Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Ofgem has today published its annual report on the Warm Home Discount (WHD) showing that vulnerable customers benefited from over £348m of support from suppliers last winter. The WHD is a government scheme administered by Ofgem requiring larger and medium-sized suppliers to provide support to customers living in fuel poverty. Last winter, all 19 obligated…
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The Government has announced that the furlough scheme will been extended until the end of April 2021, meaning that the Government will continue to contribute 80% towards wages. The Government says that it has made the move to ensure firms can access the support they need through continuing economic disruption. So far, the Coronavirus Job…
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Ofwat and Water UK have today published a report that explores the potential impact Covid- 19 might have on the water sector in England and Wales. The report was prepared by Frontier Economics supported by Atkins. Covid-19 is having a significant impact on all aspects of the UK economy and will continue to do so…
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Water retailers must keep doing everything in their power to help struggling businesses impacted by Covid-19 pandemic get back on their feet without the threat of debt recovery action according to the Consumer Council for Water (CCW). The CCW says that it has been helping retailers resolve a rise in billing disputes over the summer…
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Scottish personal insolvencies in November 2020 fell by almost a third when compared with November 2019 numbers. The figures released by Accountant in Bankruptcy (AIB), Scotland’s Insolvency Service which administers company liquidations and receiverships in Scotland showed that in November 2020 that there were 8,417 personal insolvencies in the year to the end of November…
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New research from Citizens Advice has shown that 2.1million households are behind on their energy bills, 600,000 more than in February. The charity’s research also reveals a quarter of all energy customers, up to seven million households, worry they won’t be able to pay their bill this winter. According to data, the charity has obtained…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Barclays Bank £26 million for failures in its treatment of more than 1.5m retail and small business customers in financial difficulties who fell behind on credit card and loan payments between April 2014 and December 2018. Barclays has pro-actively redressed these customers, paying over £273 million to at least…
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Three in 10 car (32%) of car dealers are unaware of the new FCA rules being implemented in 2021, according to a survey from Close Brothers Motor Finance. The study, which asked dealers how aware they are of the forthcoming changes, found that while two in three (69%) have heard of the new rules, just…
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The Civil Court Users Association (CCUA), whose members issue around 85% of Civil Money Claims in the Courts in England & Wales has said that it is appalled at the latest government consultation to align online civil money claims fees with ‘paper application’ fees, on the basis that it is a further extension of an…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has appointed Sheldon Mills as the new Executive Director, Consumers and Competition, and Siobhán Sheridan as Chief People Officer. The Executive Director, Consumers and Competition post was created last month when it was announced that the FCA’s two existing Supervision divisions would be brought together and merged with the policy…
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Which? is calling for Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) firms like Klarna and Clearpay to be fully regulated to provide greater protection for consumers, as new research from the consumer champion finds concerning industry practices encourage people to spend more than they planned to. The consumer champion’s findings show that these slickly designed, easy-to-access credit…
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The Lending Standards Board (LSB) has published a summary report evaluating firms’ implementation of provision SF1(2) – Effective Warnings of the Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) Code for Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams today. The voluntary code, launched in May 2019, sets out consumer protection standards to detect, prevent and respond to APP scams and provides…
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UK Finance has extended the Authorised Push Payment (APP) C for a further six months until 30th June next year. A group of seven signatories has agreed to extend the code which compensates eligible victims of APP scams where the customer, sending and recipient banks have met the standards expected of them . The Code,…
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