Lords Committee on Financial Exclusion to hear from Local Government Association and Citizens Advice
The House of Lords Committee on Financial Exclusion will tomorrow take evidence from the Local Government Association (LGA), the National Housing Federation, Citizens Advice and charity Toynbee Hall as part of its inquiry.
The evidence sessions will start at 10:40am on Tuesday 25 October in Committee Room 2A of the House of Lords. The witnesses will be:
10:40am
- Cllr John Fuller, Vice-Chairman of the LGA's Resources Board and Leader of South Norfolk's District Council.
- David Orr, Chief Executive, National Housing Federation
11:40am
- Joe Lane, Senior Policy Researcher, Citizens Advice
- Sian Williams, Head of National Services, Toynbee Hall.
In the first session the witnesses will be asked what role central Government should play in coordinating the response to financial exclusion by local authorities, business and the third sector, how effective schemes such as Help to Save have been in enabling people to build up a financial buffer, and the role for their organisations in helping people transition to Universal Credit and other welfare reforms.
The second session will feature questions on how far local support for Universal Credit is helping to build financial capability and reduce problem debt, whether public sector creditors get the balance right between protecting public revenue and supporting debtors in financial difficulty when collecting debts such as council tax arrears, and the role of the Post Office and Post Office Card Accounts in addressing financial exclusion.
