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

ricbureau

Banks should put money back into economy not paying bonuses....The financial sector have put the country in this mess therefore they should pay for it! but no...our politicians do not have the courage to face the powerful finance club that we have in London.... probably they all have shares as well...So,cut,cut and cut...Once the interest rates are up again we will have to face a high increase of mortgage repossessions...but there will not be face to face debt advice...there will not be me and other advisers from CAB fighting at the Courts to prevent lost of client home...and then we have local authorities with no means to help those that become homeless...Cut,cut and cut...

bennett2kuk

Why should this service be saved above all others? Everybody is feeling the pinch majorly and I think there are other services that should be saved, Police officer numbers for example but they're not. Once Labour's mistakes are dealt with, we're back on an even keel and the country can afford to provide for itself we should look at what's been lost and establish what needs to be brought back. But personally I don't see why this service should be ring fenced.

cottingleybingley

Writing letters/emails to MPs can actually be quite effective. The recent petition and letter writing campaign run by 38 Degrees over the forest sell-offs spooked an awful lot of MPs who received hundreds of letters each on the subject and it now looks as though the Government will do a U turn, as they did over funding for school sports.

fatbelly

bennett2kuk wrote: »

Why should this service be saved above all others?

The argument is that it's often cheaper to give good advice early than to patch up the mess afterwards.

One of the MPs in the debate yesterday said that it costs £150 per client to give specialist debt advice but £15000 to rehouse a family who have lost their house.

...Furthermore, this is a policy of total financial lunacy. It costs £150 to give a family debt advice. It costs £15,000 to re-house a family. I shall be very interested to hear how the Minister can defend such a lunatic policy.

chaos63

swallow_tattoo wrote: »

Sorry if this has already been said but my view is that a campaign should include opposing cuts to generalist CABs as people tend to be more familiar with them and their function. The service they offer also ties in with the "consumer revenge" element of MSE.

No disrespect to the CAB but PLEASE dont forget all the independant advice agencies under Advice UK who do just as good a job!!

fatbelly

chaos63 wrote: »

No disrespect to the CAB but PLEASE dont forget all the independant advice agencies under Advice UK who do just as good a job!!

Absolutely! Yesterday's debate was supposed to be about the future of independent debt advice. It turned into 'the future of CAB'. We need to keep in focus that this present argument (there are diferent ones to come) is about the loss of FIF funding and there are many agencies other than CAB who will be devastated by this.

euronorris

MSE_Martin wrote: »

I have signed the petition

I just signed too.

I'm shocked by this. Seems so completely illogical, I don't know how it ever came to pass!

shortchanged_2

Conrad wrote: »

Sir Paul McCartney, much loved by many, is worth over £500m. Bono over a billion. Tony Ben's real estate alone is worth over £5m when he could easily down size to say a £500 k home and give the rest away.

I'm sorry, but the truly sickening point is people like this cling to a huge overshare, when they could give away 90% and still be very rich indeed.

It's about time society grew up and started stigmatising these Saints.

Thats how society can help the needy. Charity should not be a piffling sideline that still leaves these Saints mega rich.

Are you alright Conrad? Is it really you?

euronorris

On the subject of getting celebrities involved, how about calling on the DIY SOS team who helped forum user Mike out? They're already aware of how devastating and overwhelming debt can become, so they may be very willing to support this campaign.

We won't know unless we ask.

russian_doll_2

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Interesting to read the expectation for individuals to fund it - surely much should come from the state?

Also as a side note the problem with wanting 'street protests' or 'petitions' is only 1/5th of teh number of people are reading this blog than the John Lewis price promise blog - it just doesn't grab pubilc attention.

The biggest problem with funding debt advice by individuals as that we help people. People who most of the time are healthy and just got into a mess. We don't help dying puppies or saving forests (which are all very worthy cases). Indivuduals don't like supporting normal cases.

This year I will be running London Virgin Marathon in aid of Blackpool CAB and Citizens Advice.

Please support my case. You can follow me on twitter: @Support_CABs

Thank you

Zhenya