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Runnymede savings research quoted in parliament
09 December 2010
Labour peer Lord McKenzie pressed the government to respond to Runnymede’s argument that black and minority ethnic people (BME)will be significantly affected by cuts to savings policies.
Runnymede’s research was quoted in the remaining House of Lords stages of the Savings Accounts and Health in Pregnancy Grant Bill. This bill effectively scraps both the Child Trust Fund and Saving Gateway schemes, both of which enable those on low incomes to build savings. Runnymede submitted a response to the bill at an earlier stage of its passage through parliament.
In a debate over the impact of scrapping the policies, Lord McKenzie asked government minister Lord Sassoon about the particular impact on BME communities, who have much lower levels of savings than the rest of the population.
He asked: "How does the Minister respond to the submission from the Runnymede Trust that the withdrawal of the savings gateway would disadvantage BME communities in particular, who tend to have lower levels of savings?"
Runnymede research shows that at least 60 per cent of black and Asian people have no savings at all. Parliamentarians in both houses have been using this finding, with Baroness Drake underlining this statistic in the same debate and Labour MP Kate Green emphasising this fact in a previous Commons debate on the same bill.
The Saving Gateway scheme encourages people on low incomes to save by providing government contributions for every pound saved. Child Trust Funds provide a tax-free way for people to save on top of government contributions of at least £500 to build a cash asset that children can use when they turn 18. Peers rounded on the government’s claim that the scrapping of these policies would have no “significant impact on equality.”
