Saving Gateway Accounts Bill
10:45 am
Teresa Perchard: I am director of policy for Citizens Advice, which represents the interests of Citizens Advice bureaux throughout England and Wales and the people who come to us for advice. We deal with 5.5 million problems a year and our single biggest area of work is debt. Most of our debt clients are on very low incomes and we are interested in providing them with more support to help them deal with income shocks.
I am a member of the Financial Inclusion Taskforce and, since the Government’s decision to roll out the saving gateway was announced, have had several discussions with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs about the potential role of Citizens Advice bureaux in promoting saving gateway accounts when they are up and running. There is no fully formed action plan, but we have had discussions with the Treasury on that.