PRESS RELEASE
ASSISTED SELF HELP SCHEME ‘CASHFLOW’ ROLLS OUT NATIONWIDE
A new service to assist individuals who are keen to negotiate debt repayment plans is being launched tomorrow evening (Wednesday 24th March) by Consumer Minister, Kevin Brennan.
CASHflow is a streamlined, assisted self-help service designed to increase the availability of help and support to over-indebted consumers who are able and willing to negotiate with creditors with minimal intervention from an advice agency. The scheme has been developed by the Money Advice Trust in partnership with creditors, trade bodies, the debt collection industry and the advice sector. CASHflow is available in all four administrations of the UK and has been piloted over the last six months under an initiative funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
CASHflow enables licensed advice providers and their clients to agree an online financial statement that can be used to draw up manageable repayment proposals. This statement can then be used for individuals to negotiate arrangements with creditors without the need for an advice agency to act directly on their behalf.
Consumer Minister Kevin Brennan, who will be speaking at the launch, said: ‘I am pleased to announce the launch of this successful project across the country. We are determined to put consumers back in the driving seat with their finances. By funding CASHflow we are giving people access to a new online, phone and face-to-face advice service helping them get to grips with any debt problems.’
Joanna Elson, Chief Executive of the Money Advice Trust said: ‘With demand for debt advice at an all time high, the scheme will help people who are able to work on resolving their debt problems with minimal assistance from a debt adviser. Not only will this empower people who want to find a manageable method of repayment but will also reassure creditors that an individual is serious about repayment and free up adviser time so that they can focus on clients needing more support’.
Alex MacDermott, Creditor Liaison Policy Officer at Citizens Advice said: ‘Advice agencies have been providing debt advice on an assisted self-help basis for years. However inconsistent practices by advisers and creditors meant these services weren’t always working as effectively as they could. CASHflow overcomes these problems by providing a much needed standardised approach to assisted self-help debt advice, and represents a landmark in collaborative working between creditors, advisers and government.’
Steve Johnson, Chief Executive of AdviceUK, said: ‘CASHflow is an excellent example of how the free advice sector and the credit industry can work together for the benefit of debtors. A common assisted self help approach should help debt advisers to focus their resources on assisting more clients who are vulnerable and have higher support needs, where a self-help approach is not often appropriate.’
Since October 2009, CASHflow has been piloted with over 80 advice agencies and is now set to be rolled out across the UK.
Important features of CASHflow include;
· Use of a easily recognisable logo to give reassurance to lenders/creditors that clients have received holistic, independent money advice
· New self-help materials that have been developed in partnership between creditors, the advice sector and industry trade bodies
· An agreement from lenders/creditors to treat offers made by people using CASHflow in the same way as those made by third party debt advice agencies
- