We’re delighted the Government have reconfirmed an extra £87.5m in dormant assets funding will be allocated to financial inclusion over the next four years, through Fair4All Finance.

The announcement follows the decision last year, following consultation, that financial inclusion will remain a cause of the expanded Dormant Assets Scheme.

This means future funding from the scheme will continue to help people in vulnerable circumstances access fair financial products and services.

The Dormant Assets Scheme aims to reunite people with lost money from forgotten bank accounts and other financial products. Where this isn’t possible, money is transferred to the scheme to be used for good causes.

This extra funding will help us invest more in scaling the financial products and services already shown to benefit customers and continue testing new solutions. As always, we will look to structure this investment in partnership with other commercial funds to leverage dormant assets funding and extend the impact as far as possible.

Ultimately, our goal is to change the system and create financial services markets that work for everyone.

‘We’re delighted to receive this extra funding from the Dormant Assets Scheme, and we’ll set about getting it to work quickly to help the millions of people across the country who are financially excluded.

We’re grateful to the financial services sector for their role in making the scheme work, allowing money that would otherwise sit unused on balance sheets to truly change people’s lives.

We’ve already seen the positive impact dormant assets funding can have in providing people with a stepping stone to financial resilience, improving their physical and mental health and enabling them to play a full part in society.

With more than 20m people in financially vulnerable circumstances in the UK, financial exclusion is a large and growing problem. And we know it will take the combined skills of the Government, regulators and the financial services industry to solve it.

We look forward to continuing to work with all our stakeholders to create a financial services market that serves everyone. Together we can keep making a difference to the lives of millions of people.’

Kate Pender, CEO of Fair4All Finance

How our funding helps us make a difference

The funding we receive from the scheme is providing people across the country with a stepping stone to financial resilience, improving their physical and mental health and enabling them to play a full part in their communities.

• So far, we’ve committed £50m to around 60 community finance providers, preserving £150m of affordable credit provision through the pandemic and backing business plans set to nearly double provision to £500m by 2025
• In 2023, five of our investees provided £65m of affordable credit through 155,000 loans across the country – up 26% from 2022
• We target our funding where it is most needed and we have grantees or investees in all English regions
• Our investments have leveraged £60m additional funding beyond dormant assets so far
• We’ve developed a shared Financial Inclusion Plan with mainstream finance, policymakers, regulators and community finance and third sector organisation, to address financial exclusion
• We’ve launched initiatives like the No Interest Loan Scheme (NILS) that have made an immediate impact on people and are building the evidence for longer term solutions
• So far, the pilot scheme has lent £10m in additional credit to over 13,000 people
• Consolidation lending pilot – we are now underway with two credit unions and we’ve made two investments in technology providers to enable this transformational type of lending

Notes

The Dormant Assets Scheme aims to re-unite people with their financial assets. Owners are able to reclaim what they would have been owed had their asset not been transferred into the scheme at any time.

If you think you have unclaimed monies in a bank or building society account, you can contact the firm concerned directly or visit mylostaccount.org.uk to find out more.

For any press queries, please contact James@fair4allfinance.org.uk.