Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Debt advice specialist, Money Wellness has announced that it is set to appoint more than one hundred new professional advisers to provide additional capacity, enabling it to deliver free debt advice and ongoing support services following its commission earlier this month by the Money & Pensions Service (MaPS).
The advisers will be employed on a flexible working basis allowing people to work from Money Wellness’ Manchester offices, or nationally from home, which has proven to be hugely successful post-Covid. The appointments provide the capacity to enable Money Wellness to deliver 24-hour, seven day a week support to people struggling with their finances via the phone, webchat or online, and will help achieve its pledge to deliver free debt advice and ongoing support services to more than million people over the next three years.
The recruitment drive follows Money Wellness commissioning by MaPS as one of only three organisations to deliver free debt advice nationally and one of only two appointed to administer debt relief orders (DROs), which commenced at the start of February 2023.
The appointments come at a time when MaPS’ debt relief survey published in January 2023 revealed 22% of the UK adult population are deemed as ‘at risk’ of falling into problem debt, an increase of 1.2 million people compared with its last study in 2021. The report also found 18% of people needed access to debt advice, equating to around 9.3million people, a rise of 800,000 on the same period.
Ian Somerset, Chief Executive of Money Wellness said “Soaring inflation, interest rates and high energy prices have all affected families across the length and breadth of the country. These are difficult times for many. We’re finding the ‘cost of living crisis’ is being cited over and over each day as the reason for reaching out for free debt help. And this trend is one that will continue to grow over the course of this year and well into 2024 as the economy steadies itself.”
“We are especially proud of our people who are our greatest asset, their skills, experience, care, and attention help us to make sure our customers are at the heart of everything we do. They are there to support our customers every step of their way through their journey ensuring they are clear about all the options available to them, whilst also helping with value-added services such as maximising benefit entitlement and access to grants. Ultimately our aim is to help improve every customer’s financial wellbeing and help them get back on track, which makes a genuine and tangible difference, helping them to live more and stress less.”
“The additional appointments will ensure we have the capacity and the time to expand on the exceptional support we already offer to anyone struggling with problem debt. We see the service we offer not as a short-term solution, but a long-standing relationship where we are there every step of the way.”
