UK banks have agreed to give mortgage holders a 12-month grace period before their homes are repossessed should they fall behind with their repayments. Homeowners will also be able to switch to interest-only for six months or temporarily lengthen mortgage terms for the same period without affecting credit ratings in new measures announced by Jeremy…
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The Money Advice Trust, the charity that runs National Debtline and Business Debtline, has responded to figures which show that council tax arrears for households in England have reached £5.5 billion by calling for urgent reform of council tax collection rules. Current rules mean that households can be liable for their full annual bill after…
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New polling from StepChange Debt Charity has revealed 45% of mortgage holders, equivalent to 6.9m UK adults, have found it difficult to keep up with bills and credit commitments in the last few months. The new figures, which come as the Bank of England is expected to again raise interest rates today, show that two…
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5.7 million low-income households are having to cut down or skip meals because they don’t have enough money for food, while the number going without items such as food, heating or basic toiletries (63%) has remained around 7 million for more than a year according to latest analysis by Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). The research…
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Latest quarterly figures from the Insolvency Service for England & Wales have indicated that personal insolvency numbers increase by 5% in May 2023 when compared with May 2022. The personal insolvency figures also increased by 10.7% in May 2023 to a total of 9,962 compared to April’s total of 9,002, and decreased by 5.1% compared…
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New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) have shown that second charge mortgage new business volumes fell by 22% in April 2023 Commenting on the latest new business figures for the second charge mortgage market, Fiona Hoyle, Director of Consumer & Mortgage Finance and Inclusion at the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA),…
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An estimated 5.5 million people (one in ten adults) were behind on their energy bills in April, an increase of 2.1 million compared to March 2022 according to new research from the Money Advice Trust, the charity that runs National Debtline and Business Debtline. The charity’s Under Pressure research, based on an Opinium survey…
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New research by TotallyMoney has predicted the impact of the Bank of England’s hiking interest rates by a further 0.25% (to 4.75%) on borrowers with a variable rate mortgage head of the next MPC announcement on the 22nd of June. The research found that for the average UK property costing £270,708 with a 75% LTV,…
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Cost of living pressures have affected UK consumers more than their European counterparts, according to the latest EY UK Future Consumer Index. The twelfth edition of EY’s survey of 1,000 UK consumers found that 62% of UK consumers say they are ‘extremely concerned’ by the cost-of-living squeeze, compared with 50% in the rest of Europe.…
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Households have faced more than a year of high inflation and rising interest rates and the impact of both is becoming more apparent according to new UK Finance data. The research found that squeezed budgets and higher financing costs are bearing down more heavily on affordability for prospective house buyers. The same pressures are, as…
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Barratt Smith and Brown have announced they have been appointed by the FRP Advisory as the debt recovery partner for Together Energy’s administration. Together Energy will be the 22 energy administrations for which Barratt Smith and Brown have been appointed to manage the recoveries. Barratt Smith and Brown says its extensive experience in the energy…
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Latest research from Hargreaves Lansdown has found that one in five say their monthly mortgage payments have already risen more than £200 in the past 18 months. Two in five people with a mortgage say their payments haven’t gone up since interest rates started rising – because so many are on fixed rate deals with…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced a ban on referral fees for debt packager firms. The ban applies to all new debt packager firms and will come into play for existing firms in October 2023, and follows a review that found evidence of debt packagers appearing to manipulate customers’ details so that they meet…
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