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These stereotypes do exist, and may encourage the belief that people who get into debt problems only have themselves to blame; their publicity deflects attention from the far more widespread debt that results either from a sudden drop in income (through redundancy, illness or relationship breakdown) or from chronic low income (especially life on benefit). For too many people, debt is a symptom of their poverty. Credit becomes a "sticking plaster over cuts to benefit levels and affordable housing" which represents "a wholly inadequate remedy for poverty" (as a CAB report concluded). Nearly half of unemployed families with children are in debt, not because of addiction to consumerism but because of reluctant choices to make ends meet by juggling bills and borrowing (when the alternative is going without food or adequate clothing). The impact of either of these choices hits women hardest, and the recent Carers National Association report "Carers on the Breadline" points to the particular debt problems of Scottish carers. Many people have real concerns about credit being thrust upon us, but the apparent easy availability of credit doesn't extend to those who arguably need it most. Here, as elsewhere, the poor pay more, shopping for credit in a more restricted market than those with security to offer and the luxury of being able to shop around for it. The real credit costs of shopping for clothes via a catalogue company may be massive, but most of the customers have no realistic choice; credit cards and bank loans are not available, and even basic banking facilities are increasingly hard to obtain for those whose accounts are never likely to offer much profit to the bank. 2. Financial Exclusion Tackling "financial exclusion" has been a key part of the Scottish Executive's social inclusion strategy. It covers the difficulty, for many people on low incomes or in areas of urban or rural deprivation, of getting access to basic financial services - bank accounts, reasonably cheap credit, basic insurance, etc. The extra cost of not having a bank account is estimated at £5 per week (a significant factor for people living on benefit); lack of insurance can transform a minor accident like a leaky washing machine into a serious problem; and lack of available credit pushes people into the hands of loan sharks. A group from the churches met with the Executive to discuss this, and the part that churches can play in tackling the problem. Churches have had a significant role in developing credit unions, which can make a significant contribution here; the group encouraged the Executive to look at ways of giving support to credit unions (eg through start-up grants, help with training, and modifying the current legal framework to allow credit unions to develop other services, such as insurance, for their members). As part of their Social Justice strategy, the Executive is working with Money Advice Scotland to establish a Scottish Debtline, and doing research on what people in local communities want in terms of financial services. Along with the UK government, the Executive has also recently announced proposals for a post-office based "Universal Bank" specialising in providing banking services to those on low incomes. In some ways, this seems like re-inventing the Savings Bank, which originated as the idea of a CofS minister tackling the financial exclusion of his day but is now geared to more profitable markets. 3. Warrant Sales The Abolition of Poindings and Warrant Sales Bill proposes to remove from the available forms of "diligence" (ie legal debt recovery) the procedure for the identifying and enforced sale of items of a debtor's property to go towards meeting debts. Certain personal items are exempt from this, and the Executive has recently added televisions, radios, microwave ovens, telephones and computers to the list of goods exempt from sale.
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