Set against a backdrop of high levels of financial debt in the region, the “Overcoming Indebtedness” research project explores the use of big data to identify tangible ways to boost existing support mechanisms for those experiencing financial difficulties.

Working with an existing support service, called the Nottingham and Lincolnshire Credit Union (NLCU), the project team aims to empower the credit union with better data management, ultimately helping to improve their services to those in need.

Credit unions like NLCU – which has been serving the local community since 1992 - are not-for-profit, member-owned financial cooperatives that provide access to affordable financial services. Successive Governments have strongly supported the credit union sector, recognising the vital role they play in supporting local communities. However, despite offering a socially just alternative to the exploitative credit sector, the NLCU has - much like other credit unions in the UK - struggled to attract members, especially from the most deprived estates in Nottingham.

Dr Shaun French and Dr Nick Clare, from the School of Geography, are the Principal Investigators for this project. Dr French said: “The project is geared towards the creation of a digital strategy for the NLCU. It will explore the feasibility of designing and co-producing a “digital dashboard” that combines existing financial data held by the credit union with other, external financial and socioeconomic data sources, to provide NLCU with real-time management information.”

This dashboard will have two overarching aims, namely:​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

• To streamline and automate NLCU’s operations, making it quicker and easier for Nottingham residents to become members and access affordable finance.
• Help NLCU to better target its marketing campaigns, design products and services that meet the needs of the financially excluded, and reach geographically and socioeconomically marginalised households and communities.  

The background to the project is the fact that, aside from London, Nottingham has one of the highest levels of personal over-indebtedness in the UK. The Money Advice and Pensions Service (MAPS) calculates that one in five people in the city finds meeting their monthly commitments a burden and/or is regularly in arrears with their bills. Nottingham is also the UK’s poorest city with lowest disposable household incomes per capita. Rising inflation, a cost-of-living crisis and growing concerns over the use of loan sharks and other exploitative, high-cost providers of credit, are exacerbating these issues. With this in mind, Nottingham is an ideal city to function as a lab for this project, as it will improve access to affordable finance and encourage more people to join the credit union and improve their financial resilience through the discipline of regular saving.

Dr French added: “This project builds on some historic partnership work with the NLCU. In 2019 we worked together to establish a payroll savings agreement between the union and the University of Nottingham in October 2019. We’re excited and optimistic about the potential benefits of such a project.”