Today, we’re expanding the Your Money, Your Goals toolkit. This toolkit is a comprehensive and interactive guide designed for organizations that serve low-income consumers. It covers topics like budgeting for daily expenses, managing debt, and avoiding common financial traps. We’re releasing three versions of the toolkit for:
- Organizations that engage volunteers
- Legal aid organizations
- Workers organizations
This expansion builds on the success of last year’s launch of Your Money, Your Goals. Since then, we’ve trained over 2,000 frontline staff in both public and private non-profit social service organizations. Staff that provide a wide range of services including homeless services, mental health and emergency services, case management, and nutrition assistance programs reported feeling more confident about identifying financial challenges and resources to help their clients.
We’re also teaming up with sites in 31 communities across 19 states to deliver workshops to community volunteers, legal aid staff, and other organizations that work with low-income consumers. These programs will enable organizations to train an additional 1,000 staff and volunteers this summer. For example:
- NAACP state conferences and local branches will provide YMYG workshops through statewide events and community convenings.
- Circles®, USA works to address poverty by strengthening the capacities of communities. Twelve local chapters in eight states will equip participants to put YMYG tools and resources to work in their communities.
- Christ Our Redeemer Community Development Corporation in Irvine, CA, will engage a highly diverse group of community leaders and local congregations through the Orange County Interdenominational Alliance in its training effort.
- The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority will provide YMYG training to social services organizations throughout the state that engage volunteers to assist in serving clients as well as community, service, and faith-based organizations in Indianapolis.
- Public Law Center in Santa Ana, CA, provides legal services to low-income individuals and will use the toolkit to help train their staff as well as the many volunteer lawyers they coordinate in Orange County.
- Florida Legal Services (FLS) in Tallahassee, FL, is a statewide support center that works with local legal aid organizations to improve their ability to provide legal assistance to those in need in their communities by providing service delivery coordination, training, case consultation and technical assistance. FLS will help coordinate the training and delivery of the toolkit to other organizations in the state.
- Community Legal Services in Phoenix, AZ, operates a volunteer lawyer program which will help coordinate with other volunteer lawyer and legal aid programs in other parts of the state to help Latino, Native American, and other clients access the empowerment tools.
- Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, Inc. (TRLA) is the third-largest legal aid and helps more than 20,000 low-income Texans get access to civil justice each year. TRLA will help coordinate trainings for other state legal aid and pro bono organizations.
The new toolkits contain additional resources including an implementation guide and presentation slides with trainer notes.
Continue Reading
Today, we’re releasing our third Snapshot of Complaints Received from Servicemembers, Veterans and their Families. The report details the data and trends from consumer complaints we’ve received from members of the military community since July 2011.
Here are just a few highlights:
- Debt collection complaints have continued to rise since our last report, and now make up 39 percent of total complaints. It is our largest category of complaints from the military community.
- Credit reporting remains a top category of concern. 72 percent of these complaints are about incorrect information on credit reports. This remains a significant issue for the military community, one that we highlighted earlier this year.
- Student loans are another concern. 49 percent of these complaints are about problems dealing with a lender or servicer. In these complaints, we continue to see long-standing trends, such as servicemembers complaining about not being provided their Servicemembers Civil Relief Act rights.
This year our report also highlights our outreach efforts that allowed us to connect with thousands of members of the military community, as well as three of our enforcement actions that recovered millions of dollars for affected consumers, primarily servicemembers, veterans, and their families. These figures represent the positive impact of the work we continue to do on behalf of those who serve.
Problems with account services
Basic account servicing stands out as a significant area of concern for servicemembers. Most consumers can call their financial institution, visit a branch, or connect online to try and get the help they need to maintain their account. Unfortunately, for military personnel and their families, the realities of military life, including deployments, frequent moves, and a high operational tempo, can sometimes make access to those services extremely challenging.
We found that servicemembers were often subject to a variety of account maintenance or penalty fees, as well as account-access restrictions, which were triggered due to aspects of their military service.
These problems raise concerns that financial institutions may not have a true understanding of the servicing needs of their military customers and may lack proper procedures and protections for them. Detailed examples of servicemember experiences can be found in Section II of the report.
Check out the snapshot to learn more.
We’re listening
As always, if you have a problem with a consumer financial product that you can’t resolve on your own; or if you know someone in that situation, please remember that you can submit a complaint online or by calling (855) 411-2372. We make your voice heard.
