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UK Poverty

Hit by the credit crunch yet? In the UK poverty is just around the corner. According to the Campaign to End Child Poverty, an umbrella organisation which includes Barnardos and Unicef, currently 40% of London families, or 650,000 children, and nationally 1 in 5, or more than 4 million children, live below the poverty line. Click here for more info on UK poverty. 

Financial Exclusion

Financial exclusion is the inability to access mainstream financial services, such as advice, banking and credit products and 1 in 12 people are affected by it. People without access to affordable credit are often driven to exploitative doorstep lenders charging crippling interest rates, averaging 177% APR last year, but there are examples of people being charged up to 1500% APR for short-term loans. Find that hard to believe? Click here to see what kind of non-mainstream loans are available in your area.

Micro Finance

Microfinance is well-established in the developing world but a nascent sector in the UK with only a handful or organisations operating in London and across the UK. Micro finance is the provision of very small loans and other financial products to those outisde of the financial mainstream.