According to the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), they were approached for debt help by more than 93,000 people in the first quarter of 2010. That’s over 30,000 people a month looking for debt help and we’re meant to be a period of growth and recovery after the recent recession. When we compare this three month period to the same time last year, we can see that there has been an increase of over 20,000 in the number of calls received by the CCCS.
This ever increasing demand for debt help being placed on the charity has prompted the CCCS to come out in support of the recent recommendation in a report by the Public Accounts Committee. It has been suggested that the Treasury should afford the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) a bit more flexibility in its use of funds for the purpose of providing debt help.
The government’s face-to-face debt advice project was launched in 2006 and in that time, the Treasury has allocated it £130million from its Financial Inclusion Fund. The face-to-face debt help project is overseen by the BIS and implemented by the Citizens Advice Bureau. Such is the pressure on an already overstretched Citizens Advice Bureau though that we’ve seen the development of things like the DIY online bankruptcy. There are long established and highly respected private companies that can also provide dedicated debt help, like Harrington Brooks.
There has been widespread criticism of the face-to-face debt help project, with the inefficiency of funding distribution coming in for particular scrutiny. As it stands, the project is not allowed to distribute the Treasury funding to alternative methods of debt help. As consumer debt in the UK is currently around £1.5trillion, with more than one in ten struggling to keep up with their repayments, confidence in such government controlled solutions is low. If debt help is something you’re considering, it could pay to visit www.harringtonbrooks.co.uk first.