Many community credit unions in Britain, including several of our members, have recently had considerable success in meeting member borrowing needs through the provision of loans where repayments are made directly from social security payments, in particular child benefit. An example is the Family Loan from Manchester Credit Union.
Credit Unions in Ireland have taken some initial steps down this road through the Personal Microcredit Scheme, or the It Makes Sense loan, also offered by several CFCFE members.
We will be opening this product up for discussion at our conference in May. Karen Bennett, CEO at Enterprise Credit Union and President of ABCUL, will be one of those sharing her experience of how to help members successfully. We are also looking at ways of commercially analysing a portfolio of these loans – we will incorporate this into the presentation if available.
Tickets will be available for the May conference shortly – keep an eye on this page or our Twitter feed @CFCFE1.
