We submit evidence to House of Lords Select Committee on Financial Exclusion

As part of the House of Lords Select Committee on Financial Exclusion, we have submitted written evidence, focusing on financial exclusion issues where a criminal record per se causes a problem. Download: Unlock’s written evidence to House of Lords Select Committee on Financial Exclusion You can find out more about the Select Committee on the Parliament

RBS Magazine article – Unlocking a better future

RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) have published an article in their ‘Outside In’ magazine, which explains the work that Unlock did with RBS to open up access to basic bank accounts for people in prison before release. You can read the article here.

Financial Inclusion Commission report published

Today, the Financial Inclusion Commission has published it’s report. Unlock provided oral evidence and written evidence to the commission. The report makes a series of recommendations, including on banking, insurance, savings and credit. The report highlights how: Nearly two million adults in the UK do not have a bank account Financially excluded people pay a

Unlock response in Financial World

The letter below was originally published in the July 2014 edition of Financial World. It can be downloaded here. Unlock the system I read with interest the June FW article by Denis MacShane on prisoner access to financial services. Sadly, his experiences of bank accounts and insurance are not uncommon. Opening even a basic bank account provides access to

‘Impact report’ published by Unlock on access to banking for people in prison

Unlock has now come to the end of a landmark 9-year project in developing access to basic bank accounts for people in prison before release. We are pleased to publish a report on this work. It reflects on the progress that we have made, and sets out a number of recommendations to the National Offender Management
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Former MP Denis MacShane writes about the role of financial services

Denis MacShane, former MP and former prisoner, argues in a feature for this months’ Financial World magazine, that the financial services industry needs to do more to help discharged prisoners reintegrate into society. Thanks to Financial World, you can download the specific article here. The two main issues that Denis raises are that of bank accounts and

Local credit unions support efforts to reduce re-offending

New report finds credit union accounts improve the prospects of people leaving prison Research carried out by Unlock and the Research Unit for Financial Inclusion at Liverpool John Moores University has highlighted 13 credit unions working in partnership with 21 local prisons to reduce re-offending. Credit unions are providing savings accounts to people in prison,
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Banking before release

We’ve written a letter in this month’s edition of Inside Time, the prison newspaper, updating people on the progress of our Unlocking Banking project. You can read the letter here.
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Prisoners to get Halifax bank accounts as they prepare for release

We’re featured in an article in the Mail on Sunday, which covers some recent work we’ve done with Halifax bank to extend the number of prisons that they open basic bank accounts for. The article is available to read here.
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The Invisible Cell – How access to basic financial products can help overcome financial exclusion

We’ve written an article for the Co-op’s members magazine, Re:Act. It’s only sent out in hard copy, but we’ve taken some copies of the article and these are available below as images.    
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The role of the financial services industry in reducing re-offending

Linked to the launch of Time is Money, we’ve written a Think Piece for the Chartered Insurance Institute. You can read the article here.
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Time is Money launch: Giving ex-offenders bank accounts will help them – and us

As part of the launch of Time is Money, we worked with the Independent to publish a detailed piece yesterday. This is available here. Following the launch today, we were also featured in: BBC News – Ex-prisoners ‘need access to financial services’ thisismoney – ‘Give prisoners bank accounts’ MSN – Ex-prisoners ‘need help from banks’ Banking Times – ‘Call for action on financial exclusion
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