Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Research by TSB has found that among the 31 per cent of people who have acted on financial advice on social media platforms, over half (55%) lost money as a result. The data found that over two-fifths (42%) of 16-24-year-olds reported having used social media to access financial advice in the past 12 months, followed by…
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Ofgem has ordered Octopus Energy to pay £1.5 million in refunds and compensation, after an investigation found thousands of errors on prepayment meter bills. An investigation by the energy regulator, has found that ver 34,000 prepayment meter customer accounts with Octopus between 2016 and October 2023 did not receive final bills within six weeks, as…
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The Government has published the first major update on its Personal Insolvency Framework Review since August 2023, when it released a summary of responses to the 2022 Call for Evidence. Responding to the update, Nicky Fisher, R3 Personal Insolvency Committee Chair, said “R3 welcomes the Insolvency Service’s continued commitment to reforming the UK’s personal insolvency…
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Cornwall Insight has forecasted that the energy price cap will fall to £1,698 a year for a typical dual fuel consumer in October. Thi is £22 lower than the July 2025 cap of £1,720 and a slight decrease on the prediction released in May. Although a drop of just 1%, the forecast offers some relief…
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Rising energy prices over the last two decades have squeezed incomes for low-and-middle income families and contributed to a ‘comfort crunch’ as more of their budgets are spent on household essentials, according to new Resolution Foundation research. The report notes that non-housing essentials – food and drink, utility bills, clothing and footwear, childcare, and road,…
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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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