People seeking Credit Union loans for utility bills and oil, council told

There are six Irish League of Credit Unions outlets in the borough with 65,490 members who have deposited £179.7m in savings and have received loans totalling £62.6m.

In a presentation to the local government authority’s Community Planning Committee on Monday evening, the head of Credit Unions Northern Ireland, Martin Fisher, reported a decrease in savings across the organisation during the past three months with customers seeking small loans to pay utility bills.

He also spoke of higher withdrawals from savings and that 14 per cent of branches are seeing “significant withdrawals”.

Commenting on an increase in small loans in response to a query by Airport Alderman Paul Michael BEM, Mr Fisher said: “These are related to members who traditionally would have been able to afford every day items and who would have a regular income.”

Instead he pointed out that people are finding it increasingly difficult to meet every day costs such as utility bills and household items which could have been covered previously by wages or benefits.

“The cost of living crisis is affecting many more people than you would have traditionally thought of in the past,” Mr Fisher commented.

Loan Arrears

Mr Fisher told councillors that more than half of Credit Unions are seeing an increase in loan arrears and half of branches have had to decline more loans due to “unstable circumstances and reduced affordability”.

More than half of branches have introduced specific cost of living initiatives to support members, he said, such as low interest loans for home heating oil, reduced rate/no interest loans, debt consolidation, loan rescheduling and referrals to local advice agencies and charities.

Councillors heard that the Irish League of Credit Unions has 135 branches in Northern Ireland with 618,124 adult members. It holds savings worth £1.71bn and has provided loans worth £637m.

Antrim SDLP Cllr Roisin Lynch thanked the Credit Union for the “good work it does for our community”.

Michelle Weir, Local Democracy Reporter