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ASSISTED SELF-HELP
Advice providers, major lenders and trade bodies
have come together to form a Self-Help Debt Advice
Services working party. The working party takes forward
the recommendations in the recent Citizens Advice
Report “A little help from my friends”, which highlights
that self-help debt advice services are presently not
working as effectively as they could, and that only 20 per
cent of individuals in a survey of self-help clients had
reached agreement with all their creditors, and almost 90
per cent had a bad experience with at least one
company. The working party, chaired by Alex McDermott
of Citizens Advice, has agreed to the process highlighted
in the chart below (see Welcome to Money Advice Trust
images/flow chart.JPG for a full size version). A grant
from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
(BIS), as mentioned in the Consumer White Paper, is to
be used to develop the Toolkit, and to support the
development and provision of training to advisers in
Debt advice agencies. MAT will co-ordinate and facilitate
the development and completion of the Toolkit and the
training of advisers to the required level.
Key features of the project:
• Developing a licensing arrangement with participating
advice agencies
• Creditors agreeing to treat offers from assisted self-help
customers in the same way as they would treat offers
from a third-party money advice agency using the
Common Financial Statement principles
• Producing a learning pack that enhances the skills of
advisers when identifying if self-help is an appropriate
mechanism for individual clients
Aims of the project:
• More people being able to negotiate workable
repayment arrangements with all their creditors without
the need for an advice agency to act directly on their
behalf
• More people in financial difficulties being helped in the manner that best reflects their individual needs.
• Development of a streamlined advice process and the freeing up advisers’ time to deal with clients either less capable
of self-advocacy or whose debt problems are not easily addressed through the assisted self-help route
• A more consistent approach across the money advice sector to the provision of assisted self-help debt advice
• More informed understanding on the part of creditors of the role of assisted self-help debt advice, leading to greater
consistency in dealing with the offers made by assisted self-help customers
Advice providers, major lenders and trade bodies
have come together to form a Self-Help Debt Advice
Services working party. The working party takes forward
the recommendations in the recent Citizens Advice
Report “A little help from my friends”, which highlights
that self-help debt advice services are presently not
working as effectively as they could, and that only 20 per
cent of individuals in a survey of self-help clients had
reached agreement with all their creditors, and almost 90
per cent had a bad experience with at least one
company. The working party, chaired by Alex McDermott
of Citizens Advice, has agreed to the process highlighted
in the chart below (see Welcome to Money Advice Trust
images/flow chart.JPG for a full size version). A grant
from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
(BIS), as mentioned in the Consumer White Paper, is to
be used to develop the Toolkit, and to support the
development and provision of training to advisers in
Debt advice agencies. MAT will co-ordinate and facilitate
the development and completion of the Toolkit and the
training of advisers to the required level.
Key features of the project:
• Developing a licensing arrangement with participating
advice agencies
• Creditors agreeing to treat offers from assisted self-help
customers in the same way as they would treat offers
from a third-party money advice agency using the
Common Financial Statement principles
• Producing a learning pack that enhances the skills of
advisers when identifying if self-help is an appropriate
mechanism for individual clients
Aims of the project:
• More people being able to negotiate workable
repayment arrangements with all their creditors without
the need for an advice agency to act directly on their
behalf
• More people in financial difficulties being helped in the manner that best reflects their individual needs.
• Development of a streamlined advice process and the freeing up advisers’ time to deal with clients either less capable
of self-advocacy or whose debt problems are not easily addressed through the assisted self-help route
• A more consistent approach across the money advice sector to the provision of assisted self-help debt advice
• More informed understanding on the part of creditors of the role of assisted self-help debt advice, leading to greater
consistency in dealing with the offers made by assisted self-help customers
