In January the Insolvency Service published data showing how the volumes of Debt Relief Orders (DROs) done by advice agencies changed in 2023, see Monthly IS statistics Jan-Dec 23, Table 3.2.
In February 2023, the two new MaPS-funded DRO hubs began operating. These are run by Citizens Advice and Money Wellness (called Benesse Advice in the IS statistics, also known to debt advisers as Gregory Pennington.)
At the time there was a lot of uncertainty in the debt advice community about how well the hubs would work. Now we can see some details about what happened during 2023 and compare it to 2022.
This article is written for debt advisers.
If you have debt problems and want to know if a DRO could help you, this article isn’t relevant – it is about the back office systems that debt advisers use.
Instead, read What is a DRO? and then talk to a debt adviser as that article suggests.
Contents
What we can see from the IS statistics
DROs increased in 2023
DROs increased by 31% in 2023 compared to 2022 and varied considerably from month to month.
The new DRO hubs weren’t the only change in 2023 that may have affected the DRO numbers. Here are some other potential factors:
- the aftermath of Covid, furlough and lockdowns – it can often take several years for people to realise they have no alternative to insolvency;
- cost of living increases – for many people with little financial resilience, sharp increases in energy bills, food, petrol and rent in 2022 and 2023 created an immediate crisis;
- less mis-selling of IVAs – IVA volumes dropped sharply compared to 2022, with a 27% decrease. Two factors that may have affected this were less funding for IVA firms because of the insolvency of two large IVA firms in 2022 and the FCA’s introduction of a ban on debt packagers. Lower IVA numbers may have meant less mis-selling to people who should have had a DRO, and this may have increased DRO numbers.
These issues may have increased DRO numbers, but the changes in who set up the DROs are more likely to have been the result of the introduction of the DRO hubs.
The three major providers of DROs changed in 2023
The largest provider of DROs in 2022 was StepChange. After MaPS took the decision not to fund them in 2023, Stepchange decided it could no longer afford to retain its large team of DRO experts and to refer to other providers instead.
It seems that from the start of 2023, StepChange was only completing the DRO applications that were already in progress for its clients. If the StepChange robo -advice tool decides someone is suitable for a DRO, they are now told about the hubs, with Money Wellness being listed first and Citizens Advice second.
The following graph shows the dramatic shift in DRO numbers for StepChange, Citizens Advice and Money Wellness, with all the other smaller providers grouped into “the rest”: 
And here is the changing market share through the year:
DRO statistics by half-year
A good way to see what is happening in the statistics is to look at the totals for each half year, as these smooth out the fluctuations from month to month.
Here are the DRO numbers for 2022 and 2023 for all providers (except three very tiny ones that averaged less than 5 a month in 2023):
| H1 22 | H2 22 | H1 23 | H2 23 | |
| Money Wellness | 1,336 | 1,011 | 5,031 | 9,075 |
| Citizens Advice | 3,968 | 3,619 | 3,669 | 5,220 |
| StepChange | 4,000 | 3,953 | 2,594 | 1 |
| CMA | 661 | 718 | 806 | 802 |
| IMA | 743 | 777 | 747 | 783 |
| CAP | 520 | 609 | 787 | 712 |
| AdviceUK | 501 | 439 | 445 | 470 |
| Payplan | 552 | 411 | 180 | 60 |
| National DebtLine | 168 | 142 | 109 | 131 |
| Total | 12,449 | 11,679 | 14,368 | 17,254 |
And here are their market shares:
| H1 22 | H2 22 | H1 23 | H2 23 | |
| Money Wellness | 11% | 9% | 35% | 53% |
| Citizens Advice | 32% | 31% | 26% | 30% |
| StepChange | 32% | 34% | 18% | 0% |
| CMA | 5% | 6% | 6% | 5% |
| IMA | 6% | 7% | 5% | 5% |
| CAP | 4% | 5% | 5% | 4% |
| AdviceUK | 4% | 4% | 3% | 3% |
| Payplan | 4% | 4% | 1% | 0% |
| National DebtLine | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% |
Some points from those tables:
- in the first half of 2022, the top three providers set up 75% of the DROs. By the second half of 2023, the top two providers set up 83% of DROs.
