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

immoral_angeluk

Thanks Wendy, in addition to the FIF funding being lost, there have been massive losses from LSC contracts as well as the government planning to get rid of LSC altogether it seems..

Bardo_Pond

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

Hi Wendy - Maybe Martin could speak with Tina Barnes - FIF Programme Manager. I'm sure she could provide him with some good stats and useful info. Her e-mail is tina.barnes@citizensadvice.org.uk

alastairq

bump-itybitty

fatbelly

Hambleton, Richmondshire and Ripon

and South Derbyshire

(sigh)

Nuneaton and Bedworth

fatbelly

Starting to get more 'national' now. The Mirror ran something a few days ago and today it's in BBC business news:

Debt advisors stop taking cases as funding ends

fermi

I heard the "500 debts advisor’s due to lose their jobs due to government cuts" headline on radio 5 earlier.

fermi

Text of the article in fatbelly's BBC link.

Debt advisors stop taking cases as funding ends

Hundreds of debt advisers have stopped taking on new cases because their funding is to be axed next month.

For the past five years, the £25m-a-year Financial Inclusion Fund has been paying for about 500 specialists in England and Wales to give free advice.

But the cash is due to run out in March and the government has said it will not renew the fund.

The news means that advisers face redundancy at a time when demand for their advice is forecast to grow.

The debt advisers affected have been sent redundancy letters and been told to stop taking on any new clients, other than those with the simplest problems.

The Money Advice Trust, a charity which promotes independent help for people with debt problems, forecasts that 200,000 extra requests for free debt advice are expected this year, taking the total to a record 1.6 million.

'Doesn't stack up'

Citizens Advice says its operations are already under pressure because of the loss of funding from local authorities. It says this decision to end funding could not have come at a worse time.

"It just doesn't stack up, unemployment is rising, the economy is in a difficult situation and there is an increasing demand for debt advice and at this time to lose frontline services in local communities doesn't seem to make sense," the organisation's director of policy, Teresa Perchard, told the BBC.

At the Mary Ward Legal Centre in Central London, 10 financial advisors have been sent redundancy notices as a result of the withdrawal of the fund.
"Not only am I going to lose my job but the service is going to go, the service that sees thousands queuing outside the door on busy days, appointments booked up weeks in advance and that's all going to be lost," said Cecilia Torsney, one of those who has received the letter.

The situation is seen as a huge opportunity for widely criticised debt management companies, who charge fees.

The Office of Fair Trading is cracking down on these firms after finding that they were riddled with bad practice.

Although there is still free advice available from several bodies, including Citizens Advice, these specialist advisers are trained to deal with complex cases and to represent clients to their lenders.

A spokesman for the the Treasury, which decides on the funding, said a new web and phone based service would be introduced and would be able to refer cases to specialists.

"We want to make sure that individuals facing financial difficulty can get advice early, rather than wait until their problems become much more difficult to resolve," he added.

fermi

Now on TV, BBC breakfast.

fatbelly

On BBC Breakfast now!

Good article - makes the essential points about the sharks filling the gaps left by losing FIF and the lack of joined-up thinking from the Coalition

fermi

Hmph!

That gets about 30s, while sodding cardboard milk cartons get about 5 mins.