MSP Praises Credit Union for Challenge Poverty Week
Green MSP Ross Greer visited Dalmuir Credit Union on the 1st October to mark Challenge Poverty Week. [photos attached]
Challenge Poverty Week is organised by the Poverty Alliance and events will take place all over Scotland to draw attention to the amount of poverty in Scotland, the problems it causes and the work going on within communities to tackle and eradicate it.
Ross met with staff and volunteers at the credit union on Abbotsford Road to find out more about the role credit unions play in supporting people in Clydebank. Credit Unions are not for profit and owned by their members, who all live in the area. Dalmuir Credit Union, established in 1977, provides low cost savings and loans to their 7,000 adult members and 3,000 junior members across West Dunbartonshire.
Ross, Green MSP for the West of Scotland, said: “It was great to see the credit union supporting people West Dunbartonshire. We need community-based credit unions to challenge the scourge of dodgy payday lenders and big banks who rake in obscene profits and overpay their fat cat executives as their customers struggle to make ends meet.”
“Poverty destroys lives and communities and Challenge Poverty Week is a great time to support, not only initiatives like Credit Unions, but backing the real Living Wage, the “Give me Five” campaign to top up child benefit by £5 per child each week and the many other ways we can truly eradicate poverty.”