three common themes of these initiatives and some of their policy implications.
There are a number of different factors which aggravate financial exclusion and which make residents vulnerable to financial (if not other) forms or exclusion: |
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|---|---|
Being on a low income: |
In 1999 over 60 per cent of households had a gross income of less than £10,000. |
Being unemployed: |
11.8 per cent are out of work, compared with the national average of 3.8 per cent. |
Suffering long-term illness or disability: |
9.2 per cent of Tower Hamlets residents are in receipt of incapacity benefit, compared with 6.2 per cent for the UK. |
Being in certain ethnic groups: |
Nearly a quarter of the entire British Bangladeshi population live in Tower Hamlets. This group is the most deprived in the UK with 70 per cent in the bottom 20 per cent of the income range. |
Living in areas of high deprivation: |
The ward of Spitalfields is ranked 41st on the index of deprivation and st for housing deprivation. |
If you wish to discuss any Financial Inclusion / Exclusion issues with our support team please telephone freephone 0800 074 6918.
Financial Inclusion Menu
- Aims of financial inclusion
- How the Government is supporting financial inclusion
- Promoting financial Inclusion
- Financial Inclusion Taskforce
- The reality of financial exclusion
- The implications of being financially excluded
- Toynbee Hall and SAFE: Services Against Financial Exclusion
- Asset-building and the Saving Gateway
- Financial education
- Basic bank accounts
- Financial Inclusion fund for England & Wales
- Conclusion
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