Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Latest figures published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government show that council tax arrears have increased by over £600 million, with total debt reaching £6.6 billion, an increase of over 80 per cent since before the pandemic. The data reveals 400,000 more households fell into council tax arrears between 2022 and 2024, with 1.8…
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Moving away from the Ofgem fixed price cap and towards a flexible system of energy pricing – where costs vary according to region and time of day – could reduce the price of electricity by 4p/kWh by 2040, offering households savings of £200 a year, on average according to Resolution Foundation research. The research notes…
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The Government has announced changes to the administration of council tax with an aim to modernise the billing process to make it fairer, simpler and more supportive. To help vulnerable families manage bills, the Government intends to move billing to 12 monthly payments by default, rather than the current 10 monthly, this will spread the…
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The Government has announced that the Warm Home Discount will be expanded, meaning 6 million households will receive £150 off their energy bills this winter. The Government says that this major expansion of support for working families is the latest in a raft of cost of living support made possible because the government has stabilised…
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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced new welfare legislation which aims to ensure there are robust protections in place to support the most vulnerable and severely disabled. The Government says. that nearly 4 million households are set to benefit from the uprating of the Universal Credit standard rate, the largest, permanent real-terms…
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New research has found that the majority of the public opposes the welfare changes announced by the Government this year. Twice as many people feel the Government’s changes were the ‘wrong choice’ (54%) than the ‘right choice’ (26%). Over half (53%) of 2024 Labour voters felt that the Government had made the wrong choice, but…
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Energy company Utilita will pay around £277,000 in compensation after failing to pay its Warm Home Discount payments on time, following a review by Ofgem. The regulator found that, in the scheme year covering 2023-2024, Utilita – which supplies 800,000 customers – failed to pass on the mandatory discount to more than 4,000 customers within…
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Chancellor Rachel Reeves has delivered her Spending Review, setting out budgets for government departments. Responding to the Spending Review, Dame Clare Moriarty, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said “The elephant in the room today has been the looming cuts to support for disabled people, which threaten to increase poverty and will inevitably strain the very health…
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The Government has announced in a Written Ministerial Statement that the Ministry of Justice will be consulting on how to implement regulation of the enforcement sector. The Government says the review will aim to increase protections for those facing debt enforcement action and raise fees recoverable by bailiff firms. Setting out plans to overhaul to…
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The Government has announced that more than three-quarters of pensioners will receive the winter fuel payment this year. The change wil mean that around nine million pensioners with an income of, or below, £35,000 a year receiving the benefit. The threshold is well above the income level of pensioners in poverty and is broadly in…
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New research by abrdn Financial Fairness Trust has found that over a third of households (34%) are cutting their use of water instead, with one-in-five (19%) reducing the number of showers or baths they take. The data showed that 24% report their energy bills have increased ‘a lot’ and 29% say their water bills have risen…
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The Civil Enforcement Association (CIVEA) has identified a 300% increase in reports of people impersonating enforcement agents and using aggressive tactics to scare victims into paying fictitious debts. CIVEA was notified of 26 ‘fake bailiff’ reports in the first quarter of the year (January – March 2025), almost equal to the amount received during the…
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The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is set to cut the interest firms must pay on compensation payouts. Currently, firms must pay 8% interest on compensation awards. The study will look at cutting the interest rate applied to compensation handed down against firms that have lost cases to customers. This is the first step in FOS’s…
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