The Debt Advice Diaries

There are several frustrating parts to being a debt adviser, but broadly they boil down into three categories: frustration with clients, frustration with creditors, and frustration with the rules, which is typically insolvency. This particular story has a tiny bit of frustration with the rules, a bit more with the client, and an awful lot with the creditor.  Several months ago, I helped a client to set up a payment plan to a bailiff company collecting unpaid council tax (well, overpaid council tax support - but it's treated the same). I had directly agreed this with the bailiff company, and impressed upon the client the need to maintain his payments, ideally through setting up a standing order. He did not set up a standing order. I open my emails after the Easter weekend to find a picture of a bailiff letter. I call the client. "Have you kept up with the payments?" "I thought I had but when I called the number they said I missed one in March. I've gone on their w...

Advisers don't work in a vacuum. We're somewhere at the intersection of creditors, the benefits system, housing providers, other charities, the financial services system, the legal system, and providers of essential services like energy or water. But it's not at all clear that those other organisations have yet woken up to the utterly catastrophic scenario that in coming down the tracks. Some have at least taken steps, however inadequate, in that direction. The DWP is stopping new Fuel Direct applications unless the customer has requested it (but doing nothing about existing applications... and I worry that this'll just mean a quicker move to installing pre-payment meters and subsequent self-disconnection). And the British Gas Energy Trust has launched a new scheme for its customers who have relatively low debts (and so, presumably, are likely to be newly in energy arrears). But like so many other charitable schemes, your application will need to show how you'll ke...

The fact it's been snowing on the day energy prices shoot up by 54% really is a bit much – and every advisor I know is struggling with what to say to clients for whom there is no real answer to the question 'How do I afford this?'. However much we try to say to ourselves that our job isn't to 'rescue' people, we are in this profession because we want to help. And when we can't, it really takes an emotional toll – not to mention the toll on clients who have taken the often difficult step of asking for help only to discover how limited that sometimes is. But it's not been a bad week. We get a couple of good wins for clients, which is a much-needed morale boost, and gives those clients a bit of breathing room. All that remains is to cross our fingers that the government – and priority creditors like energy companies, landlords, and councils – take this crisis seriously. For the government, it's clear that much, much more action is needed to protect ...