London Community Credit Union Ltd

As a London Community Credit Union customer, you don’t need to worry, as your money is safe.

On 22 January 2025, London Community Credit Union Limited (LCCU), was placed into administration and stopped trading.

As a customer of LCCU, you don’t need to worry, as your money is safe.

Any eligible deposits you held with LCCU is protected by the UK’s deposit guarantee scheme, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). As LCCU has now failed FSCS will step in to repay your money.

James Sleight and Stratford Hamilton of PKF Littlejohn Advisory Limited (PKF Littlejohn Advisory) are the appointed Joint Administrators. They will contact you by post with documents about the administration for your information only.

If you had an account with LCCU you don’t need to contact FSCS for the money to be returned to you.

If you had an email address registered with LCCU, you may have received an email from FSCS inviting you to access the FSCS Payments Portal. The email will be from no-reply@payments.fscs.org.uk. Please disregard any emails about the FSCS Payments Portal sent from any other email address as they may be fraudulent.

The email will provide instructions for how to access the FSCS Payments Portal where you can request your FSCS payment by direct bank transfer to an alternative UK account registered in your name, or via cheque sent to the address that LCCU held for you. If you request a bank transfer, the money will be transferred to your account within two to five working days. If you request a cheque, this will be sent to the address LCCU held for you within seven working days.

If you have received an email from FSCS inviting you to access the FSCS Payments Portal but you are unable, or choose not to access the portal for any reason, or you do not complete your payment request before the portal closes on Sunday 26th January 2025 at 4pm, you do not need to contact FSCS. FSCS will send you your payment via cheque to the address LCCU held on its records for you. This will be sent to you by post in an unmarked envelope.

You can find additional information about the FSCS Payments Portal on this linked dedicated page.

If you haven’t received an email from FSCS inviting you to access the FSCS Payments Portal, but you had an account with LCCU, please don’t worry, you don’t need to do anything.

It’s likely that LCCU didn’t hold a valid email address for you. You don’t need to contact FSCS. FSCS will send you your payment via cheque to the address LCCU held on its records for you. This will be sent to you by post in an unmarked envelope within seven working days from Wednesday 22nd January 2025.

A small number of customers will instead receive a letter, within seven working days from Wednesday 22nd January 2025 to get cash over the counter at the Post Office. This letter will be sent to the address registered on the account. If you’ve received this letter, take it, along with personal identification as outlined in the letter, to any Post Office counter.

Please don’t worry, their money is safe and you don’t need to contact FSCS for the money to be returned to them.

If an email address was registered on your child's account with LCCU, they may receive an email from FSCS inviting them to access the FSCS Payments Portal and request payment.

If your child has an alternative UK bank, building society or credit union account, registered in their own name, then payment to that account by direct bank transfer can be requested using the portal. If a bank transfer payment is requested, the funds will be transferred to your child’s alternative bank, building society or credit union account within two to five working days. Alternatively, payment via cheque can also be requested using the portal. Cheque payments will be sent in your child’s name to the address LCCU held for them within seven working days.

If your child hasn’t received an email from FSCS inviting them to access the FSCS Payments Portal, but they held money with LCCU, please don’t worry, you don’t need to do anything. 

It’s likely that LCCU didn’t hold a valid email address for your child’s account. You don’t need to contact FSCS. FSCS will send your child their payment via cheque to the address LCCU held on its records for your child. This will be sent by post in an unmarked envelope within seven working days from Wednesday 22nd January 2025.

The information FSCS has received from LCCU confirms your individual balance. The amount you receive will be the balance of your account(s) on Tuesday 21st January 2025.

If you disagree with the payment amount and have received an email from FSCS inviting you to access the FSCS Payments Portal, you should still continue to log in to the portal and complete the process to request your payment.

If you’ve received a cheque or a cash over the counter letter from FSCS and you disagree with the amount, you should still continue to bank your cheque or take your cash over the counter letter to the Post Office so that you can receive your payment.

Then, you should call the Joint Administrators’ team on 0207 729 9218 or 0207 189 1379, or alternatively call 0113 541 7890 or e-mail lccu@pkf-l.com, and they will look into your query.

Do not return your payment to FSCS unless you are specifically asked to do so.

If you haven’t received payment from FSCS either in the post (via cheque or a cash over the counter letter) by Friday 31st January 2025, or to an alternative UK account registered in your name after selecting a direct bank transfer payment on the FSCS Payments Portal, please contact the Joint Administrators’ team directly on 0207 729 9218 or 0207 189 1379, or alternatively call 0113 541 7890 or e-mail lccu@pkf-l.com.

If the name or address held by LCCU are no longer your current details and you (1) didn’t update LCCU with your new details before Tuesday 21st January 2025 or (2) you updated LCCU with your new details but didn’t receive confirmation that they’d updated their records before Tuesday 21st January 2025, FSCS will need to cancel and re-issue the cheque payment to you using your current details.

Please contact the Joint Administrators’ team by calling 0207 729 9218 or 0207 189 1379, or alternatively call 0113 541 7890 or e-mail lccu@pkf-l.com and supply the team with the evidence they require of the change of name or address.

Once confirmed, they will instruct FSCS to make payment to your current name and address.

You will need to open an account urgently with a bank, building society or credit union so that you can make your payment into this account and access your funds.

If you wish to open an account with another credit union you can get information about credit unions from the Association of British Credit Unions Limited (ABCUL) website or the ACE Credit Union Services website.

If you’re based in Scotland, you can get information about credit unions by checking the website of the Scottish League of Credit Unions.

The Joint Administrators will regularly update LCCU’s website, https://londoncu.com with information to assist members, including where they may find support to open an alternative bank account.

