Lucy Rigby: ‘Making financial services work for everyone’

For someone sleeping rough, not having a bank account doesn’t just mean no card or PIN. It means no payslip, no rent, no restart. 

That’s why, as part of the Government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy, launching today, we’re teaming up with Shelter and five major banks to open those doors. When people can get a bank account, they can get a job, earn a wage and rebuild.

Shelter’s work with HSBC has already helped more than 7,000 people back into work and housing. Expanding that success across the high street means hundreds more can take the same step forward.

Because lasting change starts with a small act of inclusion.

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That same principle guides how we’re supporting people escaping abuse. Many survivors have been forced into debt by a partner, leaving their credit scores wrecked and their options closed.

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No one should carry that damage. So we’re working with credit agencies to repair those records and give survivors a clean slate to rebuild their lives.

Inclusion also means helping people before crisis hits. One in ten adults has no savings. When an emergency comes, there’s nothing to fall back on.

So we’re helping employers make saving the easy choice – small amounts set aside from pay each month that build security and peace of mind.

And we’re starting earlier, giving every primary school child a chance to learn how money works. Confidence with finances should be as natural as learning to read or count.

Together, these changes form our Financial Inclusion Strategy – a plan to make the system work for everyone, not just those already doing well.

It’s part of a bigger effort to help people through the cost-of-living squeeze. Thirty hours of free childcare saving families £7,000 a year. Free breakfast clubs and more school meals for children on Universal Credit. Five million extra NHS appointments and real wages finally rising again.

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Step by step, we’re giving people the means to move forward and the confidence to stand on their own.

That’s what fairness looks like in practice – not words, but action that opens doors.

Because a fair economy starts with everyone having the chance to take part in it.

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