The Association of British Credit Unions Limited (ABCUL) has welcomed a report from the Institute of Public Policy Research (ippr) that recommends the extension of national savings schemes.
In the report, the ippr recommends that programmes such as the Savings Gateway be extended nationally so that more people from low income families can benefit from the scheme.
The Savings Gateway, which has been piloted recently, is a matched savings scheme which means that for every pound that a person saves the government contributes 50 pence. The ippr believe that if this was implemented nationally it would greatly encourage saving.
The chief executive of ABCUL, Mark Lyonette, said: “With a national structure and the incentive of matched savings, credit unions can get even more people saving in a safe and regulated way; something that is especially important in the light of the recent Farepak collapse.”
The ippr also recommended that the scheme be accessible to people through local community organisations and not through banks and building societies.
Of the people surveyed by the ippr, 40 per cent said that they liked the fact that they did not have to deal with a bank for the saving scheme.
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