If you need help opening a bank account, your local Citizens Advice Bureau should be able to help you. Alternatively, please visit your local high street bank or building society.

Citizens Advice East End provides assistance and advice for communities in Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets and can be called at any time on 020 3855 4472.

The nearest Citizens Advice to LCCU’s Stratford and Hackney branches are:

Stratford

Address: Newham (East End) Citizens Advice Bureau, 123 Star Line, The Hub, 2nd Floor, London, E16 4PZ

Website: www.eastendcab.org.uk

Telephone: Advice Helpline – 020 3855 5233 (Call and leave a message. A CAB assessor will call back)

Telephone advice times: Monday 10am to 11.30am

In person: Check if you need to book an appointment. You can drop into the office to speak to someone (Tuesday morning only). If you would like to pre- book an appointment, contact them to see if this is an option.

Office times: Tuesday - 10am to midday (only)

Hackney

Address: Hackney Citizens Advice, 300 Mare Street, Hackney, London, E8 1HE

Website: www.eastendcab.org.uk

Telephone: Advice Helpline – 020 3880 2023 (This line is for clients to be informed of how to access Hackney services or to cancel a booked appointment)

Telephone advice times: Monday to Friday - 9.30am to 5pm

In Person: Check if you need to book an appointment. Clients are seen at Hackney service centre for initial assessment on Wednesday and Friday 9:30 am to 12:00pm.

Address: 1 Hillman Street, London, E8 1DY

Office times
Wednesday 9.30am to 5.30pm
Thursday    9.30am to 5.30pm
Friday         9.30am to 5.30pm

Some local Citizens Advice can only give you advice if you live in their local council area. It's usually best to contact a Citizens Advice based in your local council area. You can search for your local Citizens Advice on the Citizens Advice website.

A full list of Citizens Advice offices in the local area including postal contact addresses, email contact addresses and telephone numbers is attached to these Q&A’s.

Further information on basic bank accounts can be found on the internet, one such example can be found on the Moneyhelper website. 

As LCCU has failed, all accounts will be closed. If your salary or benefits are paid into the account you held with LCCU, you should contact your employer, pension provider or the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to tell them to pay your salary or benefits into an alternative account you hold with a bank, building society or credit union.

If you don’t currently have an alternative bank account you’ll need to open one as soon as possible as you’ll need to provide these details to your employer or DWP to enable future payments to be made to you.

If you are receiving any of the benefits listed below you can contact your local JobCentre Plus, or for some of them you can call the DWP on the following phone numbers:

• Jobseeker’s Allowance - 0800 169 0310
• Income Support - 0800 169 0310
• Employment and Support Allowance - 0800 169 0310
• Universal Credit - you can contact Universal Credit by calling the Universal Credit Helpline on: 0800 328 5644 or through your online account. Further information can be found on the government's Universal Credit webpage.
• Personal Independence Payment - 0800 121 4433
• Disability Living Allowance - 0800 121 4600
• Attendance Allowance
• Carer’s Allowance
• Pension Credit
• State Pension
• Working Tax / Child Tax Credits - This is a HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) administered To change your bank account details, you will need to contact HMRC on 0345 300 3900
• Child Benefit - This is a HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) administered You can change your bank account details online, or telephone 0300 200 3100. Alternatively, you can write to HMRC at: HM Revenue & Customs - Child Benefit Office, PO Box 1, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE88 1AA.

If you need help contacting these agencies, your local Citizens Advice Bureau should be able to help you. Contact them using the details provided in the question above.

Please check LCCU’s website for further information and support.

It is absolutely crucial that you make arrangements with your employer, pension provider or the DWP to tell them to pay your salary or benefits into your alternative account as LCCU bank accounts will be closed very soon and any monies will be automatically returned to the party trying to make the payment.

You will need to arrange for these payments to be paid into a new or different account and should cancel any existing payments to your LCCU account.

You can cancel the standing order at any branch of your bank or building society, over the phone or via secure online banking. However, you will need to give your bank or building society a couple of days’ notice before the payment is due to come out of your account.

If your standing order is also for loan repayments, do not cancel it and please see the question below.

Do not cancel any repayments as your loan agreement remains in place and you must make your repayments as originally contracted.

Future loan repayments will be managed by the Joint Administrators James Sleight and Stratford Hamilton of PKF Littlejohn Advisory. They will contact you by post about this and provide you with the Administration bank account details as soon as they can.

If you made payments covering both loans and savings the Joint Administrators’ team will be able to advise you of the new amount you need to pay each month for your loan so that you do not fall into arrears.

For further information about your loan, please call the Joint Administrators’ team on 0207 729 9218 or 0207 189 1379, or alternatively call 0113 541 7890 or e-mail mylcculoan@pkf-l.com and they will look into your query.

If LCCU wasn’t aware before Tuesday 21st January 2025 that the late customer had passed away, then FSCS may have sent an email to the late customer inviting them to access the FSCS Payments Portal (if a registered email address was held for them by LCCU). Or FSCS may have sent payment to the late customer via cheque to the address held by LCCU for their account. 

Please contact the Joint Administrators’ team by calling 0207 729 9218 or 0207 189 1379, or alternatively call 0113 541 7890 or e-mail lccu@pkf-l.com.

The Joint Administrators’ team will confirm what evidence they require from you, one piece of evidence will include the original Death Certificate. Please send them this evidence by post to the following address: LCCU – In Administration, c/o PKF Littlejohn Advisory, 3rd Floor, One Park Row, Leeds, LS1 5HN.

Once they have obtained all the required evidence, they will then instruct FSCS to make payment to those legally entitled to receive the funds.