Accreditation of a Nation

In the early decades of the 21st Century many aspects of  society were under attack.

In the enforced conditions of austerity and frugality the economy faltered and the population readied themselves for not just the projected double dip recession but a long, deep and prolonged depression.

Those fortunate to maintain employment were reluctant to spend their hard earned income on anything but staples and necessities. The megalomaniac supermarkets reeled people in with 'two or more for one offers', cashbacks, spend £40 and get £5 off your next shop over £40, and get 15 pence off a litre of fuel with every big weekly shop. The largest of the hypermarkets were the beneficiaries of every £1 in every £8 spent in the country.

The less fortunate, those made redundant and the long term unemployed were left to fend for themselves. This sector of the population, destined to be forever more described as the underclass were born survivors. Their resourcefulness and sense of camaraderie and social responsibility led to the birth of a thriving and workable black and grey economy. Cash in hand, work in kind, barter and favour became the extended legal tender.

The wealthy classes either left the country in a carefully planned ,phased retreat or hid away in their gated communities patrolled by private security guards. The large, imposing gates only opened under supervision to receive the deliveries of goods, release the children on a termly basis to attend their stronghold boarding schools and permit a steady stream of stout, earnest and determined cleaners and housekeepers, vetted and tagged.

The majority of the population fell between the two but somewhat dysfunctional classes. Fettered into a system of failing banks, burgeoning mortgages and financial contracts from cars to phones, Utilities to charitable giving, this middle sector felt the squeeze and in most cases were hapless and helpless to do anything about it.

The buzz word of 'downsizing' rattled around the gloomy workplaces as though it was the cure all for woes and difficulties. Some made it and were never seen nor heard from again. The term 'downsizing' soon became a codeword for fantasy escapism and that unattainable aspiration of financial solvency. If actual downsizing was not possible, after all youth unemployment and a longer and healthier living ageing population meant that offspring and parents were more likely to require accommodating in the family home, then the only option was to thin out and sell anything surplus to daily living.

On line selling flourished through the portals of E-Bay, Amazon and Gumtree who soon became so dominating in the economy that the High Streets of the towns and cities slowly became vacant, boarded up and then died to make way for retail outlets of larger than hyper proportions.

Cash was king, the oil in the wheels of a new social order. A deal for cash became an opportunity for the keepers of the purse to steal away houses from the repossessed, gold and precious jewels from the hard-up and a dual tariff system emerged. Prices displayed on all manner of goods from bananas to luxury, high performance cars showed two disparate figures for credit or cash.

The search for loose change ramped up. Large, agitated queues developed wherever a Coinstar sorting machine was located. The paper receipt, totting up denominations and a total became a form of legal tender.

The principal obsession of the majority in the middle of the austerity sandwich was in the defence of their credit ratings. Where before people conducted their lives to the letter of the law and highway code to avoid the accumulation of points and sanctions the all pervading motivation was to maintain a good to excellent credit score.

Individuals and families rose or fell on the basis of the financial and other identity information held in the super-computers of the number crunchers and data gatherers.

Boxes of personal documents, agreements for finance, overdraft, hire purchase and the monthly payment fashion catalogues were scrutinised for any potentially disastrous credit liabilities. Sophisticated systems were available to the public, on a subscription service (in itself a form of credit agreement) to provide an early warning service if anyone was searching the personal records either in preparation for a dreaded purge of a late or missed regular payment or just snooping on a lifestyle and spending pattern in a form of moral judgement.

If it became an unavoidable necessity to apply for credit or a loan for a life saving procedure, essential repair or just to meet outgoings and commitments then the credit score became critical. Anything less than an unblemished record for the previous ten years gave the excuse to the Banks and Building Socities to decline an application. In a mopping up operation, the data gatherers sold the lists of unsuccessful applicants to the second level of finance providers who pestered and cajoled by phone call, text and alluring TV adverts until an APR of three thousand percent looked to be an escape from the persistent pressure. Pay Day and emergency loans were easily obtained but insidious and demoralising to maintain.

Credit ratings, good ones, were soon available to purchase on the black market but at extortionate prices.
The purchase and re-selling of credit scores became a major service industry in its own right. 

Those intent on going it alone and slowly paying off and settling debts suffered accordingly in lifestyle and health. The painful process soon assumed a form of pennance,righteous purge, retribution for poor stewardship, punishment for extravagance and what now seemed to have been a reckless and irresponsible path to ruin but yet had been a normal, everyday and acceptable life.