Financial exclusion is a real challenge in rural areas. Over 200,000 people living in rural communities have no access to a bank account of any kind, whilst 250,000 people have no local access to either a post office, bank or building society or cash machine.
Despite these significant challenges, financially excluded people living in rural areas are less visible and more difficult to reach than those in urban areas.
In response, the Commission for Rural Communities, in conjunction with DWP, have launched Rural Money Matters: A Support Guide to Rural Financial Inclusion, which is designed to help local authorities and their local strategic partnership members understand, identify and tackle financial exclusion in rural areas.
The Rural Money Matters guide:
· provides a comprehensive overview describing the challenges and opportunities rural financial inclusion presents
· identifies financial exclusion ‘hot spots’ and clearly presents the scale and depth of the challenge
· demonstrates ways to promote financial inclusion through case studies highlighting good practice
· helps policy makers and programmers 'rural proof' their work on financial inclusion by considering and addressing rural circumstances
Download a copy of the Rural Financial Inclusion Support Guide by clicking on this link.