Local mother launches program... |
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...to help young people (16-19 year olds) stay out of debt Having encountered the stresses and strains of debt first hand, Patricia Buckland is now making a stand against debt by educating young people in financial literacy so that they will not have to endure the same emotions and fears she once experienced. As a single parent in the 1990s, Patricia found it difficult to make ends meet. Although she had a small income support allowance, she found that with 3 hungry mouths to feed her allowance did not stretch very far. It was not long before she found herself negotiating with creditors and even being taken to court! It was not for another 6 years that Patricia was able to start turning her finances around and was able to return to college to gain an Access Exam in Humanities. She then went on to train as a credit controller and studied for an HNC in business studies. With all the knowledge she had acquired from her studies, Patricia truly started to realise just how easy it is for individuals to get into unmanageable debt. “I started to listen to day-time TV and was appalled at the amount of loan companies and consolidation companies offering money at extortionate rates and promising the earth.” It was from this moment that Debt Talk was born, educating people on the basics of finance, budgeting and letter writing. Debt Talk is a not for profit organisation and has evolved to provide a unique service that equips 16 – 19 year olds with the necessary life skills needed to choose a bank account, budget and pay bills. Supported by UnLtd, Debt Talk aims to help youngsters as they leave school or go to university by preparing them for the financial realities of life, and thus reducing their propensity to fall into unmanageable debt. Designed to prepare the individual for independence, Debt Talk provides understanding of how to prepare a domestic budget, and manage it as well as understand the possible sources of cash flow difficulties, what these might entail and how to control these effectively. Making good of her own bad experiences, Patricia says, “My experience of extreme poverty and the emotions and fears that it created were immensely destructive and I am trying to prevent people having to experience that. I think income support has increased and there are things such as value food that can help, but the fact that instant money is so easily available and, without education, can create extreme hardship is the reason I’m doing what I’m doing.” High Wycombe student Donna Bunker commented, “I think it’s a great idea and I wish I'd had the chance to learn the basics before I went to university”. You don't realise just how much debt you can get into when you go away and with banks making it so much easier to get credit cards and loans to get out of debt you get into a circle of borrowing that is hard to get out of.” Further details of UnLtd’s work can be found at http://www.unltd.org.uk/ If you would like further details on Patricia’s work: |