The All Party Parliamentary Group on Debt and Personal Finance has been involved in a number of events. More about these events can be found below.
On Wednesday 12 October 2011 Consumer Affairs Minister, Ed Davey joined parliamentary members of the APPG on Debt and Personal Finance to discuss debt remedies and insolvency. At the meeting, chaired by Yvonne Fovargue MP, the members discussed the Governments response to the Consumer Credit and Personal Insolvency Review conducted by the Department of Business Innovation and Skills and the Treasury, which was published in July. The Chair pointed out that it takes the OFT two years to close down a credit provider or debt management company, even if they know they are causing widespread problems for consumers and there was a need for a tough regulator with the right tools and powers to stop rogue companies in their tracks.
One of the key outcomes of the review was the Governments announcement that the Money Advice Service would conduct a review of debt advice funding. The Minister said his objectives for this review were to ensure that brand awareness of free debt advice providers should be very strong and the free debt advice sector should have enough capacity to provide advice to those who need it, when they need it. The Minister went on to say that he recognised and shared many of the concerns which had been raised about fee charging debt management companies providing poor quality advice and charging excessive fees. He pointed out that the Government would not move quickly to regulate any industry but he supported proposals to force fee charging companies to include information about how to access free advice in all of their advertising materials.
Frances Coulson, the President of R3, echoed the Ministers concerns about fee charging debt management companies saying they had been under regulated for too long. Teresa Perchard, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Citizens Advice welcomed the Governments commitments to ensuring that there is sustainable funding for debt advice but said the Governments response to the review was not critical enough of the way in which the system for regulating consumer credit and consumer debt solutions worked effectively.
On 28 June 2011 the APPG on Debt and Personal Finance held its annual Financial Fair and reception. The theme of this years event, which was sponsored by Lloyds Banking Group was Financial Inclusion and Education for Young People. The Financial Fair provided an opportunity for MPs and peers to chat to affiliate members of the group, including representatives from the banking, lending and consumer advice sectors, regarding how young people can be supported and empowered to make positive financial decisions. ABCUL, Experian, the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, PFEG, UK Payments and Citizens Advice exhibited literature highlighting their work with young people.
Yvonne Fovargue, Chair of the APPG on Debt and Personal Finance hosted the event, welcoming Dominic Morris CBE, Group Public Affairs Director at Lloyds Banking Group and Teresa Perchard, Public Policy Director at Citizens Advice as speakers. She highlighted the importance of financial education for young people, but also the need to regulate the consumer credit market so that young people are not exploited and the importance of safeguarding free debt advice services for the next generation.
On 14th June 2011 the APPG on Debt and Personal Finance hosted a seminar entitled “Protecting Consumers – the future of consumer credit regulation.”Mark Lazarowicz MP chaired the meeting, welcoming Chris Leslie, Shadow Financial Secretary; Stephen Sklaroff, Managing Director of the Finance and Leasing Association and Peter Tutton, Social Policy Officer at Citizens Advice as speakers.
Stephen Sklaroff began by highlighting the importance of the consumer credit market. Seventy per cent of households were using some form of credit, he said. And the UK consumer credit market is one of the most flexible and diverse in the world.
Chris Leslie MP responded saying that it was vital to ensure a good availability of credit, credit providers should not be demonised and consumers could not automatically blame lenders when they get into debt, but had to take some responsibility. But consumers had to be protected, he said, policy makers can not assume that consumers are always entirely rational or that they always have all the information they need to make good decisions. The regulatory framework for consumer credit has not yet got this balance right.
Peter Tutton noted that significant progress has been made in the regulation of consumer credit since 2006.. The OFT is now a much more effective conduct regulator than it was – he highlighted the OFT release of new guidance on debt management, saying it was more comprehensive and that it would help to tackle some unacceptable practices in that market. He said that the reform of consumer credit regulation presented an opportunity to simplify the regime and make it more accessible for lenders, advice agencies and consumers. But that it was vital that ancient evils were not resurrected in the process.
On the 16 May 2011 members of the APPG on debt and personal finance met with Consumer Affairs Minister, Ed Davey about the need for stronger regulation of fee-charging debt management companies. Nic Dakin, the APPG's Treasurer who requested the meeting said that all too often these companies were "not debt management companies but debt exploitation companies".
On 3 May 2011 the APPG on Debt and Personal Finance and the All Party Fuel Poverty and Energy Efficiency Group held a joint meeting on “Tackling Fuel Debt.
Damian Hinds MP chaired the meeting, welcoming around fifty MPs, peers, stakeholders and Greg Barker, Minister for Energy and Climate Change.
Addressing the meeting, the Minister outlined the measures contained in the Energy Bill, designed to make energy more affordable by improving the energy efficiency of the housing stock. He acknowledged that there was no one “silver bullet” policy that could eradicate fuel poverty and a joined up approach across government was essential. The audience then questioned the Minister asking him how advice services for people experiencing fuel debt would be funded in future and if the Government would ensure that no tenant had to live in a cold home that was impossible to heat by introducing a minimum energy efficiency standard for the private rented sector. In response the Minister said that the energy industry needed to play a bigger role in the funding of debt advice. On the private rented sector he agreed the Government could go further and urged the audience to “watch this space.”
