MSE News: Debt advisers to go in government cuts

Former_MSE_Guy · 3 February 2011 at 11:07AM

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"Consumers could soon struggle to find free debt advice after the plug was pulled on £25m-a-year funding ..."

Read the full story:
Debt advisers to go in government cuts

tinker_bell_2 · 3 February 2011 at 11:55AM

I am a CAB FIF funded money advice worker in the north east. We have a team of a total of 10 caseworkers, 7 of which are FIF funded and we have all been advised of our redundancies. We're obviously saddened, not just for ourselves but the demand has been increasing in the last few months again and it's hard to say how bureaux will cope with this. I love my job, it's often hard because people have such complex cases now - but where will they go? The government have said they want to focus on telephone and internet advice - we have a lot of clients with mental health or special needs issues, what about them? I understand the need for cuts, but this is a very sad decision for all. The private DMP's are also likely to be rubbing their hands with glee!

Two9A · 3 February 2011 at 12:12PM

Mm. This seems to have been specifically designed to hand profits to private DMP's. With the CAB basically being pushed out of helping people, and the charities losing funding, there is (by simple elimination) no other place to go.

My local literacy/numeracy place is suffering under the same problem: they've been denied funding for the next year, and they've just kicked everyone that was on the course out...

This is all going to end well.

mdr86 · 3 February 2011 at 12:19PM

Is Martin going to do a petition like he did with petitioning for a savings summary box and financial education?

fermi · 3 February 2011 at 12:19PM

Worth reading the thread below which has been running for several weeks and has discussed much of this already:

---> Looks like the end......... CAB & Financial Inclusion Fund

fermi · 3 February 2011 at 12:22PM

mdr86 wrote: »

Is Martin going to do a petition like he did with petitioning for a savings summary box and financial education?

From the thread I linked to above:

MSE_Wendy wrote: »

Hi all

I've been meaning to drop you all a quick note all week, sorry for the delay.

Thanks for sending Martin a link to the thread, he’s asked me to send a quick reply to say how annoyed we are that the FIF money (amongst others) is not being renewed for debt advisors around the UK. Martin has mentioned a few times in his speeches (eg the political party conferences and treasury select sessions last year) that CAB’s budget is being slashed and if anyone has a breakdown on what this will be nationally it’d be great if you could PM it to me.

For those seeking debt advice of course the CCCS and National Debtline are still available and hopefully all CABs find a way to carry on running via other funds and their excellent volunteers.

Martin was also due to meet Consumers Minister Ed Davey this week but it was postponed, although he will be sure to raise the subject with him (as one of many topics he wants to discuss) when the new meeting is arranged, so any send me any useful quick stats that you think we should pass on.

Thanks guys,

Wendy

york_viking · 3 February 2011 at 12:23PM

I am one of the many Debt Case workers funded by the Governments FIF scheme. Whilst the ending of the scheme is obviously a worry to us, we are also concerned for the clients we see. Not everyone is capable of articulating their problems by telephone or internet and we fear people will either sign up with Companies found on the internet who don't provide free and unbiased advice, or they may merely continue to not deal with their debts effectively given the lack of support from their creditors. The advantage of the CAB (and of course I would say this) is that we will deal with all types of debts (unlike some help agencies), we have local knowledge relating to points of contact and other support services, and we will also look at the whole picture; where there is debt, there is usually other problems relating to employment, benefits, housing or relationships, we can subsequently refer people to other CAB specialist workers. And having done the job for nearly five years, I never under estimate the two words "free" and "unbiased", the clients know that we only have their interests at heart.
We understand the need for cuts but we also understood that the Government said they would protect the vulnerable. If the FIF scheme is not replaced with something else then the ending of the scheme suggests otherwise.
We are therefore asking for anyone who feels strongly about this issue to write to their MP / George Osborne and to make a noise on behalf of those people who are less able to do so. If the Ministers were to do my job for a week, I am sure they would find new funding.

lingib · 3 February 2011 at 4:05PM

I too work for a CAB as a FIF Admin worker and am now in danger of needing advice myself as i now have a redundancy notice myself (and no jobs to go to at all), our bureau has 5 debt workers at the moment 3 FIF, 1 LSC and 1 funded by Lottery we are always fully booked two weeks in advance now i dread to think of the amount of people who just will not be able to get advice. The majority of people that we see just would not be able to have advice over the phone or internet they need face to face as we have many clients who just turn up with carrier bags of unopened letters as they cannot even get the courage to see how much they owe and they need a sympathetic person to help. If somthing is not put into place the same or similar to FIF I fear for alot of people in ths country. I will not even ask who will be taking over doing all the dro's that FIF worker's do at the moment.

bird_in_debt · 3 February 2011 at 5:49PM

As so many others on here - I should state upfront i am also a Caseworker under FIF. And not worried about my job (after all there will always be floors that want mopping and people who need personal care

).

I am seriously concerned about the impact the loss of FIF funding will produce for the average person who needs/wants to access free money advice. Perhaps they can't afford to ring a phone advice service. Perhaps they have a stammer that gets worse when they have to make a phone call under stress. Perhaps they have physical or mental health problems that mean they are more comfortable dealing with someone face to face. Maybe they need to go bankrupt and can't fill the 32 page form in themselves. And so on...

If they qualify on any of the above counts they will be ill served by this cut. This is not to be critical of CCCS, National Debtline or Payplan who all provide vital free debt advice services.

Advice providers will seek to fill the gap left by FIF - but knowledge transfer to volunteers won't be possible if experienced debt workers have had to get another job in order to pay their own bills. There is talk of referring complex cases on from other free advice providers to experienced debt advisers - but why risk losing the existing infrastructure and incurring further costs?

These and other similar questions I ask myself on a daily basis.

Yours soon-to-be redundantly, B_I_D

SnowMan · 3 February 2011 at 6:11PM

I'm a volunteer at my local bureau and it just incomprehensible that the FIF funding is coming to an end and our specialist FIF workers will be going.

Volunteers like me can give a little bit of debt advice but we can only really give one off advice, and while we are very well trained and skilled up, what is needed is a specialist caseworker who can take things on on a case basis, and has the specialist skills to help. Even if volunteers did take things on on a case basis who on earth is going to then give advice for people on housing, employment, relationship and other issues?

The telephone advice services offered by the CCCS and national debtline are excellent but they are for those are able to do things over the phone.

There are many many people who will go to the commercial debt management companies if face to face advice isn't there, that is if they don't leave debts to spiral out of complete control of their own accord. The vast majority of people who come to the CAB for debt advice from my experience want and need to speak to someone face to face. When I initially assess people I always suggest that an option if people are happy to use the telephone that they try CCCS or national debtline, there is a very very limited take up on that.

It is just complete madness what is going on. Complete madness. It is so outrageous, so incomprehensible, so short sighted that it just feels like we will wake up tomorrow and it will all be a bad dream. But yet we know at the same time that we will wake up tomorrow and it will still be happening. And not just that but next to come will be the removal of debt advice funded under legal help apart from a small few in immediate danger of repossession or eviction.

Excuse me while I go outside and shout.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

meher · 3 February 2011 at 6:32PM

why not run an online CAB kind of clinic here on MSE - it could be kept locked and open only to advisors and client concerned for their thread

MSE News: Debt advisers to go in government cuts

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