Brent Residents Support Fund

Brent Residents Support Fund

We are delighted to be partnering with Brent Council, in providing interest free loans to residents of Brent who require financial assistance. To be considered for loans under this scheme you must meet the following criteria:

• Have been referred to us by Brent Council
• Have completed the loan application and returned this to us with the supporting information requested – see below for details
• Be able to demonstrate an ability and willingness to meet the agreed loan repayments
• All funding under this scheme is fully repayable – this is NOT a grant.

For details about Hillingdon Credit Union, please click the following link

Application process

Following a referral from Brent Council, we will contact you with details of how to complete the loan application form, which can be accessed in one of the following ways:

• We can post the form to you
• We can email the form to you
• You will be able to down load the form from this link

The completed application will need to be returned to us at Civic Centre, High Street, Uxbridge, UB8 1UW, together with a copy of two months bank statements, photo ID, last 2 pay slips, details of all outstanding debts and details of which debts are to be cleared from the loan. All of this information can also be emailed to sallen@hillindoncb.co.uk.

Assessment process

The loan application will be assessed against our agreed lending criteria, which includes a credit search with a registered credit agency. If additional information is required we will contact you.

Loans are assessed in the order that they are received and where we are seeing high volumes of applications, it can take between 2-4 weeks before the initial review of the information provided and a further 2 weeks to complete the assessment before you will have a formal answer to your application. We of course seek to reply sooner if possible

If you have been successful with the assessment process, we will issue you with a formal offer letter. This must be signed and returned to us together with proof you have set up your standing order for repayment of the weekly/monthly loan payments and the completed payment details form, confirming where we should be paying the funds to - all loans drawn will be paid directly to the outstanding landlord/finance company.

In the event that we are unable to assist with your loan application, we will seek to provide you with alternative solutions. There is no appeal process where we are unable to assist, although if your circumstances have changed then please let us know and we may be able to reassess your application.

Repayment calculation

If you have for example applied for £2500 over 3 years, the monthly repayment would be £2500 divided by 36 months = £69.44 per month. We will also offer weekly repayments if you are on a weekly salary.

Other loan features

Subject to a number of conditions, loans with a value below £10,000 are covered by free life cover. For further information, please click the following link – details of the life cover available is at the bottom of the page.

All our loans are reported to one of the UK leading Credit Reference agencies. Making your loan payments on time will help improve your credit score, which will help you in the future when looking to apply for credit agreements such as loan, phone contracts or even when renting from new landlords.

As this scheme is run in partnership with Brent Council, we will be sharing your information with Brent Council, including but not limited to details about how much you have borrowed, are repayments up to date and if there are any arrears.

Repayment difficulties

If you encounter difficulties in meeting the agreed repayments, please let us know as soon as possible. There is specific support available to all members of this scheme through Citizens Advice in Brent, and we will put you in touch with the appropriate debt councillors at that office, who will be able to provide with specific debt advice. For further agencies you can talk to, please click the following link.

Savings account

As part of this scheme, all successful applicants will have a savings account opened with us. Although it is not compulsory to save, we do encourage all members of this scheme to save, as this is a way of improving financial security in the future, against the unexpected bills that tend to crop up. It is easy to save – you just increase your standing order payment – if you would like to make a one off payment, just contact the office and we will let you know how to do this. All savings attract an annual dividend payment, which over the past few years has been at a higher rate than available from a high street Bank.

For further details of our savings products, please click the following link.