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August 31, 2010
 

#EY2010 lest we forget

In case you didn't know, 2010 is the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. You didn't? We forgive you!

via youtube.com

One of the things which has really bugged us here at Zero-credit is how little media coverage there has been for #EY2010, compared to say benefit fraud and service cuts - both of which have a huge impact on the most vulnerable in our society.

As The Telegraph amply demonstrated today, whatever your politics, tackling poverty and social exclusion concerns us all. So Zero-credit is not going to let this year pass without some noise, at least. On that basis, we're on a mission - again!

There's just over seven weeks to go till the AllinOne Project in the East Midlands holds its Poverty Convention @The_Workhouse in Southwell on 18th October and we're committed to amplifying that message loud and clear, because for once, it won't be rhetoric, but personal experiences which are shared.

Here's hoping that you join us to make 2010 a year to remember, because the cost of forgetting may be too hard to bear. 

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Filed under  //   Zerocredit_UK   #APD   #EY2010   AllinOne   anti-poverty   CEFET   East Midlands   Poverty Convention   UK poverty   zero-credit  
Posted by Zerocredit_UK 

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August 29, 2010
 

#openhouse #openworld #openlife

There are parties and there are parties. We like best those where we share our delight in a dish or a drink, a tune or a tale, a gift given wholly to the moment we perceive. In our pursuit of happiness we console the forlorn, cajole the irritant, tend the excessive who partook too much. We cannot bear that the party should cease. Such is life.

 

For many of us, this weekend is a rite of passage, ending the summer before winter comes. There may be a few more days in the sun, there may not, so we grasp them with an appetite for the finite, sated by the certainty that it will come again. Perhaps this is why we rarely begrudge others the same simple pleasure?

 

If our world were a party, should we tolerate its destitution and demise? Could we enjoy it? There are no gifts where goods are taken: when we do not give, we cannot receive. True pleasure comes from our endless capacity for some new creation, true joy in the certainty of its return - an echo or improvement on times we have loved. Only in recognising that to own some is to own none of it, do we come anywhere close to owning it all.

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Filed under  //   Zerocredit_UK   #creditfree   #openhouse   creation   Daren Forsyth   giving thanks   zero-credit  
Posted by Zerocredit_UK 

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August 18, 2010
 

Zero Klout

We have recently instructed the removal of all data pertaining to @Zerocredit_UK from http://klout.com. Our contrasting experiences of customer service from Posterous and Klout - comparable merely in that both are free and have a growing body of users - is a significant factor. We genuinely wish Klout every success in achieving what is effectively a measure of online reputation and goodwill. However, our current position is that no information is preferable to misinformation.

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Filed under  //   Zerocredit_UK   accuracy   customer service   free applications   goodwill   Klout   Posterous   zero-credit  
Posted by Zerocredit_UK 

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August 17, 2010
 

Bonus boloney...

via youtube.com

From research commissioned by... bankers?!

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Filed under  //   Zerocredit_UK   banks   bonuses   financial incentives   motivation   rewards   RSA Animate   zero-credit  
Posted by Zerocredit_UK 

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August 11, 2010
 

Zero-credit Ltd is born

So we're up on the Companies House register! The initial Management Committee meets on Friday to confirm all the membership and subscription rules and we'll be posting those shortly. In essence, membership is open to any individual aged 16 or over with personal experience of debt for the princely sum of £1 a year. 

This entitles each and every member to vote, to stand for election to the Management Committee and to direct the business and as they see fit. Profits shall be applied to resourcing the business as it grows, with an emphasis on creating employment for those in financial difficulty -  especially the unemployed  - and ultimately to donations for social and charitable purposes. We're working on applications becoming available from September both online and in person. 

From October / November, government, groups, organisations and businesses are invited to subscribe to the research and development information we shall publish electronically. I can't tell you the subscription rates yet because that's one of the details the Management Committee needs to confirm, but I'm hoping you know Zero-credit well enough by now to know it won't break the bank.

Actually, I'm rather hoping Zero-credit Ltd will break the banks. No offence guys, but you are so far removed from the social purpose on which you were founded by the likes of my Great x 6 grandfather Sampson Lloyd that you have forgotten that for the vast majority of us you're a basic commodity, as fundamental to the ground zero of Maslow's hierarchy of needs as the potato. Consumers are your life blood. Without us, you are nothing and as you have been foolish enough to fuel a situation where millions of us are indebted, the time has come to start listening. 

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Filed under  //   Zerocredit_UK   co-operative   membership   registration   subscriptions   zero-credit   Zero-credit Ltd  
Posted by Zerocredit_UK 

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August 10, 2010
 

The Take Stock & Dole Swindle

The now infamous pages 10 and 11 of The Daily Express, Saturday July 24 2010

'Uncompromising' clampdown to increase penalties and claw back some of the £5.2bn lost to fraud and error.  

