The government wants people to work more to replace the £20 Universal Credit (UC) cut coming up in October. Many people would love to earn more but can't get the hours. Others can't work for health reasons or caring responsibilities. But let's look at the situation for people who may be able to earn more. Usually, extra income reduces their UC because a taper of 63p in the £ is applied. … [Read more...]
General debt news & policy
Here are my articles on news and policy except for high cost credit and Insolvency, which are separate as there as so many of them.
Will the new Enforcement Conduct Authority bring bailiff reform?
In 2020, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) brought together the debt advice sector and the bailiff industry to form the Enforcement Oversight Working Group. This group has co-authored a report called Taking Control for Good - introducing the Enforcement Conduct Authority, published on 25 July by the CSJ. In place of the current system of bailiff self-regulation, the report recommends the … [Read more...]
Equifax changes credit scores on the quiet
Equifax used to calculate credit scores for consumers out of 700. But in April 2021 it switched to calculating scores out of 1000 and has changed the bands used to describe your credit rating. Oddly Equifax hasn't made an announcement about these changes. The Equifax Credit Report & Score has been updated but hardly anyone uses that. Most people see their Equifax score using the … [Read more...]
Chief Ombudsman Caroline Wayman resigns
Caroline Wayman, the Chief Ombudsman and CEO at the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has resigned, announcing on 10 March 2021 on LinkedIn that: After 22 years at the service and nearly 7 years as chief executive and chief ombudsman I am stepping down from the role. Her resignation comes the day after a highly critical article in the Daily Mail which pointed out: Fraud victims and cheated … [Read more...]
FCA to look into unregulated credit such as Klarna & Wagestream
On 16 September, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced a review into unsecured credit market regulation. This will be chaired by Christopher Woolard, the outgoing interim Chief Executive, which suggests how seriously the FCA sees this subject. The FCA says: The Review will concentrate on how regulation can better support a healthy unsecured lending market. It will take into … [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...]
Record numbers of CCJs in 2019 & for smaller amounts
On May 13, the statistics for CCJs for the first quarter of 2019. were published by Registry Trust, who keeps the records of CCJs in England and Wales. There were more than 320,000 consumer CCJs in the three months, the highest number recorded for a quarter. Consumers are being sued more often for smaller amounts of money The graph shows how the number of CCJs in the first quarter of … [Read more...]
PPI – deadline for new complaints has now passed
In 2017, the FCA launched a PPI advertising campaign telling you to make a decision about claiming PPI, because a deadline was being introduced. That August 29 2019 deadline has now passed and you can't start a new PPI complaint. If you have a complaint already in progress, the MSE forum is a good place to ask questions about it. And if your complaint has been rejected, send it to the … [Read more...]
Max FOBT stake to be £2 and other good news about gambling
Today's announcement that the Government is restricting the maximum stake on FOBTs to £2 is brilliant news. At the same time, the government has announced a range of other measures, some to come in now and some that may be introduced in the future. And yesterday Monzo talked about what is going to be doing to help its customers self-exclude from gambling. Restricting FOBT stakes to … [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...]