This is a guest post by Dr Joseph Spooner, Assistant Professor of Insolvency Law at the LSE and the author of Bankruptcy – the Case for Relief in an Economy of Debt. He had previously worked at the Law Reform Commission of Ireland, where his papers influenced the enactment of the Irish Personal Insolvency Act 2012. Systems for addressing difficulties of over-indebted households in England … [Read more...]
Credit card minimum payments – developments from 2000 to 2019
This is a guest post from The Money Charity, the UK's financial capability charity. If you would like to receive its monthly statistical report The Money Statistics, sign up here. This paper was written as background research for The Money Charity’s responses to the Financial Conduct Authority consultations on the short term credit market. As a reference document it may be of interest to … [Read more...]
Islington Council & Debt Hacker – settling the score with payday lenders
This is a guest post by Councillor Andy Hull, Islington Council’s Executive Member for Finance, Performance and Community Safety and Alan Campbell, the founder of Debt Hacker. For many of us, it only takes one unexpected expense or change in circumstances to throw our finances out of kilter. Since 2006, payday loan companies operating in the UK have been profiting from people’s urgent need … [Read more...]
IVAs can be a good debt solution for the self-employed
This is a guest post by Nick Payne, a Chartered Accountant and Insolvency Practitioner who works for Payplan. Nick has over 20 years experience in Personal Insolvency. If you’re self-employed or own a small company and are struggling to pay your debts, you’re not alone. Recent research has shown that: those who are self-employed are more likely to have unmanageable debts than employed … [Read more...]
Re-thinking Insolvency Practitioner Regulation
This is a guest post by Peter Sargent, an Insolvency Practitioner and Consultant at BHP Clough Corporate Solutions. He is a member of the IPA’s Membership & Authorisation Committee and former president of R3. The failure of Varden Nuttall (and its holding company), a middle ground IVA bulk provider has brought into sharp relief the current system of Insolvency Practitioner (IP) … [Read more...]
FCA and commercial debt management – the saga continues
This is a guest post by Nick Pearson, CEO of The Debt Counsellors Charitable Trust, who is writing in a personal capacity. The overwhelming majority of commercial Debt Management (DM) firms were required to submit their applications for full Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorisation by the end of December 2014. To date, as far as I'm aware, no firm has yet received full … [Read more...]
10 things you should know if you can’t pay a tax bill
This is a guest post by Tax Aid, a charity that helps people on a low income with tax problems. If you can’t afford to pay a tax bill when it is due, you will often want to make a “time to pay” arrangement with the tax man. You may be asked questions that feel very personal, such as what your expenses are – this is because HMRC is more likely to make an arrangement with someone who they … [Read more...]
Debt consolidation – a Credit Union case study
This is a guest post by Julia Daniel, General Manager at North London Credit Union. Paying less interest is an important weapon in getting your debts under control and paid off, as the case study she discusses shows. You can find out what Credit Union you could join here. A debt consolidation case study When Marie (not her real name), a council nursery worker with three children, applied … [Read more...]
Pension changes – the challenge for debt advice
This is a guest post by Nick Lord. It argues that the new pension rules are a game-changer for debt advisers and that debt advice agencies need to put measures in place to ensure that their advisers can provide best advice post April 2015. Nick is a consultant on money advice and personal finance issues working with Government departments, regulators and firms. His past posts include senior Money … [Read more...]