So reports The Guardian on David Cameron's tough action on benefit fraud today. What I don't understand is how Benefit Fraud seems to cost us £5.2bn now, when it was less than a fifth of that in 2008/9. Or could it be that rather embarrassing little word that politicians hate to admit - "error"?

And why is the media hell bent on exposing low level fraudsters when tax evasion costs the Treasury £30 billion a year? Is it really okay to celebrate Paris Hilton's profligate waste of £290,000 opposite a measly £900 of rent money dipped into by a single mum? What is it - bash a beggar month? 

No. It's more sinister than that - because as close runner up to the horrors of being a benefit screcipient is the fear of becoming one - not so implausible when you look at the distribution of income:

or wealth:

You're not as comfortable as you thought, right? 

Spare a moment to question who's spinning this fraudulent yarn because whether it's charging VAT on produce that enters our country illegally, or throwing a sickie to inventing tenants, fraud is wrong. Our question is not so much who's paying for it now, but who will be if we continue like this?

-- 
Emma Bryn-Jones
Zero-credit founder: http://zero-credit.co.uk; http://twitter.com/Zerocredit_UK

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Filed under  //   Zerocredit_UK   benefit error   benefit fraud   benefit scroungers   bipolarity of income   bipolarity of wealth   Daily Express   lies damned lies and statistics   Paris Hilton   zero-credit  
Posted by Zerocredit_UK 

Comments [4]

August 10, 2010
 

Disposable income boo_st!


Listen!

via AudioBoo

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Filed under  //   Zerocredit_UK   audioboo   community projects   digital inclusion   financial inclusion   pensioners   social cohesion   zero-credit   Zero-credit Ltd  
Posted by Zerocredit_UK 

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July 29, 2010
 

Till debt us do part

via news.bbc.co.uk

When no one, but no one, has measured the full socio-economic impact of the "cashless society", never mind its correlation to the global uptake of credit, don't even think about pigeon-holing an anguished suicide like Darrel's, or the tradegy of Jennifer Taylor, or that of Mark McDonald or most recently Andrew Case. 

These families are suffering the ultimate in needless, personal tragedy and we should be champing at the bit to end the quagmire of financial services which create the barbaric conditions for this to happen.

Over 4 million households were struggling to pay their mortgages in 2008 and the CAB is on track to handle some 2 million new debt cases this year alone. That's quite literally millions of us who are as much human, loved and special as Darrel, Jennifer, Mark and Andrew are to their families.

Reading Darryl's lenders' names - Lombard, GE Money, Black Horse and Private and Commercial Finance Group - their assurances of a robust credit analysis process and responsible lending do not wash. Responsible to whom?

In this era of transparency, financial services have an immediate and pressing lesson to learn. Let's not wait for someone we care about to feel overcome. The shift from conspicuous consumerism to an age of austerity has no need to take lives and we as consumers have every right to determine that.

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Filed under  //   Zerocredit_UK   debt stigma   debt suicides   irresponsible lending   transparency   zero-credit  
Posted by Zerocredit_UK 

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July 28, 2010
 

an era of mindful spending

via thenewconsumer.com

Reading William Higham's excellent book The Next Big Thing has been ideal for catching up with all that has happened in the commercial research world, whilst I was teaching. Bought on a whim (William was the ultimate trendsetter at University in the 80s), I cannot thank him enough for bringing me and indeed Zero-credit up to speed. Trend marketing is an incredibly powerful tool and much of what's on the agenda seems to be echoed in this very interesting video about "The New Consumer" from Euro RSCG Worldwide - oh and although Marain Salzman doesn't mention it here, a sample of 700 was taken in the UK for this study too.

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Filed under  //   Zerocredit_UK   Euro RSCG Worldwide   mindful spending   The New Consumer   The Next Big Thing   trend marketing   William Higham   zero-credit  
Posted by Zerocredit_UK 

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July 27, 2010
 

What Zero-credit Ltd will do...

As has been the aim of the Zero-credit project, Zero-credit Ltd will seek to end debt stigma as a cooperative owned by individuals with experience of debt. We intend to trade in participatory research and development related to tackling social and financial exclusion.

Profits will create employment and training opportunities within the company as well as financing charitable and community projects, which fit the mission. In the first instance, Zero-credit will bid for grants and contracts related to social and financial exclusion. Thereafter, a second phase launch will invite businesses and organisations to subscribe to premium information services as well as offering incentives for bespoke commissions.

It's been a little bit manic trying to get the legal structures we were hoping for and there's a tad more to do on membership criteria, but we promise you more, very, very soon ;-)

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Filed under  //   Zerocredit_UK   social enterprise   zero-credit   Zero-credit Ltd  
Posted by Zerocredit_UK 

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