With major wars unfolding globally, including the most recent tensions involving Iran, Israel, and the USA, the impact is being felt far beyond the countries directly involved. Even here in the UK, people are starting to see the effects in everyday life. Disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz have highlighted just how vulnerable we are. Rising fuel costs are already hitting households, and this is beginning to push up the price of essentials like food. In this month’s Debt Talk podcast, Ripon Ray explores how global conflict connects to our personal finances and why it matters for all of us. Rachel Ledwith, speaking from her work with food redistribution charities, shared how rising fuel costs are making it harder to deliver food to communities in need. With the UK heavily reliant on imported food, there are growing concerns about long-term supply chains. At the same time, charities are facing declining and increasingly stretched funding, as attention shifts toward supporting those d...

As we move into the next episode of the Debt Talk podcast, 'Financial Abuse & Our Communities', we do so against the backdrop of growing public concern about domestic abuse in the UK—particularly the recent cases where coercive control, economic exploitation and intimate partner violence have escalated into fatal harm. This makes our conversation with front-line experts even more urgent. Dr Clare Wiper , Assistant Professor in Criminology at Northumbria University and co-author of the report “Designing Out Economic Abuse in the UK’s Banking Industry: A Call for Action”, highlights how deeply financial systems can compound the risks victims face. She stresses that many of the changes required to protect survivors are not radical—but depend on professionals asking the right questions, recognising red flags, and putting effective, trauma-informed safeguards in place, especially when victims are trying to separate financially from an abuser. Helen Ganney from Christians Ag...

Silence can be a deadly killer for women of domestic abuse and instead of just hindering their recovery it could lead to their fatality.  According to the Office of National Statistics (2015), two women are killed every week in England and Wales by a current or former partner in a relationship.   The definition of domestic abuse has been expanded in recent times by legislation: an incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening, degrading and violent behaviour, including sexual violence. Julia Oviedo, a victim and survivor of domestic abuse, shared her personal experience on  ‘In Conversation with Ripon Ray…the Community Money Matters Show’  on Betar Bangla Radio. It may seem just another story to many listeners but for an individual to talk about such a personal experience requires bravery, confidence and the will to encourage other victims to come forward and share their experiences.   In her case, it was physic...