Latest news with #Shepperd
Scotsman
27-05-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
In Scotland 2 per cent of the population are 'unbanked' according to major survey
A major new survey paints a mixed picture when it comes to how people in Scotland, and across the UK, are managing their finances and coping with money pressures. Sign up to our Scotsman Money newsletter, covering all you need to know to help manage your money. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the regulator, unveiled its latest Financial Lives Survey 2024 earlier this month, including a vast amount of data covering such areas as levels of cash savings, debt management, financial resilience and access to banking services. Its previous survey was from 2022. Emily Shepperd FCA | Supplied The new Financial Lives Survey found that the amount of 'unbanked' people in Scotland had fallen from 3 per cent in 2022 to 2 per cent of the population last year. But this was still higher than for the UK as a whole where the figure for 2024 was 1.6 per cent. This statistic refers to those with no current account with a bank, building society, credit union or e-money provider. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Speaking to The Scotsman, FCA chief operating officer Emily Shepperd, said: 'If you don't have a bank account, it's very hard to get income and to pay bills and the knock on effect is substantial. There can be a number of underlying reasons for people not having a bank account, for example it can be linked to homelessness.' Shepperd added that it would be good to tackle this problem at an early age, from 18 to 24 years, to ensure people get off on a sound footing. She said it is never too early for financial education. 'We're pushing the whole financial inclusion piece, working a lot with government, firms and stakeholders,' explained Shepperd. 'We're also working with government to develop a national plan for financial inclusion.' Responding to the finding on the number of unbanked actress the UK, Sharon MacPherson of Financial Inclusion for Scotland (FIFS), said: 'While the reduction in the unbanked population to just under 1 million UK adults is a step forward, this still represents a significant number of people shut out from essential banking services, a cornerstone of financial inclusion.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad As part of its financial inclusion strategy, FIFS is planning a School Banking Pilot Project, enhancing banking inclusion and improving access to bank accounts for young people. A worrying statistic in the FCA's latest survey is that one in ten in the UK have no cash savings, and another 21 per cent have less than £1,000 to draw on in an emergency. The regulator's research also shows that one in four people in the UK have low financial resilience, meaning that they have missed payments, are struggling to keep up with commitments, or don't have savings to help them through difficulties. In Scotland, 23 per cent of people have low financial resilience - low savings, heavily burdened by domestic bills/credit commitments or in financial difficulties - down from 26 per cent in 2022. Some 12 per cent of Scots found it a heavy burden to keep up with domestic bills and/or credit commitments, an improvement from 14 per cent in 2022. Almost a quarter in Scotland were in the precarious position of not being able to cover their living expenses for more than a month without having to borrow money or ask for help from friends and family. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad And 49 per cent of people north of the border showed signs of vulnerability, such as low resilience, low capability, poor health or experiencing a negative life event in the last 12 months. Shepperd said: 'It is a very large survey, so you would expect some mixed results. The fact you have one in 10 people in the UK have no cash savings and a further 21 per cent have got less than £1,000 is obviously somewhat concerning. If you are in financial difficulty, the best thing to do is to reach out. There are some really good free services around, like money helper.' And the FCA found that when consumers do seek support it makes financial pressures more manageable. Of the 1.7 million people in the UK who had used a debt advice or debt management service in the previous 12 months, 61 per cent said their debts were more manageable as a result. On a positive note, a reduction in digital exclusion has been identified in the survey. Across the UK it declined from 14 per cent in 2022 to 2 per cent in 2024, and in Scotland it fell from 15 per cent to 2 per cent. The FCA defines adults as being digitally excluded, if they never/very rarely use the internet, or they use the internet occasionally (less than once a week) but rate their ability to use it as poor or bad. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Reasons for the drop in digital exclusion include the Covid-19 pandemic accelerating digital adoption across many sectors, including financial services. Additionally, ongoing improvements in digital banking – such as more user-friendly mobile apps and broader internet access have likely played a role. According to the FCA, even those who are better off could take steps to improve their long-term financial health. Some 61 per cent of people in the UK with more than £10,000 in investible assets held at least three-quarters of these assets in cash, rather than investments. The regulator wants to see more people holding mainstream investments to improve long-term returns. Shepperd commented that moving from cash to investments can be dependent on financial education. 'Part of our strategy is about building trust in financial services, and getting people to move into investments is an element of that. We've a campaign that's going to be running called InvestSmart that's to help consumers make better informed investment decisions,' she explained. 'We also have the reforming of the advice and guidance framework to make it clearer when people can give and receive advice - particularly in those moments that really matter like when you come into money or hit 55. Getting those who can afford it to invest is part of what we do. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'One of the themes of our strategy is helping consumers to make most of their financial lives, and underpinning that is Consumer Duty. It's about making sure firms explain their products in a language that people can understand.' Looking towards retirement, the FCA's survey found that one-third of UK adults with a defined contribution (DC) pension have less than £10,000 saved.
New Indian Express
03-05-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
As Trump moves to defund US public broadcasting, PBS and NPR fret over their future
The focus is on news, but there could be other casualties Trump's order concentrates on news, and between PBS' "NewsHour" and a robust reporting corps at NPR, that's an important part of their operations. But public broadcasting also has entertainment programming, educational children's shows and Burns' historical documentaries. PBS and NPR get about a half-billion dollars a year in public funding funneled through the private Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Roughly 70% of that goes directly to the 330 local PBS outlets and 246 NPR stations. On average, PBS says 15% of its stations' budgets come from public funding. But there are wide variations; stations in larger markets usually get more money through philanthropy and fund drives, while smaller stations depend much more on the government. Besides Trump's order, Congress has been considering future funding levels for the public broadcasters, and the Federal Communications Commission is questioning public broadcasting efforts at corporate underwriting, said Josh Shepperd, author of the 2023 book "Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting." "It's a three-pronged effort that is frankly very smart in its institutional understanding," Shepperd said. "They're not just going after programs that they don't like. They're going after the operations and the infrastructure that makes it possible to even air the programming." A ripple effect is possible, and could be local Trump's order instructs the CPB and other government agencies to "cease Federal funding" for PBS and National Public Radio and further requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing. Separate from the CPB grant, for example, PBS gets a grant from the US Department of Education for programming that helps build the reading, math and science skills for children age 2 to 8, particularly in poor areas. The administration's plan might not threaten your favorite program—Burns gets plenty of corporate and philanthropic support—but it may impact local programming and potential growth, Shepperd said. Congressional Republicans aired some of their grievances about public broadcasting to Kerger and Maher at a public hearing in March. Such complaints have been common over the years, but the broadcasters have avoided funding cuts, in large part because members of Congress don't want to be seen as responsible if a station in their district shuts down. Who wants to be the public official who killed "Sesame Street"?
