Analyzing household and intra-urban variants in the consumption of financial services: uncovering ‘exclusion’ in an English city

This study provides an empirical assessment of the socioeconomic factors that determine household exclusion from consumer financial services. A unique microeconomic data set, of interview data, collected from a representative cross-sectional sample of 1,005 households is analysed using logistic regression techniques. In investigating exclusion from consumer financial services, both financial self-exclusion and institutional led financial exclusion are examined. Indicators of financial self-exclusion include the absence of a savings account or home contents insurance, while indicators of institutional led financial exclusion include the use of ‘doorstep lenders’. Findings show that both measures of financial self-exclusion are determined by income, education, age, housing tenure and social participation while financial exclusion is generally associated with socioeconomic characteristics such as age, gender, housing tenure, working status, income, disability and the presence of young people in household but not with respondents’ residential area, education level, internet use and social participation. These results are useful to both policy makers and financial services providers. They provide useful insights to policy makers and could have an important bearing on the range and mix of policies, and policy instruments, that local and central Government could use to mitigate their extent.