South Yorkshire’s Community First Credit Union is the subject of a two-part Channel 5 documentary following the work of its team and the fortunes of some of its members.
Made by Century Films, They Lend it You Spend it: The Loan Shop shows members seeking loans from the credit union – loans which have the potential to change their lives.
Around 15 million people in Britain can’t get a loan from the bank while more than eight million can’t pay their debts – but last year Community First approved more than £5m worth of loans.
Gary Simpson, CEO of Community First, hopes the programme will dispel some common misconceptions about credit unions – and raise awareness of the movement.
“People often refer to a credit union as a bank for poor people,” he says. “But it’s for anyone. And when I watched the first part of the documentary, it hit me that it’s a really positive portrayal of what most of our members are like – honest, good people, trying to get through life.
“They’re often portrayed as not being that way at all. The most fascinating thing was the fact that these people requesting money, they did it, not for themselves but for their mother or their children – other people in their lives.”
He adds: “Since the first episode went out, people have said, ‘this is life changing but we didn’t realise it existed.’ If this programme has done anything for us and other 400 plus credit unions, it’s given people an idea of what a credit union is. It’s a legitimate regulated banking service but it’s not a bank.
“And the relationship between the credit union and its members is what makes us different and trusted. We talk to people, we listen, we work with them. It’s like banks used to be in the 1950s. And we employ local people so they understand problems in that area. Often, staff themselves have been in similar situations so there’s empathy between branch staff and members.”
Among those featured is recruitment consultant and bride-to-be Kerry from Doncaster. She needs £2,000 to move her wedding forward so her terminally ill mother can attend. Meanwhile, in Barnsley, single mum Adele is trapped in a cycle of debt after taking high interest loans from doorstep lenders.
Mr Simpson says the programme has been a morale boost for staff who don’t usually get to see the result of their work.
“It follows the whole process and has allowed our loan officers to see what happens after they’ve helped someone,” he adds. “Usually, they don’t see that. And it’s made them feel good about themselves, because it’s not just a numbers game – they can see the tangible results of how they’ve helped.
“We asked that the programme also show where we don’t give people money. The whole idea is that we educate and help people in financial matters. The best way to teach people when working with them is to understand repercussions of their actions. A credit union is different; we give a reactive and proactive solution to their problems.
“We do a lot of things around where people have gone to money lenders. It’s desperate when people get into that spiral, we don’t judge or preach to them, we just say ‘we’re there for you, how can we help? If you are willing to work with the credit union, we’ll help you get out of this hole.
“We’ve got people who’ve had savings and loans from us for past 15 years and never missed. Those people in the TV programme are just genuine people who can’t walk into a bank and get that assistance.”
The credit union is also going out to communities to engage with local people.
Mr Simpson says: “We’ve had to re-invest and re-train staff to do that. It’s another skill. A lot enjoy it, others don’t. We’re doing it because we need to get into the community more. We cover all of north Yorkshire and we can’t have branches everywhere. But us visiting that village five hours every Tuesday works. We work with housing associations, community groups and councils. We’ll go to churches and community centres.
“We’ve introduced accounts that help people budget better and make payments out to utilities and private or social landlords. It helps people – guaranteeing landlords get paid, so they’re happy, and we’ve got good members who understand why money is important. We do breaks in money payments, for seasonal workers in places like Scarborough who we know don’t work during certain months. Other lenders wouldn’t allow that to happen.”
