"Don't cut £25m of debt counselling..." blog discussion

SwipernoSwiping

I agree that with better money management skills debt would not be an issue. With ethical retailers and manufacturers that made products that lasted for more than 3 years. Clothing that was made to last not made to be thrown away...
Without all these temptations debt-- and the instinct to want better, more --- would not be the issue it is.

But then, if you loose your job or business debt comes knocking without you trying. If the interest rates go up and you can't afford your mortgage - then what.
If your relationship goes to pot and your partner is a gambler...
If if if.

There is alot wrong in this world, and in our society. Manufacturers that knowingly sell products that harm because it suits our lifestyle, producers that knowingly sell adictive food to ensure we buy more. Retailers that deploy tactics to encourage us to buy more.
They don't teach how to avoid this tactic, or how to resist the urge to throw away and buy new.
The NEED for both parents to work to afford a house means that the oldstyle living has gone out the window. Housewife/husbands are scarce, and frowned upon. Saving is a concept for the ancient. It has been lost in the generation hand me down of information and smothered by marketing.

These advice centres are a little oasis in a world of greed. A place you can go and know you are sheltered temporarily from the storm of calls and letters that debt collection agencies bombard you with.

And yes, wouldn't it be great for these centres to be self sufficient. Tax could be spent on education, housing, NHS, on supporting those families that have a partner that wants to remain home for the kids, instead of furnishing pension funds of council employees that are already earning tens of thousands of pounds.

Mrs_Arcanum

Comments about those who have no one to blame but themselves are crass and untrue in some cases, and it totally ignores those people who will lose money as a direct result of other government cuts. No fault of theirs and out of their control. :mad:

chaos63

It is not fair to judge anyone who has debts as you do not know the reason for the debt or the circumstances of the person. As the quote goes Don’t judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes.

Jacks_xxx

Daisy_Bell wrote: »

Well - sorry, but I'll have to be the one dissenting voice here; I am sick and tired of people bellyaching on about their debts and blaming all and everyone for them - except themselves that is! They seem to think that other, more sensible and thrifty tax-payers should be forced to help them out of problems created by their own greed. And in most cases, that is exactly what it is! For far too long, people have been buying stuff with money they haven't even earned yet!
At the risk of sounding old fashioned (old fashioned values are the best you know) and speaking for myself, if I have ever needed anything (never mind wanted anything) and I didn't have the money for it, then quite simply, I didn't have it! Simple as that! I saved up for everything; never borrowed on my house (it wasn't allowed in those days anyway; you had to prove you were spending the money on improvements to your home first to get an additional advance on your mortage) and never went into debt for anything. With the result that in retirement, my mortage is paid off and I have sufficient savings to live quite comfortably on the interest from those to prop up my state pension - although these have diminished in the last few years because of the very low interest rates! I have never earned anything but a very modest wage and still the household income is well under £20,000., but find it is more than enough.
We now have a government that is trying to pay off a HUGE debt and making these cuts not because they want to, but because they have to! Otherwise, there will be no money for anyone because the country will go bankrupt! Every cut that has been implemented or even proposed has been vehemently opposed by everyone it is going to affect. If the government were to take notice of all these various interests, there would be no cuts at all!
The last Government was extremely irresponsible in their borrowing, a lot of it to simply give money away in benefits - in part to gain votes from their 'Traditional' followers; this Government has to risk huge unpopularity in order to try and put things on a more even keel. It was ever thus! I have a very long memory!

I'm sure you're not the only person who feels this way DaisyBell, but without debt advice it're pretty inevitable that more people will defult on their loans and mortgages which would have dire consequences for our country's economy.

The high rate of default on loans and mortgages in the USA is what precipitated the banking crisis and the recession in the first place.

25 million for advice is a lot less than the multiple billions another bank bailout will cost, and the social cost will be massive too. (I mean social cost in cold hard £££ for benefits and housing, not anything fluffy. )

In short, we can't afford not to allow some money for debt advice for the sake of our economy.

You're not giving money to people you think don't deserve it, you're propping up the economy and stopping it from going into to meltdown. If we can't afford 25 million we certainly can't afford another 17 billion bank bailout.

shadowside

Just listened to Podcast of MoneyBox with Mark Hoban defending his position.

Can't post link. Just type moneybox into google.


Must rate as the least convincing political defence since Phil Woolas got handbagged by Joanne Lumley.


According to Hoban we need to set up "21st century holistic debt advice" What planet does he live on?

"If it ain't broke don't fix it" was always a good engineering maxim which Hoban needs to take notice of

fermi

shadowside wrote: »

Just listened to Podcast of MoneyBox with Mark Hoban defending his position.

Can't post link. Just type moneybox into google.

Click ---> http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00ydbv5/Money_Box_12_02_2011

shadowside

Thanks Fermi

S

madmans

The real irony of all this talk about advice on avoiding debt is that if the government had been listening to any such advice the country would not be in such an unbelievable mess anyway !
Can you imagine the foolishness of running a whole country on an overdraft ? Then how about the last chancellor who allegedly doubled that debt? How does such gross incompetence happen in the first place and to make it worse no-one is held responsible ?

Daisy_Bell

madmans wrote: »

The real irony of all this talk about advice on avoiding debt is that if the government had been listening to any such advice the country would not be in such an unbelievable mess anyway !
Can you imagine the foolishness of running a whole country on an overdraft ? Then how about the last chancellor who allegedly doubled that debt? How does such gross incompetence happen in the first place and to make it worse no-one is held responsible ?

Oh - Heaven forbid that anyone should ever be blamed, never mind actually taking responsibility for their actions in our no-blame culture these days! I'm not surprised that most of the reaction to my Post is as it is. The fact is that nobody is holding a gun to the heads of people to force them to keep on borrowing! OK then, if people lose their jobs, they can go onto benefit, which can be lived on if there is no debt. Mortgage payments can be kept up, interest only, by prior arrangement with lenders. The folk who are against the Government cuts seem to think said Government can just go on borrowing in order to keep giving away money! Living within one's means is not Rocket Science, it is plain common sense and I am tired of all the same old excuses!

ricbureau

Daisy_Bell wrote: »

Oh - Heaven forbid that anyone should ever be blamed, never mind actually taking responsibility for their actions in our no-blame culture these days! I'm not surprised that most of the reaction to my Post is as it is. The fact is that nobody is holding a gun to the heads of people to force them to keep on borrowing! OK then, if people lose their jobs, they can go onto benefit, which can be lived on if there is no debt. Mortgage payments can be kept up, interest only, by prior arrangement with lenders. The folk who are against the Government cuts seem to think said Government can just go on borrowing in order to keep giving away money! Living within one's means is not Rocket Science, it is plain common sense and I am tired of all the same old excuses!

Do you have any idea of what it is living(try to live) on £65.45/week(Job Seekers Allowance)?

Mortgage payments interest only...Yes,it could help but not all lenders will agree as it will depend on your mortgage agreement.

So and according to you 99% of the UK population should live based only on their income...no borrowing...yes?- Do you have any idea of what it would mean to the UK economy if there was not lending and borrowing?

Did you know that due to the collapse of the financial markets we have now nearly 3 million people unemployed?

And for last...Imagine yourself unemployed all the suddenly...£65.45/week...family to feed... To whom your gonna turn for help?Advice?-To whom?

Your mortgage lender issues possession proceedings...do u have money to get a solicitor or would you turn to advice agencies seeking help?

As i said previously we live in a world where we borrow,we lend and so on...that is the culture. What we need to change is the way that we behave towards that culture and for that we need to work hard with our children so that they can be prepared to deal with finances in a responsible way. It starts at home...simple.