The 7days4stow idea works on the basis that many people making small contributions can add up to big changes. The scheme encourages volunteers to donate a week’s-worth of time over the next 12 months. Projects range from mentoring young people to befriending senior citizens and include the E17 Community Kitchen, Sharkstoppers, which promotes low-cost alternatives to payday loans and the Eat or Heat foodbank.

Volunteers have helped Eat or Heat find premises for storing foodstuffs and assembling food parcels. It is also working with local schools and setting up ‘Foodbank Fridays’ to encourage regular donations. Fund-raising and support by 7days4stow also helped Forest Nightshelter stay open an extra week through the cold March nights.

“If we can get eight projects up and running in just 12 weeks, think what we can do over a year,” said Stella Creasy MP, who champions the volunteering scheme. “We see people struggling against austerity now but we can also see what a difference 7days4stow projects are already making. And with more volunteers, we can make even more of a difference.”

Walthamstow’s MP underlined the impact of cuts and changes to welfare policies on the area. More than 7,000 families are affected by cuts in working tax credits and 970 people risk losing their homes as a result of the ‘bedroom tax’.

The swift take-off of 7days4stow shows the appeal of ‘micro-volunteering’. The scheme turns ideas into practical ventures and recruits volunteers to make them work. Specific opportunities are advertised on a social network called Ivo, so that volunteers can find roles that suit them whether they have freetime in the day, the evening, weekends, or a combina-tion of all three. See ivo.org/7days4stow for more on volunteering. 7days4stow also has a strong presence on the internet via Facebook and Twitter – just search for 7days4stow.

The scheme has already attracted the backing and interest of national volunteering agencies the Institute of Volunteering and the Movement for Change who are both sending teams to Walthamstow this month.

Responding to today’s publication of the full OFT report into the payday loan industry which is seeking to refer the entire industry to the Competition Commission , Stella Creasy MP said;

“This report is a damning indictment of the Government’s failure to act on this market. Despite three years of warnings, under their watch its now clear legal loan sharks are out of control in Britain and our consumer credit market urgently needs meaningful reform. The best way to prevent the problems payday lending causes is to cap the costs of credit, so that people do not get into debt in the first place.  So whilst announcements on credit checking and advertising will help limit the damage these loans do, the Government is still ducking the real issues.

For too many consumers, the only people who will lend to them at the moment are these legal loan sharks. There is no competition for their business. That is why a cap on the total cost of borrowing makes more sense than relying on affordability assessments which leave lenders to decide what consumers can pay. The Government is clearly out of touch with the way this industry works and is giving it a free pass to push millions more into debt by not setting out what a is fair price for credit as they do in most other countries.

The OFT must be given clearance to refer this industry to the Competition Commission and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must now act to urgently review the protection of British consumers so that they can benefit from the setting of a fair price for credit – just as we see in many other countries.

It is not the legal loan sharks’ advertising campaigns that are causing the real problems for British families struggling with the cost of living: it is their interest rates. And if this Government will not act to protect consumers now, we know a future Labour Government will.”

The publication of the full report by the OFT is yet just another in a long line of investigations to report about the payday loan industry. Below you can find details of each of the reviews and reports that have been commissioned and published over the past 3 years.

Stella Creasy MP is calling on #sharkstoppers campaigners to urge the Financial Conduct Authority to launch their own urgent research into the implementation of a total cost cap and back the referral of the payday loan industry to the Competition Commission by the OFT. The National Audit Office’s own work shows the failure to address this issue cost UK consumers £450m last year.

Ends.

–

Notes

• The OFT review into payday lending began in February 2012 – the interim report being released in November – reporting 5 years after the first initial investigations into the industry began.
• In 2005 the number of estimated payday loan customers was 250,000 – by 2011, Policis estimated payday lending was used by 1.3 million individuals – 70% of whom were low-income users.
• By 2011 Key Note estimated the total value of the UK Payday loan market had grown from £735 million in 2007 to £2.34 billion in 2011. Today’s OFT report places that figure now at £3bn.
• Research by R3, the insolvency practitioner in November 2012 showed 5 million adults in the UK are considering taking out a payday loan in the 6 months to May 2013.
• Research shows 60% of people who took out payday loans were using the money to pay for household bills or buying essentialslike food, nappies and petrol.
• In both February 2011 and June 2011, the Government opposed tougher regulation of the high-cost credit sector and refused to support legislation to introduce a cap on the costs of credit.
• The Money Advice Trust earlier this month reported a 94% increase for 2012 in complaints relating to payday loan companies – equating to a 4,000% increase since 2007.
• The  Financial Ombudsman Service has reported upholding around 72% of all payday loan complaints in favour of the consumer.
• In February 2011, Stella Creasy MP and 14 other MPs wrote to Ed Davey, the then Minister for Consumer Affairs, demanding the Government take action to protect the poorest consumers in Britain by capping the total cost of credit.
• Research into the application of total cost caps in Japan has shown that the number of borrowers has not reduced – but the average amount of their debt borrowed from lenders has. For more information on total cost caps – contact Damon Gibbons at the Centre for Responsible Credit.
• Stella Creasy MP has been campaigning for caps on the cost of credit since 2010. You can find more details on her campaign here. For more details on the #Sharkstoppers campaign to tackle legal loan sharking in the UK visit Stella Creasy MP’s websitewww.workingforwalthamstow.org.uk ; or call Jon Chambers on 020 8521 1223.

Responding to figures released by the Money Advice Trust today showing a 4,000% increase in the number of complaints about payday lenders since 2007, Stella Creasy MP said;

“These shocking figures from the Money Advice Trust are yet more proof of the problems now facing millions in our country. It is a shameful reality that many are being pushed into taking out payday loans as they cope with the pressures on their pockets from the rising cost of food, rent and travel. With 20,000 calls from struggling payday loan customers being taken in 2012 these numbers speak for themselves in highlighting the sheer number of British families now suffering at the hands of the legal loan sharks.

Whilst many know just how toxic these loans can be, they find themselves with no alternative but to accept credit with interest rates of 4,500% or more – which half of all borrowers turn out not to be able to repay – with 57% missing a payment. Despite review after review and recommendation after recommendation, these companies are continuing to get away with taking British consumers for a rough ride as the Government has yet to take decisive action to stop this spiral of debt.

The question is just how much more evidence of difficulties the public are facing from these companies must we have before the Government steps into protect British consumers. The rapid growth of this industry is only set to continue with the continuing cost of living crisis in our country. That’s why The OFT must say now what is an acceptable cost of credit as well as ensure all companies do real time credit checks and stop abusing continuous payment authorities so that 2013 does not see even more people getting caught by the legal loan sharks.”

For more details on the #Sharkstoppers campaign to tackle legal loan sharking in the UK speak to Jon Chambers in Stella Creasy MP’s office on 020 8521 1223.