To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) adults and (b) households that do not use any financial services. (303847)

On 19 October the Financial Inclusion Taskforce published its fourth annual report on access to banking. The taskforce used data from the Family Resources Survey to estimate that around 890,000 adults living in 690,000 households do not have access to either a banking or a saving account. Of these, 590,000 adults have a Post Office card account, which enables them to receive benefits directly.