Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
New research from Direct Line Life Insurance reveals consumers are hiding over £69bn of debt from their partners. People are completely in the dark over their loved ones’ finances, with 8.3 million (16 per cent) of consumers having debts their partner knows nothing about. The average debt hidden from a partner in the UK is £8,293,…
Read more
Latest research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JFR) has revealed that low-income families need a third more disposable income than a decade ago to make ends meet and are facing bigger barriers to meet rising costs – despite tightening their belts and shopping around online for better deals and tariffs. The rising cost of transport,…
Read more
Over recent years there has been a tendency for the general public to lament the decline in personal interaction within the consumer credit industry that has been afforded by technological advances. People have bemoaned branch closures, increased automation, call centres and what has been seen as a ‘computer says no’ approach to affordability assessments and…
Read more
The switch to Universal Credit is hitting parents with upfront childcare bills that have reached £1,000, new analysis from Save the Children has revealed. In a new report, the charity has warned that this will force families into ‘childcare debt’ or block them from going back to work unless the government makes urgent changes. The report…
Read more
Credit cards are getting more expensive according to new data released by Moneyfacts which revealed that credit card borrowing is rising by around £3 billion year-on-year and £318 million of debt on plastic was written off in the first quarter of 2018. The report says that it is more likely than not that interest rates…
Read more
In 2016–17, 27% of 25-54-year-olds (6.9 million people) reported having a longstanding illness, of which 18% (1.3 million) reported having a longstanding mental health problem. The number with a longstanding mental health problem rose by 250,000 since 2013–14. These are among the key findings from IFS’s annual report on Living Standards, Poverty and Inequality…
Read more
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published the latest analysis from its Financial Lives survey. The report found that unsecured debts in rural areas are generally lower with the average amount owed by a town or city resident over a £1,000 more (£3,600) compared with someone in a rural area (£2,510). In rural areas, where…
Read more
New research from StepChange Debt Charity has found that one in five its clients had an additional vulnerability (such as illness), on top of their problem debt. New analysis from the charity now shows that they tend to be in a notably worse financial position than other clients. This underpins the importance of the financial…
Read more
National Audit Office’s (NAO) report into Universal Credit suggests that the government’s flagship benefits system has been too slow to roll out, causes hardship, and is not delivering value for money. The NAO says the £1.9bn Universal Credit system could end up costing more to administer than the benefits system it is replacing. Some claimants waited…
Read more
Here is an overview of The Money Charity’s latest statistics for June 2018: Personal debt in the UK People in the UK owed £1.539 trillion at the end of April 2018. This is up from £1.535 trillion at the end of April 2017– an extra £949.30 per UK adult. Per adult in the UK that’s an average debt of…
Read moreThree directors of a debt management company have been banned from running companies for 29 years. Robert Solloway, Mark Harrison and Richard Mott, were all directors of RMR Financial Services Limited, which traded as Compass Debt Counsellors, a debt management company. Robert Solloway served as a director throughout, while Mark Harrison and Richard Mott were…
Read moreThe Welsh Government has launched a plan to end prison sentences for non-payment of council tax. Regulations will be brought forward in early 2019 to prevent any more people being jailed for council tax debt in Wales, pending the outcome of a 12-week consultation. Unlike other forms of civil debt, courts have the power to…
Read more
The Credit Services Association (CSA), the voice of the UK debt collection and debt purchase sectors, has confirmed the full programme for this year’s UK Credit and Collections Conference (UKCCC), including a keynote address by Romana Pearson, Head of Consumer Credit at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The conference is divided into morning and afternoon…
Read more