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03/02/08

Tameside in Greater Manchester has held the area's first financial inclusion conference: 'The Money matters.and so do you'. All members of the public were invited to attend - and, with no small print to hide behind, organisers were proud to lay on the event for free! The conference's purpose was to raise awareness of financial inclusion and bring people together to look at ways of overcoming this social problem.

So what is financial inclusion? Many people, particularly those living on low incomes, cannot access mainstream financial products such as bank accounts and low cost loans. This lack of financial inclusion imposes real costs on individuals and their families - often the most vulnerable people in our society. It also has costs for the communities in which they live.

Money Information Network Tameside (MiNT) is an alliance of local organisations that organised the day. They invited David Heyes MP to be the keynote speaker, but that didn't mean the evening was all talk. Manchester-based Waters Edge Theatre Company also performed a thought-provoking short play about life in debt. And informal workshops asked delegates to contribute their ideas to areas as diverse as savings, schoolwork and central heating.

David Burdis, Financial Inclusion Manager is based at New Charter, one of the partners in MiNT said:

"We wanted to attract residents of Tameside to come along, as we had already signed up many advice agencies and service providers. Financial inclusion might be seen by some as worthy but dull - we aim to change that by having some fun along the way, and stimulating the audience. I'd summarise our event as concentrating on ABC: Advice, Banking and Credit."

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