- Citizens Advice’s market share has fallen slightly;
- Stepchange isn’t the only competent authority to give up on doing its own DROs – Payplan’s numbers are now down to tiny levels;
- the other smaller competent authorities have changed little.
Are the DRO hubs going well?
The increased concentration of the market, with just two providers doing 83% of DROs is what you would expect from the MaPS decision to only fund two providers.
But by itself that says nothing about whether this decision by MaPS has worked out well for the people who would benefit from a DRO.
The IS statistics can’t help here.
Other numbers would be useful
Some other numbers would help assess this. The individual advice agencies may know some of these and MaPS may too.
It would be helpful to have the numbers for the Citizens Advice competent authority split out into those that go through the Hub and those that are done locally. Without this information, a big part of the picture of the growth of the hubs is missing;
More generally it would be interesting to see the sources of the DROs being set up by both the hubs. If the Money Wellness hub is doing significant business from IVA firms, that is a new demographic not previously being reached. At the moment this isn’t clear – almost all of MW’s growth may be from business previously being done by StepChange, Payplan etc
How well are the referral routes working?
This isn’t clear.
What is the “drop out” rate from clients being referred to one of the hubs? Is this being measured and what are the reasons for it? Take the StepChange – Money Wellness referral route as it is probably the biggest, although similar questions may apply to other referrals:
- how many clients may just give up when it is suggested they talk to someone they have never heard of? Especially as many of these clients may have been referred to StepChange already by a creditor, so another referral may sound like passing the parcel…
- how many look at the Welcome page from Money Wellness, see they have to tick “I’ll be able to pay the £90 DRO application fee to the Insolvency Service within the next 28 days” and give up at that point?
How many referrals are not DRO-eligible and what happens to these? I have concerns about StepChange’s robo advice tool. If the next step is a discussion with a StepChange adviser, these problems can be resolved, but I don’t think anyone should ever be recommended that a form of insolvency is suitable without a discussion first with a debt adviser.
Increased DROs may not be hub-related
DRO volumes have grown significantly during 2023, which is very welcome.
There is no evidence of causation here – have the DRO hubs helped or hindered the growth in the number of DROs? As I pointed out above, there are lots of good reasons why demand for DROs would be expected to increase in 2023 even without hubs.
There is no counterfactual to say what DRO numbers would have been if MaPS had decided back in 2021 to provide adequate, reliable and consistent funding to all debt advice agencies losing money on every DRO their advisers put forward.
Or if MaPS had adequately increased all funding to local debt advice agencies. We don’t how many tens of thousands could benefit from a DRO who are never getting an initial appointment with a debt adviser.
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Anon says
Our LCA team use both methods, some submit their own as AI’s and some refer, the referral route for the Hubs is problematic with long delays, repeated requests for information already on the system and closure of cases if no contact by deadlines set. For people in chaotic and traumatic situations it is not always easy to respond quickly or provide extra information, for advisers it is time consuming having to re-refer clients whose case has been closed twice for minor reasons. We are doing more DRO’s internally and plan to get all advisers registered as AI’s for the benefit of our clients. ( The whole team used to be AI’s until the recommissioning, then we had to find new staff and retrain)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Thanks for leaving the comment – I have heard other similar stories.
My guess is that advice agencies are too scared of MaPS to speak out. And individual advisers are scared for their own jobs.
Debt Adviser says
Referring from LCAs into the CA DRO hub is a bit of a chore. The referral form gets longer with each new version (it is now at 14 pages). CA hinted in the past about developing a system to submit DROs from within Casebook (like you can with breathing space) but that has gone quiet as I suspect doing that would seriously reduce the number of referrals into the hub.
It is getting to the point where the time spent to make a referral (much of the information is already on the case), confusion for the client in referring out and being involved in the process (clients often contact us directly as the hub are not forthcoming with their contact details which have been removed from the step-by-step leaflet we are told give clients when referring), and lack of flexibility from the hub (will not re-open cases, even where it has been their fault for not acting on information provided) means there is little benefit for advisers who are AIs to refer.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
and it’s a poor client journey where advisers are not AIs…
Lauren says
Hi Sarah I have had a complaint response from updraft credit. I have 3 loans with them they have upheld removal of interest from the 2 cheaper loans and I now have to pay them with no interest. They refused to uphold my complaint on the largest first loan should I still go to ombudsman? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
if the first loan repayments were unaffordable (perhaps making them meant other debts went up?), then yes.
