Monday 1 September 2008

Financial health meetings: drowning not waving?

The Resolution Foundation and the Money Advice Trust held joint events at the Labour and Conservative Party conferences on the theme of financial health. The aim of the meetings was to discuss how we might build on current financial inclusion and capability agendas to make people more resilient and to explore what support people need to weather the current financial climate. Some broad themes emerged in the discussions:

  • Urgency needed given economic context – the dramatic developments taking place to rescue banks and the impending economic recession make the focus on individuals’ financial health critical
  • Every cloud has a silver lining? A potential virtue of the current situation was that it might force financial services companies to re-think how they behave
  • Strategic oversight needed to help safeguard financial health infrastructure – a Financial Health Service framework was discussed with three elements: preventative, primary and remedial
  • Creative approaches required to stimulate demand and improve financial health – it was stressed that whilst the remedial field is more crowded (than primary activity), it still does not meet demand, and it will be important not to stimulate demand unless it can be met.

The speakers were:

Labour Party Conference:

  • James Plaskitt MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, DWP
  • Clive Cowdery, Chairman of the Resolution Foundation
  • Brian Pomeroy, Financial Inclusion Taskforce and Trustee of Money Advice Trust

Conservative Party Conference:

  • Damian Hinds, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for East Hampshire
  • Joanna Elson, Money Advice Trust
  • Clive Cowdery, the Resolution Foundation
  • Alistair Matthew, Personal Finance Education Group