The Family Saver pilot

Motherhood matters – women, particularly those with children, have a higher risk of poverty and are less likely to have financial buffers such as savings, insurance or access to affordable credit. Great Western Credit Union (GWCU) has long sought to support mothers with their finances – 81% of its borrowers are women, 71% have children and 46% are parenting alone.

During 2022-2023, four community researchers – all mothers themselves – worked with GWCU and the University of Bristol to explore in depth the financial lives of mothers, and subsequently, to develop ideas on how to better support them.

In a first research phase, the team of community researchers interviewed 16 mothers and learned of the outsized responsibility mothers often carry to manage the household’s finances, the gap in products and services especially designed to help them do so, and the lack of conversations around finances between mothers, mothers and their partners, and mothers and financial institutions.

Through a series of workshops, the team shared what they had learned with other GWCU team members, participants and external stakeholders, and together developed a number of ideas on how mothers could be better supported with their finances – from an online mums’ hub to encourage conversations and advice sharing to several savings products especially designed for parents.

Having agreed to focus on making saving easier, the team developed an initial prototype and refined it with feedback from participants in several co-design sessions. In March 2023, they presented their final prototype – the Family Saver – to GWCU and together began planning for the pilot.