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OFT announces extra funding for 'Save Xmas' campaign

154/07    14 November 2007

The OFT has awarded an additional £80,000 to Citizens Advice to assist in the delivery of the Save Xmas campaign.

The campaign was launched following the collapse of the Farepak hamper company last year, and delivers information through local groups to assist people with their savings options for Christmas using face-to-face training sessions.

This is the second round of funding awarded by the OFT, and administered by Citizens Advice, which enables community groups and consumer organisations to run sessions for groups of people locally.

Sue Cook, Head of Consumer and Business Education at the OFT, said:

'We are delighted to be able to provide additional funding to our partners at grass roots level. Citizens Advice's involvement has been fundamental in delivering the Save Xmas campaign to local communities. We would urge groups and organisations who are interested in delivering Save Xmas training and helping people make choices that best suit their needs when saving for Christmas training to contact us promptly.'

John Rhodes, Head of Financial Capability, at Citizens Advice said:

'We are really pleased to contribute to the success of this important campaign. Our regional forums working with local bureaux and partners are determined to improve the financial awareness of hard-pressed families. This initiative helps ensure that people can save for Christmas with genuine confidence.'

The OFT has produced a toolkit including a leaflet, a short film, presentations, research findings and background information that form the basis of the training sessions. See more information about the Save Xmas campaign.

NOTES

1. The 'Save Xmas' campaign includes working with community groups and partners across the UK to develop consumer education resources for organisations to use with consumers in their local areas. Consumer education is a key element of the campaign, which in the long term aims to equip consumers with the skills to: analyse the options available to them, make comparisons between different choices, make balanced judgements, assess levels of risk, and research relevant information to make the best choice for them.

2. The UK campaign was launched on 1 June 2007 in response to the Farepak collapse last year - see press release 79/07.

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