UK to launch pilot scheme that helps homeless people access banking
Homeless people will for the first time be able to open accounts with the UK’s five biggest banks, in a pilot scheme marking the launch of the government’s financial inclusion strategy,The Treasury said its new national plan was meant to ensure financial services “worked for everyone”, as it also revealed programmes that could help rebuild the credit scores of domestic abuse victims, support families with no savings and roll out financial education in primary schools across the UK,One of the key schemes will see the high street lenders Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays, Nationwide and Santander waive the need for people to have a fixed address in order to open a bank account,The move will help vulnerable people avoid the chicken-and-egg problem of needing a bank account to apply for work and rental accommodation across the UK,It will involve partnerships with the homelessness charity Shelter, which will vouch for prospective customers based on information on the charity’s database, while accompanying individuals to face-to-face meetings at a local bank branch.
The scheme expands on a partnership with HSBC, which has opened 7,000 accounts for people experiencing homelessness since its start in 2019.The City minister, Lucy Rigby, said: “This plan is about opening doors – helping people experiencing homelessness into work, helping survivors of abuse rebuild their credit and helping families save for a rainy day.“No one should be locked out of the chance to build a better future.Our strategy gives people the tools to get on and boosts the economy by supporting more people back into work.”The Treasury said it was also rolling out plans to help victims of domestic abuse repair credit ratings that have been damaged as a result of perpetrators having forced partners to take on debt on their behalf.
Credit agencies including Experian, Equifax and TransUnion will start reviewing how they could rescore victim’s credit ratings, before reporting back to government.Charities said it would give survivors a fair chance to rebuild their financial independence.“For far too long, domestic abusers have stolen victim-survivors’ futures – forcing them into debt and destroying their credit scores with life-shattering consequences,” said Sam Smethers, the chief executive of the Surviving Economic Abuse charity.“This strategy provides a golden opportunity to help survivors rebuild their lives by restoring their credit scores.It’s one we must seize so that credit reports reflect victim-survivors’ creditworthiness, not the economic abuse they have experienced.
”The financial inclusion strategy, which follows a years-long review by a Treasury-led financial inclusion committee, is aimed at boosting support for vulnerable people who have struggled to access banking and build financial resilience.It comes as statistics reveal that more than 11.5 million people in the UK have less than £100 in savings, severely reducing their ability to recover from emergencies and unexpected costs such as boiler breakdowns or an extended illness.The Treasury’s strategy will also look at how to provide support for employers hoping to offer payroll savings schemes, where money is automatically deducted from wages and placed into an accessible savings pot on the workers’ behalf before it hits their main bank accounts.While the Treasury said these schemes have been popular with workers, some companies have been reluctant to take part for fear of inadvertently breaching minimum wage laws.
The government said it would be “providing them with the certainty they need through the strategy to roll out such schemes far and wide”,Ministers said they would also inject financial education into the national curriculum as part of broader reforms announced by the Department for Education (DfE),Teachers will soon be teaching key financial concepts such as calculating interest as part of the maths curriculum, followed by additional financial literacy in a new compulsory “citizenship” course,The DfE said it would ensure that primary pupils learned more about “fundamentals of money, recognising that children are now consumers often before they reach secondary school”,
Squad ratings: how much each Australia player can influence the Ashes series | Martin Pegan
The time for pre-Ashes barbs and selection speculation is almost over after Australia named a 15-player squad to take on England in the Perth Test. The extended lineup for the series opener hints at the need for cool heads in the heat of an Ashes series with Jake Weatherald included for the first time at the expense of firebrand opener Sam Konstas.But with Marnus Labuschange surging back into form, and the only other uncapped players being a pair of fast bowling backups, there is a familiarity to the squad even without injured captain Pat Cummins. Here is how each player (in alphabetical order) will stare down the Bazball bravado, with a star rating out of five indicating their potential influence on the series starting on 21 November.The experienced fast bowler is again trusted as a back-up after being a regular in the white-ball sides in recent years
NFL trade deadline: did the bumbling Jets just fleece Jerry Jones and the Cowboys?
New York traded away two of their best players in an extraordinary few hours. But they could finally have made a decision that makes senseIt’s rare to see a franchise accept what everyone else already knows – that what they’ve built isn’t working. The Jets didn’t just tweak their roster at the deadline; they detonated it. In a dizzying few hours, they dealt cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Colts and defensive lineman Quinnen Williams to the Cowboys.Moving two All-Pros at the deadline is unprecedented
The Spin | Times are bleak for Pakistan cricket but Test game offers hope of salvation
Pakistan have a new captain. This, admittedly, evokes the same response as learning Watford have hired another manager. A lack of surprise to go with, um, wait, hasn’t he done this before? And so it goes that Shaheen Afridi, the left-arm quick now in charge of the 50-over side, was sacked as their Twenty20 captain last year after only one series at the helm.Pakistani cricket being volatile is just another Tuesday. Go back 15 years and you’ll find a spot-fixing scandal that sent three star players to prison, unfolding while they were unable to host international matches, the exile prompted by a terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka men’s team in Lahore
Mountain bike world champion Kate Courtney: ‘In pushing your edge, you find you’re capable of more’
A broken wrist and time away from the sport helped Kate Courtney find new purpose – and the freedom that led to another world titleIn early September, Kate Courtney lined up at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships for the 12th time in her career, but the first time targeting the marathon distance. A figure at the front of the pack in the shorter cross country and short track distances, Courtney would surprise everyone by winning the 77-mile race, claiming the second rainbow jersey of her nearly decade-long career.“The competition at the sharp end is so high and the course was brutal, so I was productively intimidated,” said the 30-year-old Courtney, “I didn’t think much about the pressure of winning, which let me just focus on myself.”Despite a final climb that took an agonizing hour, a 20-minute hiking section over a boulder field, and flat tire on the final descent that could have ended her race, Courtney stayed calm, thanks to a different mental approach this season.“In the past, I felt like I had to be on every podium to feel success,” said Courtney
Australia keep options open with Ashes squad selection containing few surprises | Geoff Lemon
In the end, there were few surprises. Even the most foregone conclusion of an Ashes squad will still create weeks of speculation one way or another, but answering one question at the top of the order has knocked over the other unresolved ones, tipping like dominoes as we make our way down the list.Barring injury, the only new player in the eventual XI will be Jake Weatherald, the 31‑year‑old Northern Territorian who in cricketing terms became a South Australian and then a Tasmanian, earning his place over several seasons of unflashy consistency and a willingness to counterattack. Weatherald would not have made the squad if he were not going to open the batting, which means that Marnus Labuschagne, who was always going to make the team one way or another after getting his run-scoring groove back, will bat at No 3 rather than moonlighting at the top.Labuschagne at three means that there is room for only one of Cameron Green or Beau Webster at six
Jake Weatherald in contention for Test debut after being named in Australia’s Ashes squad
The opening batter Jake Weatherald has won a place in Australia’s Ashes squad and is the leading contender to partner Usman Khawaja at the top of the order for the first Test in Perth.However, the Tasmania batter has not yet secured his spot with the chief selector, George Bailey, saying he would wait until the end of the coming round of Sheffield Shield games before making a decision on the final lineup.“I think if you look at [Weatherald’s] performance over 18, 24 months, it’s been really solid,” Bailey said. “There’s a method there that I think we like and is complementary to those other players around him in the squad. He scores at a good rate, the way he goes about building his innings has been impressive
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