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

fermi

fatbelly wrote: »

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

Yep. The bbc website articles on these things are normally pretty feeble journalism, but looks like someone has actually engaged their brain when writing that.

fatbelly

The 7.06 TV piece had a different (and better) text than the written article. They don't seem to be using it again on Breakfast but no doubt it will re-emerge somewhere.

If anyone can find a link to it, please post it here.

fermi

Is this it?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12331504

fatbelly

Yep, and I have the text:

This is free debt advice...

...But the adviser has just received her redundancy letter, along with hundreds of other debt experts.

"This is a service that's really needed. We've got clients queueing out of the door, appointments booked several weeks in advance. And the service is going to go. There's not going to be anybody to see those clients."

Requests for free debt advice are expected to climb by 200,000 this year to 1.6 million, potentially exceeding the record levels in the recession.

And the fear is that the knock-on effect of the cuts will be to push people into the arms of the profit-making debt management companies, who charge fees.

The Treasury told us "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"

The Coalition has promised a new internet and phone-based service, which would refer difficult cases to specialists.

But that's after this expert, and others, have lost their jobs...

Bardo_Pond

Anyone seen this (can't send link sorry)? Makes things seem even more confusing when you read Mark Hoban's reply. I've been told CAB are still in discussions with BIS and that there's still no update dispite the talk about a telephone and internet based advice service (which'll be a laugh taking into account most of our clients' needs):-

Ian Austin(Dudley North, Labour)
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has for the end of the Financial Inclusion Fund; and if he will make a statement.



Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East, Labour)
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for West Worcestershire of 19 January 2011, Official Report, column 836W, on the Financial Inclusion Fund, what funding he plans to make available after the closure of the Financial Inclusion Fund to ensure that financial exclusion continues to be tackled.



Mark Hoban (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; Fareham, Conservative)


The Financial Inclusion Fund has always been due to close in March 2010. The Government have not yet taken a decision on the future of the projects currently funded from the Financial Inclusion Fund.
The Government remain committed to helping poorer households to access appropriate financial services, to improve their financial resilience and to avoid falling into unsustainable levels of debt.

fermi

Then there is this....

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2011-01-31a.36839.h&s=%22financial+inclusion+fund%22

Ian Austin (Dudley North, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the effect of the end of the Financial Inclusion Fund on the number of centres in (a) England and (b) the West Midlands providing debt advice.

Edward Davey (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs), Business, Innovation and Skills; Kingston and Surbiton, Liberal Democrat)

The Financial Inclusion Fund (FIF) has always been due to close in March 2011. The Government have not yet taken a decision on the future of the projects currently funded from the FIF.

In the meantime, my officials have worked with the projects involved to understand the potential scale of any redundancies and taken steps to ensure that any redundancy costs can be met from project funds rather than affecting the viability of the organisations affected.

Penelope_Penguin

fatbelly wrote: »

The Coalition has promised a new internet and phone-based service, which would refer difficult cases to specialists.

But that's after this expert, and others, have lost their jobs...

Exactly! Where are all these specialists to be found and who will be funding them?

MikeJO

Apart from the whole thing being total madness, this is the bit that shows they have no understanding of what they're doing...

"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."

You don't need to be on here long to appreciate that virtually everyone follows a similar pattern. Very few are going to look for advice because they think they might have a problem in the future.....it seems to me to run along similar lines to addiction (did for me anyway), in that people are in denial, don't want to admit they have an unsurmountable problem and battle on until they hit rock bottom and they have no alternative other than asking for help.
I may be wide of the mark but that was the first thing that struck me.

Bardo_Pond

The whole thing is beyond belief, many clients we see here at the CAB just aren't able to speak to people over the phone or use the internet (a lot of them don't have access to the net). We have clients with learning difficulties, clients for whom English is their second language, very elderly or disabled clients...the list goes on.

What I find frustrating is that Citizens Advice are not contacting Bureaux to let them know what's going on - even after the BBC/Guardian articles. The last thing our Chief Exec found out was that Citizens Advice are STILL in talks with BIS et al, it's just not fair on the staff either, people need to know out of courtesy if there's no hope of any funding.

dancingfairy

first get rid of all the debt advisers, leave a big black hole , wait for loan sharks and doorstop lending to soar, think about maybe setting up a telephone helpline, panic -urm doesn't sound like a well thought of plan at all-i really don't think the government have a clue on this one.
df