Below-inflation minimum wage rise won’t lift the pressure on hard-pressed families 

31st March 2023 Arrears and Recoveries |

This weekend’s increase in the minimum wage won’t ‘lift the pressure’ on hard-pressed families, the TUC has warned. The TUC highlighted that the minimum wage will rise below inflation and far lower than soaring food prices. Analysis by the union body shows that minimum wage workers will miss out on £124 this year as a…

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Inicio AI selected to join Business Accelerator programme

31st March 2023 Company News |

Female-led start-up Inicio AI has been selected to join the NatWest business accelerator programme at the University of Warwick Innovation District hub. The programme, delivered jointly by NatWest and WMG, University of Warwick provides 1:1 coaching, access to their accelerator growth events and access to work space, as well as learning hubs at the University…

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Unsecured debt levels rise by 25%

Debt charity StepChange has released its client data for February 2023, which shows monthly client volumes continue to rise, they were 19% higher in February 2023 (16,076) compared to February 2022 (13,543). StepChange says the average (mean) unsecured debt per client has increased by 25% from £11,176 in 2021 to £13,941 in 2022.  There was also…

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Ofwat calls on water companies to make bills more affordable

30th March 2023 Consumer Collections |

Ofwat is calling on more water companies to trial innovative ways of charging customers, to make bills more affordable and help encourage customers to use water wisely. Affinity Water, which supplies drinking water across South East England, plans to be the first to implement a charging trial under new Ofwat rules. Due to go live…

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TCN makes senior appointments

30th March 2023 Appointments |

TCN, a global provider of a cloud-based call centre platform for enterprises, contact centres, BPOs and collection agencies, has welcomed a number of new appointments as it grows its operational teams in the UK and Europe. Victor Marcu, Business Manager Europe, Adrian Stefan, Director of Sales Europe and Spencer Taylor, hHad of UK & Eire…

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Industry trade body launches new consumer duty online training module

29th March 2023 Company News |

UK trade body for debt collection and purchase industry, the Credit Services Association (CSA) launched a new online training module on the consumer duty.  The new course will be developed by CSA Learning, offers users an interactive and accessible learning resource to assist with their understanding of the consumer duty and how it can be…

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Money Statistics: March 2023

Here is an overview of The Money Charity’s latest statistics for March 2023 Personal debt in the UK People in the UK owed £1,837.4 billion at the end of January 2023. The average total debt per household, including mortgages, was £65,434 and per adult was £34,546, around 105.2% of average earnings. Net mortgage lending rose by…

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Half of parents currently let their adult children live rent free

28th March 2023 Consumer Collections | #renting

New research from TopCashback has found that half of parents (52 per cent) who have children aged 18-30 living with them at home, currently let them live rent and board free. This is despite the fact that by having their adult children live with them, parents estimate it adds an extra £630 a year to…

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Household debt passes £2tn

For the first time household debt  has risen to over £2 trillion, which is almost the equivalent to the UK’s GDP. The fresh findings, from PwC’s Strategy& UK Consumer Credit Confidence report, also shows that UK consumers struggle to answer basic financial multiple choice questions. This is despite 88% of consumers reporting that they felt…

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Inflation gap widening between rich and poor

Analysis by Legal & General shows that the cost-of-living crisis has hit the poorest households hardest, deepening existing economic inequalities. The firm’s Rebuilding Britain Index shows that 95% of working UK households have experienced a real terms pay cut over the last 12-months. The report finds that the cost of living crisis has hit the…

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Four in ten use credit to cover essentials as consumer spending grows

Inflation and rising bills mean households are spending 12% more on essentials than they were a year ago, with almost four in 10 people having to use credit cards to cover these costs, research by Nationwide Building Society data shows. The monthly Spending Report analysed around 208 million debit card, credit card and Direct Debit…

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Over 50% of renters have experienced an increase

Latest ONS data has indicated that 51% of properties surveyed had seen a rent increase in the year to February. In London, this was 67%, in the South East 62% and in the South West 53%. Among those with rising rents, the average hike was 10% – up from 7% a year earlier. In London…

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Three energy suppliers make up 70% of all forced installation of prepayment meters

New Government research has found that over 94,000 prepayment meters were forcibly installed in homes under warrant last year without customer consent – on average over 7,500 meters a month. After calling on suppliers to stop forcibly installing prepayment meters, the Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps has now revealed the most overzealous suppliers, as part…

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