Councils in England and Wales can reduce or write off your council tax under Section 13A (1)(c) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992. This has been called "the best-kept secret in council tax law". These Section 13A write-offs can be used if your house is uninhabitable because of flooding or fire. But you can also get a write-off if you have no money to pay your council tax after paying for … [Read more...]
Articles for debt advisers
The 2021 IVA protocol – what has changed & will it stop mis-selling?
The IVA Protocol 2021 was published in April 2021. This replaces the old 2016 Protocol which should not be used for new IVAs after 1 August 2021. The terms of IVAs already in progress are not affected by the new version. The new Protocol aims to be easier to understand for people in debt - for example "debtor" has been replaced by "consumer" and it has been put into the typical "gov.uk … [Read more...]
Good news – higher DRO limits from end June 2021!
UPDATE 10 May 2021 The Insolvency Service has announced the new limits that will be introduced for Debt Relief Orders (DROs) from 29 June 2021. These are: the total debt allowable in a DRO goes up from £20,000 to £30,000. the level of "surplus income" after paying your bills and everyday expenses has been increased from £50 to £75 per month. an increase in the general assets you … [Read more...]
StepChange redundancies & the funding of debt advice
On 22 April 2021, StepChange announced that it was proposing to cut its staff by 10%. It has started the process of consultations about 140-17o redundancies. To many people this will sound bizarre. In October 2020, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found that 20 million people have seen their financial situation worsen because of Covid-19 and 7.7million people saw it worsen a lot. The FCA … [Read more...]
Kerrigan v Elevate Credit – an “unfair relationship”
The judgment in the Kerrigan & others v Elevate Credit International Ltd was published on 5 August 2020. Elevate Credit International was a large UK payday lender, trading as Sunny. Kerrigan and the other eleven claimants were Sunny customers who had made affordability complaints to Sunny through a claims company. The claims company brought the case and selected six claimants; Sunny … [Read more...]
MaPS to give £38 million more for debt advice – it’s badly needed!
The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) has announced an increase in its budget for debt support in England in 2020/21 by £38million. And an additional £5.9 million is being allocated to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. This new money is in addition to the existing MaPS budget for debt advice of £64 million. It will come from a combination of government funds, reallocated MaPS budget and … [Read more...]
Coronavirus & the reform of Personal Insolvency in England
This article builds on the arguments I put forward in Coronavirus – how the debt advice sector should be planning, looking at one area that needs to be tackled urgently - personal insolvency. Coronavirus will cause a large increase in the numbers of people who should choose insolvency over the next couple of years. I am not trying to predict how many, but it is likely to be large enough to … [Read more...]
Coronavirus – how the debt advice sector should be planning
As lockdown is gradually phased out and furlough payments eventually stop, many people will not be able to return to their pre-Coronavirus situation of being able to manage their debts and bills. Now is the time the debt advice sector should be considering how to prepare for the large demand it may face and what may need to change. We don't know how many people will have problems We don't … [Read more...]
Debt Advice – 2019 did not go well – what will happen in 2020?
Many annual reviews say the year has gone by so fast. But it seems like a very long while since I wrote my review of Debt Advice in 2018. 2019 has been very difficult for debt advice. There have been few bright spots (apart from affordability complaints), a lot of delays to policy decisions being taken and an ever-worsening benefits environment for our clients. 2019 - what happened & … [Read more...]
More payday lenders go under – was anything learned from Wonga?
In the last two months of 2019, Britain's largest payday lender, QuickQuid, went into administration followed by three smaller lenders: 247 Moneybox, PiggyBank and Swift Sterling. Have the lessons from Wonga's collapse last year been leaned? And how can regulators and debt advisers do better in future to protect borrowers, not just of payday loans but other sorts of high cost credit as … [Read more...]