Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Three-quarters of people will struggle to pay off their debt after lockdown according to new research bey free debt advice company, PayPlan. The company conducted a survey to find out how people in debt have been affected during the Coronavirus outbreak. The FCA have extended payment holidays for mortgages and other debts, and although the…
Read more
The UK’s three largest debt charities – Citizens Advice, Money Advice Trust and Stepchange – have today written to the Local Government Minister to call for urgent action on council tax. The charities are urging the government to implement simple measures that could protect millions of people from the prospect of spiralling council tax debt Following legislation…
Read more
A new business coalition that aims to provide emergency COVID-19 support for the digitally and financially excluded has launched. Good Things Foundation, The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The APLE Collective, Clean Slate Training & Employment CIC and Mastercard have formed a coalition of partners to offer immediate support to digitally and financially excluded people in the UK,…
Read more
Families falling out of work during the coronavirus pandemic crisis are on average £1,600 worse off in benefits than they would have done without a decade of austerity according to new analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). The IFS says benefits for out-of-work households are worth 10% less than in 2011. The analysis…
Read more
The Ministry of Justice has announced that it will allow enforcement visits to recommence from 24th August 2020. Responding to the announcement, debt charity StepChange says that it believes this is unsafe, and deeply troubling when compared with the more careful approaches being taken in other sectors where regulators are closely overseeing the practices of…
Read more
Energy regulator Ofgem has given the green light for collections on unpaid bills can resumer but has urged suppliers to avoid aggressive collection tactics. Ofgem has told energy suppliers it is not in anyone’s interests for an open-ended debt collection delay. In an open letter, the regulator set out it’s updated approach to regulating domestic…
Read more
Councils in deprived and affluent areas face serious financial risks from the COVID-19 crisis as incomes fall and costs grow. A new report from IFS researchers and funded by UK Research and Innovation says that the government has provided an additional £3.2 billion of general-purpose funding to English councils to help support them through the…
Read more
The number of Universal Credit claims made by the over 50s more than doubled in May compared with March this year, rising from 304,000 to nearly 660,000 in just two months, with further analysis showing that the age bracket do not have enough money to pay for basic necessities, a study of labour market statistics has…
Read more
Lower-income households are twice as likely as high-income households to have increased their use of consumer credit during the crisis, and are 50 per cent more likely to be saving less than usual, leaving them particularly exposed to the ongoing economic crisis, according to a major new Resolution Foundation report. The Rainy Days, report published…
Read more
More than 1.9 million mortgage payment deferrals have been offered to customers impacted by Covid-19 in the three months since the support was launched according to new figures from UK Finance which means that one in six mortgages in the UK are now subject to a payment deferral. UK Finance says that this means that…
Read more
The ongoing disruption to the school year is set to have a dramatic impact on household finances, with a third (33%) of families with children at home admitting that they will experience a negative impact on their finances if schools don’t open in the near future according to Comparethemarket.com research. Family anxiety around employment and…
Read more
Severe economic disruption caused by COVID-19 will see a short-term hit for the UK mortgage market, but payments holidays should keep it afloat and see growth from 2021, according data and analytics company GlobalData. GlobalData’s post-COVID-19 amended forecasts expect a decline of 1.3% in mortgage loans in 2020, down from 2.6% previously. Its overall compound…
Read more
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced proposals to extend the payment freeze of consumer credit products for people whose finances have been negatively impacted by Covid-19. The proposals outline the support firms would be expected to provide credit card and other revolving credit (store card and catalogue credit) and personal loan customers coming to…
Read more