Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Mortgage repayments jumped by 20% to a record £38 billion in the first half of the year compared to 12 months ago, according to latest Equity Release Council statistics. Debt payments were fuelled by regular repayments and record overpayments, new borrowing ahead of the stamp duty deadline and fewer mortgage payment holidays, as customers began…
Read moreThe Government must do more to protect low-and-middle-income households from rising energy bills, with families on Universal Credit (UC) four times as likely as the wider population to be on pre-payment meters and therefore face higher energy bill hikes in October, new Resolution Foundation research had found. The Foundation notes that 4.4 million households on…
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The winding-up of the furlough scheme on 1st October threatens to add further pressure to household finances atop the triple threat of inflation, rising energy costs and covid uncertainty according to Interactive Investor. Consumers could also face an additional challenge of reining in spending which has escalated since lockdown. In a poll of 801 interactive…
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A new report is urging the Government to take the lead in supporting consumers to recover financially from the pandemic. Innovation Foundation Nesta has commissioned Guaranteeing a Rapid Recovery – a report from the Social Market Foundation (SMF) which sets a series of recommendations for government and innovators to support consumers as they recover from the pandemic. The research…
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Credit Connect’s hosted its third Online Collections Technology Think Tank 2.1 last week which saw the discussions focused upon collections strategy as we prepare to start to feel the impact of the pandemic and Brexit. Fourteen collections professionals from a variety of industry sectors joined the discussion on business transformation, customer engagement, affordability, vulnerability and…
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New research by Hodge Bank has seen Retirement Interest Only (RIO) mortgage applications increase by more than a third. The bank has seen a 36% increase in the number of RIO mortgage applications in 2021, compared with last year. The total value of RIO mortgages with Hodge has also increased by 31%, although the average…
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Personal insolvencies in England & Wales increased by 0.2% to 9,106 in August 2021 compared to July’s figure of 9,090, and were 42.7 % higher than August 2020’s figure of 6,381 according latest Insolvency Services figures. There were, 614 bankruptcies were registered, which was 22% lower than August 2020 and 54% lower than August 2019.…
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Research by the nationwide buy-to-let specialist, Sequre Property Investment, has revealed that the tide of pandemic rental arrears woes that have impacted one in five landlords could be starting to turn, as the majority are now seeing a reduction in the level of late rental income owed to them. The survey of nearly 4,000 UK…
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New research by GCA Altium has indicated that the UK debt market hit record heights in the first half of 2021. The research showed that a record number of refinancings and recapitalisations were completed in the first half of 2021 in the UK. Data provided by the firm’s MidCapMonitor identified that over the course of…
Read moreDebt charity StepChange has warned that a £360 million wall of rent debt built up during the pandemic combined with cuts to Universal Credit threatens to leave hundreds of thousands of tenants facing long-term housing insecurity and problem debt. Since March 2020, StepChange’s research has revealed a tale of two pandemics, with renters one of…
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The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked a surge in people over 50 seeking professional financial advice, according to new research from Scottish Widows. Almost half (46%) of Independent Financial Advisors (IFAs) in the UK have reported an increase in the number of over 50s reaching out to them for help over the last 18 months. Some…
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Almost a third of families with children at home (32%) are struggling to pay down debt which has accrued since the first UK lockdown began in March 2020, compared to just 16% of households without children, according to the latest Household Financial Confidence Tracker from comparethemarket.com. Excluding mortgage repayments, UK households say that their debt…
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Latest Bank of England (BOE) figures have indicated that the value of gross mortgage advances in 2021 Q2 was £89 billion, over double the amount seen in 2020 Q2, and the highest level since 2007. The value of new mortgage commitments (lending agreed to be advanced in the coming months) was almost 2.5 times greater…
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