The Christmas Poverty Premium: How the poor pay more to celebrate Christmas
Source: Family Action, UK
From Press release:

A new report by charity Family Action published today demonstrates the way in which the poor pay a premium for Christmas because they are excluded from mainstream methods of spreading the cost of the festive season. It calls on the Government to put more money into the pockets of the poorest and to do more to raise awareness of the high cost of home credit.

Many long-term poor families are effectively denied access to mainstream bank accounts and affordable credit, and turn to other more expensive ways of budgeting. Millions more could be affected as unemployment rises. The Christmas Poverty Premium reveals how:

Poor families who save in advance toward Christmas through pre-payment schemes, such as hampers, could lose bank interest and end up paying three times the usual price of the goods

Those who use home shopping instalment plans, for example through catalogues, can end up paying twice the price for goods

Those who take out home credit loans to finance Christmas could end up paying the equivalent of 545 per cent APR even if they opt to pay back the loan as quickly as possible.

+ Direct link to report (PDF; 66 KB)

This entry was posted on Friday, November 27th, 2009 at 3:14 pm and is filed under Children and families, Documents in the news, Europe, Poverty, Social and cultural issues, United Kingdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.