THE dying wish of a Tenbury woman was to help the charity that she had volunteered with which helps people in financial difficulties.

Jill Hudson, who lived in St Michael’s, died in January.

The 71-year-old suffered from cancer and had been a supporter of the Tenbury NILS (No interest Loans Scheme) for many years.

It was her wish to help the charity and £1,065 was raised as a result of donations made at her funeral.

Now the money has been handed over to NILS by her husband Eric, who is a member of Tenbury Town Council.

“Jill was a wonderful supporter and she did great work for us as an administrator,” said Jane Newton, who set up the scheme after working on a similar project in Australia.

“Even when Jill became ill she continued to work from home.

“But she was also the person that brought what we do to the attention of the nation by making the Archbishop of Canterbury aware of the project.

“This helped us hugely and has put us on the map.”

Now the NILS project has been extended to Ludlow, where it operates two days a week, and also to Leominster. Jane Newton has also set up a spate charity providing No Interest Loans in Malvern.

The scheme is believed to be like no other in the country although there are thought to be plans for the model to be copied elsewhere.

It is like no other loan scheme and operates very differently from traditional credit.

The idea is to help people on very low incomes and avoiding them having to take on debt such as with payday and other loans.

At present the Tenbury scheme is helping in the region of 70 families.

People can take out a loan of up to £400 and it is then repaid normally over a period of a year or 24 months.

A key factor that makes the scheme different is that the loan is not paid as cash but as a ‘credit’ that can be used to buy vital household equipment such as white goods like cookers and washing machines.

However, the scheme has been extended to include in some cases vital school equipment like computers and even uniforms.

The NILS administrator deals directly with the suppliers and as far as possible uses local businesses so that the money is ploughed back into the community.

No interest or administration fee is charged on the loan and so customers simply repay the value of the sum that was borrowed.

Jane Newton says that this makes it different from credit unions which pay loans in cash and also have a small interest charge. She says that levying interest on people in dire financial difficulties would only make matters worse.

There is little problem with people who will not repay and many of the customers are in receipt of benefits. A clause in the loan agreement provides an option to recover a bad debt from the benefits via the Department for Work and Pensions but this would only be done in extreme circumstances.