Lauren says
Thank you yes and that’s why I needed further borrowing from them they asked me to email them if I don’t agree which I have so will see if they do this but will go to ombudsman today too
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I will transfer this comment to the page that cover covers affordability complaints about loans (https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/) in a day or two as this page is not relevant.
Anon says
I have heard the hubs have demand they can’t meet and are asking local CA if they can take on more to help out
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am tempted to reply lol. But this isn’t funny at all.
Of course what is really needed is a simplification of the whole DRO system. No need to supply an I&E if client’s only income is from benefits. All debts included even if not listed. brings DRO into line with bankruptcy and both would be a major simplification, removing the need for hubs in a very large number of cases.
Joel Griffith says
I think your right Sara simplification of the entire process would make everybody’s life a whole lot easier, because when I was completing DROs I was always petrified about missing a debt off that wasn’t identified through credit reports
barbara clafton says
I am an approved intermediary working at a very small independent charity. There are 2 of us who are AI’s. We were fundedby MAPS until 2021 when we told them we no longer wanted their funding due to their constant reinventing of the rules and regulations and more and more monitoring and red tape etc. so we are independently funded now.
Both myself and my colleague have always said that DRO’s should be simplified and made more alike Bankruptcy. In 13 years of being an adviser I have only ever completed 3 bankruptcies as DRO has always been the preferred , most affordable and appropriate option chosen by clients.
How would we suggest changes to the DRO system to achieve a streamlined system?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Look out for the next consultation or proposal by the Insolvency Service on DROs or reform of insolvency in general. They are often very long, but it’s fine to reply saying that from the point of view of a debt adviser the single most important thing would be to simplify DROs like bankruptcy – all debts included even if not listed.
Former hub employee says
Citizens Advice have ‘removed’ the hub from Durham and now have another local Citizens Advice running it. The manager of the old unit in Durham walked out a few months before the ‘hub’ opened, following a dispute with their executive team. Needless to say it all went Pete tong after that. Hopefully the new provider has better luck.
Ps. Payplan had a referral arrangement with the hub in Durham, which explains why their own DROs dropped so much. I believe Stepchange have a similar arrangement with Gregory Pennington, but can’t confirm.
anon says
it seems completely unreasonable that a debt adviser who works for an organisation who receives zero MAPS funding should spend hours of their time making a referral to a DRO hub who then receives all of the funding from MAPS to do the DRO. Lots of independent organisations are really struggling and this is another reason why
anon says
DRO hubs are a real pain to deal with. The clients we see are very vulnerable and need to see someone face to face to be able to navigate the system. Clients are being passed from one hub to the other and being asked for the same information several times. Many do not complete the process.
ffionpearl says
CA (Citizens Advice) advisers are being told to refer to the DRO Hubs and some of these DROs are done (eventually) by MW, (Money Wellness) meaning that MW get the stats for the DROs, even where they will have originated with CA and a lot of the advice work done under CA/MaPS funding. I wonder if CA National have thought how this hub use affects their DRO stats.
My team won’t send our clients anywhere else for DROs, we do them ourselves: We have something we care about called a “client journey”-meaning we want the clients to see one adviser from start to finish, not keep pushing them from one adviser to another or refer them to different services. Once with us , they stay with us, (unless, ofc, they choose to go elsewhere). Almost all the advisers at my local LCA are AI’s now and we will NOT be using hubs.
Jon says
It’s a good thing Money Wellness have been able to spin up their capacity so quickly, because CitAds numbers appear to have largely gone sideways, despite the funding award.
I certainly hope local services, advisers and CitAd national can come up with some solutions to the problems with the hub. I doubt MAPS (and other funding bodies) would be thrilled to hear about local services are having to duplicate DRO work that the national hub is being paid to compelete! To say nothing of the existing wait clients have to get DRO appointments.