The Northern Housing Consortium has been engaging with the Money Advice Service (MAS) which offers free, unbiased money advice to the UK population. There are currently circa nine million people in the UK who are over indebted and less than a fifth of these are accessing the advice that they require to get their problems back on track. As part of this engagement we have agreed to work closely with them around supporting and raising awareness of their projects.
The Money Advice Service is undergoing a project with the aim to:
- Increase supply and uptake of debt advice
- Focus on preventative measures to reduce the levels of over indebtedness, broadening their engagement to the non FCA regulated sector including Housing Providers
This particular project began in 2013 with high street banks and building societies. MAS are now broadening this piece of work to non-FCA regulated organisations.
In order to achieve a well-rounded understanding of the current processes and deliver on these outcomes, MAS would like to collate the following information:
| Typical information being requested | |
|---|---|
| Preventative work or “pre-arrears” | Key indicators (triggers) Process adopted Contact methods used (inbound/outbound, written or telephony) Specialist teams utilised Solutions available (internal and external) Referrals to advice organisations Customer response/feedback Third party companies utilised |
| Collections and Recoveries processes | Typical timeline of the Collections process The typical timeline for the Recoveries process Contact methods utilised (and at what stage) At what stage external collection companies become involved Available solutions (both internal and external) |
| Debt advice referral policies and processes | What triggers are looked for What stage is referral offered How are advice organisations communicated What companies are referred or signposted to & how are the referrals filtered (if at all) What screening takes place Method of referral (hotkey, spread sheet, or other) Debt Management processes |
By completing this project the Money Advice Service hope to reach more people at the right time in the right place to encourage and enable them to stop and think about money as part of everyday life, and access the relevant advice from a quality free provider.
The NHC are in full support of this project and would encourage members to share any information you have around your collection policies and processes to feed into this valuable piece of work, the sector is doing some excellent work around tackling financial exclusion and supporting residents and tenants around debt and budgeting advice, this a worthwhile project that the sector can benefit from.
Please click here for further information, or you can contact ray.faulder-jones@moneyadviceservice.org.uk.
The Northern Housing Consortium are happy to collate the information on behalf of the MAS team, so please send through any information to satty.rai@northern-consortium.org.uk over the next month, please feel free to circulate and share this across your organisation.
