Pupils are super savers with credit union

Jamie MacDonald Jamie MacDonald - 1598 • Published 5 Nov 2008 12:30 0 Comments

SCHOOL pupils in Clackmannanshire have been getting into the habit of saving up for rainy days through credit unions.

At a time when it seems that every time you turn on the television there is a story of doom relating to banks and money, the county"s kids have saved around £25,000 between them with Clackmannanshire Credit Union.

A credit union is a non-profit cooperative financial institution owned and controlled by its members, often offering more competitive rates than banks and loan companies.

Secretary of Clackmannanshire Credit Union John Patton told the Advertiser, 'Clackmannanshire Credit Union manages collection centres in six local schools.

'Since Credit Union, unlike commercial savings organisations, is owned by its members, this means that these young learners have a stake in their own community.'

He added, 'In partnership with parents and the school staff, we are encouraging a savings habit from an early age and making it easily enactable by providing opportunities for involvement within the learning environment.

'We are confident that this partnership approach through time will see both a substantial and sustained growth in the number of savers locally and the amount that is accumulated.'

Children in St Mungo"s Primary in Alloa have had their savings club - part of the credit union - for six years and every Monday youngsters are queuing up to save their pocket money.

One of the pupils, Kayleigh Snaddon, said, 'I"ve been a member for about five years and in that time I"ve saved up quite a lot. I usually save until the Christmas holidays when I use the money to buy Christmas presents.'

The school has a roll of 85 pupils of which 13 are members of the savings club.

The school"s headteacher Alice Dunphy said that learning to save their money instead of spending it was a good habit for children to get into.

She added, 'Hopefully it will encourage them to keep some money aside and, in the future, stay away from debt with things like credit cards.'

The popularity of savings clubs in the county comes at a time when a survey carried out by Bank of Scotland has shown Clackmannanshire children to be amongst the lowest savers in Scotland.

The county"s kids have an average of £742 each tucked away - compared to the Scottish average of £853. The British average is £1049 in savings per child.

Mr Patton said, 'As an educationalist, I have long been distrustful of League Tables, since there is a wide spectrum of social and environmental features across Scotland which is unaccounted for in raw data.

'In our credit union, the most important thing is that these young citizens, together with their parents and teachers, are already planning for their own future.'

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This article appeared in Alloa & Hillfoots Advertiser 05 Nov 08

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