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Supporting people to improve their financial literacy and avoid debt
Building Financial Capability services empower people to take control of their money, set goals and achieve long-term sustainable change. We provide a range of services and products that help individuals and whānau experiencing hardship to improve their financial capability and resilience. In 2018/19:
- 605 zero- or low-interest microfinance loans worth $1.76 million were approved through Community Finance, enabling people to avoid high-interest debt from third-tier lenders
- 32,700 people accessed group programmes and one-to-one financial mentoring, to help improve their financial capability
- we supported 21 community-based providers to test and implement sustainable ideas that address local financial capability needs
- we piloted MoneyTalks, a helpline for free and confidential budgeting advice (0800 345123), in partnership with FinCap
- we worked in partnership with community-based NGOs that deliver Building Financial Capability services, FinCap, the financial/banking sector and other government agencies on opportunities to combat predatory lending and support individuals, whānau and communities to improve financial prosperity
- we piloted ‘Spring’, a digital channel for people in financial hardship to foster positive financial behaviour, learning and connecting – by 30 June 2019, 103 users had earned incentives (SpringCoin) [18] for building their financial capability online; 90 percent of these users were new to the financial capability sector.
Footnotes
[18] SpringCoin can be redeemed for rewards such as supermarket and energy company vouchers. The points tracking built into Spring also provides clients with a profile of their progress.