Iceland offering food loans

[SpittinKitten]

Posting in case this is helpful to anyone:

theguardian.com/money/2022/aug/16/interest-free-loans-uk-food-microloans-cost-living-iceland

Iceland are launching interest free microloans to help with rising food costs, from £25 to £100, repayable at £10 a week.

"An independent evaluation of the pilot found that 92% of customers who had previously used food banks had stopped or reduced their use, while 71% said they were less likely to fall behind on rent, council tax or other bills.

Anyone can apply for the scheme and, if successful, credit can be used both in-store – Iceland has nearly 1,000 outlets – and online using the preloaded card. Successful applicants receive a £100 credit limit and, on joining the programme, which is called Iceland Food Club, can load an initial top-up of £25 to £75 on to their cards."

www.fairforyou.co.uk/food-club-card

Bumping.
I’m sure it will be helpful to a lot of people.

I was interested to read about this yesterday and was thinking about it last night,and am a bit torn. Whilst I think social lending/credit unions/co ops are vital to helping people manage their finances, I'm not sure getting in to debt to afford food does much more than shame us as a country,and potentially obscure the fact that things are going so wrong that this is happening and therefore need some systematic changes. I don't think it's a solution in itself.
Interested to hear other takes.

I very much agree with this in principle but the fact it is a reputable company and it is interest free (unlike almost all forms of borrowing) makes me think it might help some people, perhaps those who would struggle for whatever reason to access a foodbank.

So awful that we are in this state, though.

I saw the MD of Iceland, Richard Walker, talking about this in an interview. The upper limit for debt is £100, the number of loans a year was limited to 5/6 - can't remember which, and there trials showed that it was enough of a lift for those who needed it to avoid dependency on food banks. Iceland services the interest and the charity who administers it won't sell the debt to a third party if people can't pay it back - they would just reduce the repayment to as little as £1 a week if needed.

As an intervention from a private company I actually think it's really impressive.

Iceland have always tried to be socially responsible, haven't they? This is their next step, and I like it. I don't like the idea that as one of the world's wealthiest nations that we've come to this though. But, we are where we are.

I also think it's preempting the fact that many people who did donate to a food bank won't be able to as they absorb the cost of living moving forward.

The Tories have a lot to answer for.

Sorry, just realise I skimmed the title and practically repeated the op 🙄

I guess my take on it that I think the parameters around the loan mean that it represents a fairly safe prospect for someone in these circumstances and I like that they trialled the use value of this before rolling it out nationally.

I'm not about to put my Tesco bags down and switch to Iceland but I've seen this guy talk before and he seems really decent and I'd put him next to Martin Lewis as one of the most useful voices highlighting the iceberg of the cost of living crisis coming this winter.