(Carys Williams)
Good Morning, Bore Da and welcome to the Big Conversation in Wales. My name's Carys Williams and I work for Lloyd's Banking group who is running a series of these Big Conversations across the UK as an opportunity to bring together community leaders, whether government, charity, community institutions, or financial organizations to discuss what can we do together to help people get through this pandemic and recover the other side. Our topic today is financial resilience, obviously a hot topic in Wales at the moment, and I'm really privileged to be joined by some fantastic subject matter experts.
(Tonia Antoniazzi MP)
The biggest financial challenge is, is job insecurity and job losses. You know, if, if you're thrown into that situation where even if you are on, have been on furlough or it's, you know, it's the unknown of what's coming in and now with the changes, I just think that people can't plan. We don't know what’s round the corner or what the next six months is going to look like. We just have to look at the worst case scenario and it's kind of saying to people it's going to be okay. I mean, I've worked with financial charities that provide support again, like Step Change and sought advice myself in the past and I just think when you're looking for that help and support, knowing that it's there and knowing where to get it is really, really key.
(Vanessa Northam)
I think, some of the statistics are, are quite staggering and I think the FCA came out yesterday that they anticipate 12 million people will be struggling too. Will be in some sort of missed payment or arrears and I think actually what the pandemic has enabled and I think at least alluded to it on average people wait 12 months before seeking debt advice when they're in a debt crisis and I think that obviously further exacerbates because of the shame, the guilt, the worry, or just hoping things will get better.
(Adrian Nicholas)
It's very, very true and it's the stigma, that is still attached to debt. Many people are, find themselves extremely embarrassed and unable to talk about money. Matters of work has been done around mental health and removing the stigma associated with mental health and the impact that has, it almost becomes, a normal conversation now to talk about how you're feeling and how you’re doing. And I think, you know, a lot more effort needs to be placed around, getting people to feel comfortable about talking about money, so that it becomes second nature and you know, people don't feel embarrassed about it, because there's so many people out there who are in this situation who find themselves in desperate, desperate need of help, but are too afraid to seek help. I, I think it needs a total market revamp, to actually get people talking about money and get people talking about money, and that allows them to talk about it in a healthy way and it's not an embarrassing thing to talk about. You know, you speak to your friend and you'll ask them how they're feeling and then go into the health problems and everything else, but they dare actually talk to you financially, I’m in a mess and that needs to be removed, that that needs to go. And once that barrier and that stigma, is moved, you know, or eroded, then it will allow, people to seek help and advice and, take appropriate action at a much earlier point.
(Carys Williams)
Well actually realised how many people want to help Adrian, and that really resonates. I mean, we did a study last year and Lloyds Banking Group and we found that 11% of people have debts. They have not disclosed to there partner. So even the person they're closest to in the world, they haven't shared their debt levels with them, frightening statistics.
(Ben Lake MP)
There are particular challenges for different areas in Wales. When you think of the little areas, there's that difficulty of perhaps accessing physical services, due to the reality of a rural population, how it's dispersed. Also, we must think of connectivity and broadband and, you know, that's not just a rural issue, that applies across Wales and particularly hits those areas that are perhaps more deprived, and those areas probably are the communities that actually need to be able to access the support more than others. And so, there's almost a double whammy there. And if we are looking at, some of the particular challenges of this pandemic thus far, you look at some of the coastal areas, rural areas, areas where perhaps their very dependent of hospitality for jobs, they have been, we know they have been disproportionately hit sectors of the economy. They often overlay them with areas that are perhaps of their particular challenges in terms of accessing some of the support that is available, whether that's physical access or internet access.
(Lee Phillips)
I think also it's about widening that as well, about identifying way you can talk about money in wider subjects. So, Helen has been kindly helping us around our round tables, looking at gender and how we can improve financial wellbeing for women and, and out of that was came a conversation with Welsh women's aid about their work that they're doing in the curriculum, around the gender pay gap, about economic abuse and how we can build financial wellbeing into the work that they're doing, and they can build those subjects into the work that we're doing around financial education. So, bringing in things like the gender pay gap, and economic abuse as well. So, there's lots of stuff happening and there's always room for a lot more and always room for a lot more advocacy. But I would also say as well as school has been hugely important, parents have an amazingly important role here too. They are the people that role model actually managing money with the children and young people. They are probably the ones who are giving it to children and young people who can give them the responsibility, who give them the opportunity to make those decisions and also make mistakes.
And it's again, worth mentioning that, the money and pension service, when we were part of the money advice service, we did a pilot of work with parenting practitioners across Wales to help parents talk to children about money and what the good age is to do that and what does that look like? And then that is now being taken up in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and possibly even in England as well. So, you know, it's building on that, but it's the role of the parents is just as important the schools, if not more important because they are the ones who actually are able to share that information and give children at that responsibility, they actually give them the cash and about making mistakes early, I would rather somebody made a mistake about buying a comic or sweets than they did when it got to 18 and they made the mistake of that credit card. So, it's getting young people and children to meet mistakes early, Understand the consequences of that and understand that when it's gone, it's gone.
(Carys Williams)
Such a great point you're making there Lee about the digital opportunities, obviously in Wales. historically we run surveys in Lloyds every year and talking to customers, talking to businesses about how they feel about digital, and Wales was the nation with the least appetite in the UK for digital education, for moving businesses towards digital. We've really seen a change in the latest surveys, the results of COVID. And we're actually working with Welsh government moment in terms of giving some training, both customers and businesses, because back to your points Tonia, we need to help businesses to create more jobs in Wales, skilled, highly skilled jobs, I agree with you Lee is a fantastic opportunity.
(Ben Lake MP)
I think I'll avoid the B word. I want to delve dumb, but it is, it is something that we should be mindful of, and it's going to be coming down the tracks very quickly. But no, I thought my kind of concluding thoughts were that, the experience of the pandemic, I think perhaps, has offered one silver lining in that people in organizations have had to, because of the realities of a pandemic, come together and work in a way, that perhaps, was uncommon before, and what I mean by that is you now have, suddenly just from a parliamentary office, you know, we are in touch with different organizations, different public authorities. you know, the council, the health, the police, in a way that we never were in the past, and the shift to Microsoft teams and zoom meetings, has facilitated that. And so, I wonder perhaps going forward this kind of greater collaboration, the experience of working together across different organizations and sectors might help us when we try to tackle some of these big issues.
