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Moneylenders condemned
by Bill Bowder
THE behaviour of doorstep money-lenders has been condemned as a scandal by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He also warned of the dangers of “astronomical” salaries. On the Today programme on Radio 4 on Friday, Dr Williams said that people felt alienated by the disproportion between what people earned and what they appeared to be worth. It spread envy and cynicism, he said. “The more we have astronomical sums with no clear rationale behind them, the less credibility the whole thing has.” Later that day, in a debate he initiated in the House of Lords on economic inequality and indebtedness, Dr Williams said that some of the poorest-paid workers were handing over post-dated cheques for their next month’s wages to money-lenders who were taking between 20 to 30 per cent of the money in “fees”, before handing the rest back in cash. “If the historic sin of usury still has any meaning in the world of smoke and mirrors that our modern credit system seems to have become, it is surely in this context.” It was “an open scandal” that needed regulating. Another statistic that should be “shouted from the housetops” was that almost one-third of all children in the UK were living in poverty. Two-thirds of the income of the worst off households went in debt repayments, he told peers. But chronic financial insecurity was only one of the facts that people living in debt had to face, he said. They were also stigmatised, caught in a spiral of indebtedness, depressed and demoralised, and their relationships and their parenting came under stress. In addition, they faced an increased risk of teenage pregnancy, under-achieved at school, lacked motivation in work, and did not look after themselves. These problems became worse in an economic downturn. One way forward was for more education on family finances: another was credit unions that could offer cheaper loans. Dr Williams, a member of the District of Canterbury Credit Union, said he wanted a broader legal definition of the Credit Union’s “common bond”, so that not just individuals, but also family businesses, religious groups, and co-operative networks, could join. The Revd Antony MacRow-Wood, treasurer of the Association of British Credit Unions (ABCUL), welcomed Dr Williams’s support for legislative change. He said ABCUL was working with the Treasury on detailed legislative proposals. “Given the current consultation within the Church of England about housing in retirement, I feel that the time is right for the Church to explore the potential for a credit union for clergy as a means of tax-efficient saving and a source of low-cost loans,” he said.See Comment |
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