On 11 April the Harrington Brooks/One Advice group of companies were put into administration. They are a major commercial provider of debt solutions and the same day it was announced that their clients were being transferred to two Think Money brands: their Debt Management Plan (DMP) clients have been transferred to Gregory Pennington Ltd; their Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) … [Read more...]
Debt news – April 15
My picks of last week's news are Harrington Brooks being sold to Gregory Pennington in a pre-pack administration and New debt guidelines [SFS] could force unnecessary personal insolvencies. Tweet of the week This week's #StatOfTheWeek highlights an alarming figure from this year's Homelessness Monitor: 78,000 households - equivalent to a city the size of Wolverhampton - were placed in … [Read more...]
Should paying your rent help you get a mortgage?
It sounds like common sense to say that if you have paid £900 rent a month for a couple of years then you can obviously afford a mortgage costing £900 a month. And if you live in London or the south-east, you will probably add that rents are so high you can't afford to save much for a deposit, so you need your good rental payment record to be taken into account in a mortgage application. This … [Read more...]
Debt news – April 8
My pick of last week's news is the Sun's undercover video of a Morse's Club agent completing an income and expenditure for an affordability assessment. Tweet of the week In 1977, it seems, my mum got badly overdrawn and tried to get the bank off her neck by writing a poem. More astonishingly yet, it appears the bank... um... wrote one back. Well played, Midland. Well played mum. … [Read more...]
SMI is now only given as a loan (LMI) – should you agree to this?
Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) helps people with the cost of their mortgage if they aren't working. It has been paid as a benefit since 1948, but on 6 April 2018 this changed and now it will only be given as a loan that is secured on your house. You may see LMI (loans for Morgage Interest) used as the new name for this, but the government is continuing to use the term SMI. This will … [Read more...]
SMI – what happens if you haven’t agreed to take the loan?
Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) used to be paid as a benefit to people who weren't working - this ended on 5 April 2018. From 6 April someone newly applying can only get help with their mortgage costs through a secured loan instead. This is sometimes referred to as Loan for Mortgage Interest (LMI), but the old name SMI is also used. If you have been getting SMI before April, there are now … [Read more...]
Debt news – April 1
A very varied week. My pick for two items you may not have seen is Aberdeen suing Provident and Examples from the US: how credit unions can serve communities in an age of insecurity. Tweet of the week As the new financial year begins, so does the third year of the four-year freeze on benefits. The cost of essentials is rising, and support for families isn't keeping up. … [Read more...]
Free access to your information – from 25th May!
You have the right to get a copy of the information that an organisation holds about you. But at the moment, under the Data Protection Act, this usually costs £10. On 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force and this £10 charge will end. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which regulates this area, tells organisations that after 25 May they: must … [Read more...]
Debt news – March 25
An incredibly busy week! Major reports, new campaigns... Tweet of the week Credit is a necessary & useful thing for many of us. But some forms are worse for you than others, as revealed by our #LifeOnDebtRow report. That's why the work of the @EHCCAlliance to build the capacity & awareness of fairer alternatives is so important https://t.co/zssVHtwHcH … [Read more...]
SMI watch – 25 March – no real progress in last week
On 23 March the DWP published the latest statistics on the switch from paying Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) as a benefit to giving it as a secured loan showing: how many people getting SMI have been contacted by letter and phone ; what the people who have been successfully contacted are choosing to do - take the loan, decline the loan or are currently undecided. No real progress … [Read more...]
Barclays to refund some customers in arrears
This week Barclays has quietly started a major refund program to some customers with overdrafts, loans or credit cards who have been in financial difficulty since 2013. This is described on the bank's home page - Arrears assistance review - We’re making things right. It says: After a careful review, we found that from October 2013, we didn’t always provide the service we should have to some … [Read more...]
PerfectHome refunds £2million for imperfect lending
PerfectHome announced on 21 March that they would be refunding just over two million pounds to 37,000 customers.These payments will be made automatically over the next six months. This article looks at how much you may receive and what to do if you think you should get a refund but you aren't on PerfectHome's list. PerfectHome sells furniture, white goods and tech/entertainment items to low … [Read more...]
DWP minister says SMI loan ‘can be backdated’
Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) is changing on 6 April 2018 from being paid as a welfare benefit to being given as a secured loan. Kit Malthouse, a DWP Minister, told Radio 4's Moneybox on 17 March that he was "relatively confident we will be in a good position when it [6 April] comes." He stated that people who did not apply for the new loan by then will be able to have it … [Read more...]
Debt news – March 18
A bumper week this week - too many good articles to pick from, so grab a coffee and read a couple you haven't heard about! Graph of the week Just before the financial crisis, two-in-three (66%) first time buyers in London bought properties worth less than £250k. A decade on (a decade of economic turmoil and very weak income growth) that proportion has fallen to just one-in-ten (9%) … [Read more...]
DWP chaos? Only 10,000 have agreed to new SMI loan
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)'s Economic and Fiscal Outlook paper, published today with the Chancellor's Spring Statement, has this statement: DWP has told us that all current claimants have been contacted about the intention to convert their [Support for Mortgage Interest] award into a loan and of those that have responded, over half have indicated they are not interested while less … [Read more...]
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