Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
The Financial Ombudsman (FOS) has announced the appointments of James Dipple-Johnstone to the role of Deputy Chief Ombudsman and Karl Khan as Chief Operating Officer. Dipple-Johnstone, brings significant leadership in regulatory oversight and ombudsman functions delivering high quality investigations and service improvements. He currently works as the Deputy Commissioner for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)…
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More than 300,000 people in the UK are now registered with GAMSTOP, the free, independent national self-exclusion scheme for online gambling, with a monthly average of more than 7,000 new sign ups this year. GAMSTOP has released its data for the first six months of 2022 against the backdrop of the Government’s delayed White Paper…
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The UK’s three largest debt charities have called on the energy regulator Ofgem to urgently increase protections for people with energy arrears, as rising costs continue to impact households. Citizens Advice, the Money Advice Trust and StepChange Debt Charity are warning that with a further substantial rise in the energy price cap coming in October,…
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Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has indicated that Long Covid is costing UK workers a total of £1.5 billion a month in lost earnings, adding up to £1.5 billion in aggregate across the economy. The research says that as the UK exits the most acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, attention has…
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The Government should immediately update its package of support to help households with soaring energy bills before the cost-of-living crisis grips even harder following October’s energy price cap increase, according to a new report by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee (BEIS). The report comes as people are feeling the squeeze of 40-year high…
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Consumer spending and the number of transactions made by households fell in June, according to Nationwide Building Society’s Spending Report. The latest data is the first real indication of how the cost-of-living crisis is pushing households to cut back on costs while they can. The latest spending data comes as Nationwide prepares to launch support…
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The average household was £175.80 worse off in June this year than they were in the same month in 2021, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) June’s fall in disposable income marks the eighth consecutive month of decline and leaves the average household with £200 left to spend after taxes and…
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1.7 million single parent families, representing 57% of all single parent households with children at home, struggled to pay their bills in recent weeks, reflecting the worsening conditions for millions of families across the UK, according to comparethemarket.com’s Household Financial Confidence Tracker. The research found that four in ten (43%) two parent households with children also found…
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Male victims of financial abuse in Scotland will finally be able to take back some control over their finances without placing themselves at further risk of abuse from partners with the help of a new partnership between the Vulnerability Registration Service (VRS) and Abused Men in Scotland (AMIS), Scotland’s charity helpline for male domestic abuse. Abused…
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The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said six banks have broken rules about keeping customers informed about changes to interest rates for overdrafts. Lloyds, NatWest, HSBC, Barclays, Metro Bank and Bank of Ireland all breached regulations, the regulator said. The high street banks broke the rules imposed by the CMA under the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017. As a result…
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As the cost of living squeeze continues to be a growing concern, research from Canada Life has revealed the impact this will have on family members’ ability to financially support their relatives, both now and in the future. Among those who already financially support their relatives, or could do so, nearly half (48%) say the next…
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8.2 million households, one in three in the UK, are expected to be in fuel poverty following October’s price cap increase, National Energy Action has warned. Today fuel poverty charity National Energy Action (NEA) releases worrying new figures amid the cost-of-living crisis. Energy experts Cornwall Insight has predicted that when the price cap rises in…
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Clients taking advantage of Breathing Space in its first year have experienced markedly improved outcomes compared to those who did not, according to a new survey of by debt charity StepChange. The charity found that clients who took Breathing Space were over three times more likely to go through full debt advice and enter into…
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