'Tackling Treasury Minister Mark Hoban on bank charges and more...' blog discussion

Former_MSE_Helen

This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's blog. Please read the blog first, as this discussion follows it.

Read Martin's "Tackling Treasury Minister Mark Hoban on bank charges, savings, mortgages & more" Blog.

Please click 'post reply' to discuss below.

simonlewis_2

So really they don't care...

SnowMan

I am really pleased that you tackled him over the really important issue of free face to face debt advice. Thank you. :T

As I understand it the Money Advice Service are looking to set up a new debt advice service from late 2013. Up to then it looks like FIF (now F2F) will continue (fingers crossed), to enable face-to-face debt advice to continue via the CABs.

My concerns are to what will happen in 2013. I have a fear we will see a horrible tendering process which will involve a ridiculous amount of bureaucracy, waste of time and cost. That will send a shudder down the spine of anyone who saw the utter carnage that resulted from the legal aid tendering process. The real losers in that of course were people needing advice. Alternatively face to face debt advice may just be scrapped in the same way legal help is being scrapped.

Let us remember that currently most clients who seek face to face advice simply would not seek advice at all if the only options were telephone or email advice.

Of course there is a need to look at how debt advice is provided and look at whether it can be done more efficiently and what changes may happen because of technological advantages such as video-conferencing. The Citizens Advice service are already looking at these things.

But the danger is the Money Advice Service (MAS) that Mark Hoban and his colleagues have set up will not appreciate the inner workings of organisations such as Citizens Advice and will reek huge damage to CABs by taking away invaluable funding and destroying the chance of people getting face-to-face advice in debt and other areas.

The vague answers that have been given by Mark Hoban in this transcript suggest to me he hasn’t thought it through and has no idea how it will work after 2013. He seems to want to devolve all responsibility to the MAS. He will sit quietly by as the damage is done.

Let us consider what might happen if it all goes wrong:

The Money Advice Service gets going and the key decision makers there have never worked or volunteered at a charity giving debt advice. They do not understand the delicate structures. They do not appreciate that F2F advice operates alongside other free debt advice offered to those not qualifying under the F2F project. They decide to scrap face to face debt advice. MAS overlook that the funding to CAB contributes to the fixed costs of the CABs and is an important part in enabling many CABs to survive and provide other invaluable and extensive services in debt and other areas. The CAB lose the funding. Many CABs are bankrupted. The free advice given by volunteers disappears. Valuable specialist debt advice skills are lost. Those CABs who do survive are put in a precarious financial position. They lose specialist debt advice workers who may be an irreplaceable in-house resource to volunteers working in the same building giving debt advice to those not qualifying under F2F. The availability of free advice in debt and other social welfare areas for those in greatest need disappears.


It is therefore important that pressure is put on the politicians such as Mark Hoban to make sure that this does not happen. He made huge mistakes in the ridiculously late announcement of the reprieve of the FIF contract in March. He does not seem to be able to see that cutting off the top of the iceberg is going to destroy all that lies underneath the water.

Butti

We are now in 2011. He has given no firm answers about what is happening in 2013 or how they have researched it and planned for it.

Given their belief in Chaos theory in everything currently run by the state (NHS, public services) (ref. Asthana, Helm & Hall, 2011, The Observer) I see no great hope for a structured transition to anything in 2013.

richard10002

As usual, The Minister is not interested in any of the issues put forward as accidents waiting to happen, even though the consequences are as clear as day.

He feigned interest, but the words used made it clear that this was the usual con that Ministers, and many MPs are renowned for.

Most, if not all, of Martin's issues/requests/suggestions were batted into the long grass, and the Financial Services Industry will remain free to fleece us in a variety of ways for a long time to come.

A crying shame!!

Dakota_2

I agree this Money laundering paper id situation is bonkers. I got into a major row with an financial institution with whom I had an online savings account. I changed my bank account because I was dissatisfied with the one I was with. This meant I changed the "nominated account" linked to the savings account. After a six weeks I got a very rude email demanding extra ID or else they would freeze my account. I was incensed so I took it all the way to the CEO. Result they backed down and donated £100 to Help for Heroes.

one2escape

Bang on about the Mortgages. As soon as interest rates go back up we will be in a world of hurt. I cant remortgage as I am now in negative equitity. When the rates rise I will begin to struggle.