Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Plans to protect people from unresolved debts which can damage credit ratings without them knowing have been outlined by the Government. It has launched a consultation on how County Court Judgments (CCJs) are issued after concerns were raised that some rogue companies were deliberately sending claims to consumers using incorrect addresses. Credit ratings can be…
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The UK Government has announced that it has completed its first sale of the English student loan book. The sale raised £1.7 billion with a face value of £3.54 billion The sale included loans issued by English Local Authorities under the previous (pre-2012) system, specifically those that entered repayment between 2002 and 2006. The loan…
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The winners of the inaugural 2017 Credit & Collections Technology Awards have been revealed. There were sixteen winners (three of which were partnership wins) from the sixteen Awards categories which are covered by four main headings of Credit, Collections, Credit & Collections services and Innovation. The Credit & Collections Technology Awards were launched in the Summer and…
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Money advice experts are calling for a change in the law to protect vulnerable people being locked up for council tax debts. Free debt advice service PayPlan and the Institute of Money Advisers (IMA) have joined forces to campaign for an end to the ‘legal anomaly’ that gives courts the power to imprison householders for…
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Hammersmith & Fulham Council (H&F Council) have announced that we will no longer use bailiffs to collect council tax debt from 1st April 2018. Further to the council’s announcement that it is working 1st Credit, earlier in the year, on a new, ethical-focused debt collection practice. The brief for the new project is to save…
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Recognising the recent concerns raised both in Parliament and by third sector organisations about universal credit, the Government have announced that they in the Autumn Budget that they will: Offer an interest-free advance of up to a month’s worth of universal credit within five days for those who need it and who have an underlying…
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South Lanarkshire Council has written off more than £6 million in unpaid revenue. Councillors at the local authority rubberstamped the move at a finance committee last week. Among that amount is over £4.5m in unpaid non-domestic rates. The sums relate to non-payment of rates from 2014 until this year. Debts totaling just over £2.541m from…
Read moreFife Council wrote off more than £2million in unpaid council tax last year. Latest figures show that Scotland’s third-largest local authority had written off £2,106,525 during 2016/17, up from £1,879,113 in 2015/16. Les Robertson, head of revenue and commercial services at Fife Council, said: “In Fife we have seen year-on-year improvements in the overall collection…
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The use of bailiffs to collect debts owed to local authorities in England and Wales has jumped by 14 percent in two years, according to new research by the Money Advice Trust. More than 2.3 million debts were passed to bailiffs by local authorities in 2016/17 according to the research, based on Freedom of Information…
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Here is an overview of The Money Charity’s latest statistics for October 2017: Personal debt in the UK People in the UK owed £1.554 trillion at the end of August 2017. This is up from £1.5 trillion at the end of July 2016 – an extra £1029.82 per UK adult. Per adult in the UK that’s an average debt…
Read moreLatest figures released by East Dunbartonshire Council suggest problems with the Universal Credit implementation as they indicate that 92% of its tenants receiving the new benefit have fallen behind with their rent payments. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) rolled out Universal Credit in East Dunbartonshire in December 2015. Since then, as The Kirkintilloch…
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The Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) has announced its line for its 30th annual Conference. The conference provides money advisers, creditors, and stakeholders with an opportunity to network and debate current and future issues in the spirit of ‘working together to improve the lives of people in debt’. The 2017 conference, sponsored by Cabot Credit…
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New Government figures show that less than half of eligible English councils have begun allocating their share of the £300 million business rates hardship fund launched six months ago. Sixteen English councils have not implemented any of the three business rates relief measures announced by the Chancellor at the Spring Budget. The area worst affected…
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