Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to help support (a) homeless people and (b) refugees obtain a bank account.

The government is committed to improving access to financial services and recognises that access to a transactional bank account is key to enabling people to manage their money on a day-to-day basis effectively, securely and confidently. That is why the Payment Account Regulations 2015 require the largest UK banking providers to provide fee-free Basic Bank Accounts to anyone who doesn’t already have a current account

These regulations explicitly include consumers with no fixed address and asylum seekers. Firms will still need to carry out checks to verify consumers’ identities when they first open an account but are encouraged to be flexible regarding the types of documents they will accept, such as a referral letter from a homeless shelter.

The Government has also worked with the financial services industry to provide guidance to support firms to open basic bank accounts to refugees coming to the UK from specific countries, such as arrivals from Afghanistan and Ukraine. To date, over 75,000 basic bank accounts have been opened by Ukrainian nationals arriving in the UK.