Both Teresa Perchard from Citizens Advice and Audrey Gallacher from Consumer Focus pointed out that advice agencies, energy companies, the regulator and the government all had an important role to play in tackling fuel debt and had to work together to ensure that people get all the money and the help they are entitled to. David Mannering from RWE nPower said that it was not in the interests of companies or consumers for energy debt to accumulate and that his company was working closely with Citizens Advice to ensure that customers in debt were treated fairly. Sarah Harrison from Ofgem spoke of the complexity of the energy market – with over three hundred tariffs available to consumers. She described the action Ofgem was taking to simplify the market and ensure that companies gave their customers clear information about the cheapest tariffs available to them. She then posed a question to the seminar and to the Government “Is simplification enough?”.
On 10 March 2011 the APPG on Debt and Personal Finance and the APPG on Legal Aid held a joint meeting to discuss the impact of legal aid reform on funding for debt advice. Yvonne Fovargue MP chaired the meeting. Welcoming the MPs, peers, advice and financial sector representatives who attended the meeting, she pointed out that the advice sector is facing “a perfect storm” of rising demand and local and national funding cuts.
Shadow Justice Minister Andy Slaughter said the Government's proposals to reform legal aid, combined with cuts to local authority funding ran the risk of creating advice deserts, across large parts of the country. In his own constituency he said there were four advice centres, but two have now closed. The proposals were illogical he said, because early intervention saves the public purse more than it costs.
David Hawkes from Advice UK pointed out that 89 per cent of Advice UK’s members were facing funding cuts this year. He opposed the assumption that debt advice is not legal advice contained in the Government’s proposals for legal aid reform - advisors needed an in depth understanding relevant legislation and case law to advise debt clients. And Paula Twigg from the Mary Ward Legal Centre spoke of the human cost of failing to maintain advice services for vulnerable people. Members from all parties commented on the importance of early intervention, saying it was illogical to cut debt advice services which save money in the long run by preventing people’s problems from escalating. The meeting agreed there was a need for parliamentarians from both sides of the House to work together to ensure that there is a sustainable cross government strategy for the provision of debt advice, which includes face to face services for people with complex problems and those who are particularly vulnerable.
On 16 December the Group held a breakfast seminar meeting on how ‘the consumer’s voice’ will be affected by the Government’s proposals for ‘a better model for the consumer landscape’.
With the Group’s Secretary Yvonne Fovargue in the chair, a packed audience first heard from Consumer Affairs minister, Ed Davey. The minister explained the thinking behind the landscape review, making it clear that was not financially driven but was about concentrating and consolidating consumer empowerment work. Citizens Advice and Trading Standards were chosen, he said, because they are ‘brands which are well known and treasured’, though he did pay tribute to the ‘good work’ of other organisations in this field.
He announced that in March the Government will publish a consumer empowerment strategy as part of the Growth Review. One of the things it will be looking at is how collective purchasing could help empower local communities, particularly for ‘homogenous products’ such as insurance services.
On 13 July a breakfast meeting was held on the subject of basic bank accounts. Chaired by the Group’s Secretary, Yvonne Fovargue MP, and attended by over twenty parliamentarians, invited panelists were asked to respond to a new report from Citizens Advice on the lack of provision of basic bank accounts to undischarged bankrupts:
Outlining the report’s findings, Teresa Perchard, Director of Policy at Citizens Advice, said that more needed to be done for those who found themselves bankrupt and unable to open an account, thus restricting their ability to receive wages or to pay bills.
Eric Leenders, Executive Director of Retail at the British Bankers’ Association, stressed the legal problems that offering accounts to bankrupts posted to banks – in particular that after-acquired property could be transferred through bank accounts and that trustees would have to chase this. Michelle Smith, the Head of UK Consumer and Community Affairs at Barclays PLC, called for an effective partnership between banks, Government and charities in working to improve financial inclusion.
Responding for the Government, BIS Consumer Minister Ed Davey MP (pictured right addressing the meeting) said he was prepared to look at some of the legal problems that appeared to be dissuading banks from offering accounts to bankrupts, such as insolvency law. However, the Minister accepted that if Barclays and the Co-operative made accounts available to the recently bankrupted then it would not be impossible for other banks to do the same.
He also used the occasion to announce a Government consultation on access to consumer credit, which he hoped would provide insight into the various credit-related problems faced by consumers:
Home | About us | Advice | Adviser resources | Campaigning | Events | Jobs | Media |
Partnerships | Policy | Publications | Support us | Training courses | Volunteering
Accessibility | Help | Contact us | Site map
Disclaimer, copyright and privacy policy, Copyright © 2012 Citizens Advice. All rights reserved.
46kb)
Community
- Twitter
- Facebook
- YouTube
- podcasts
- News
More on community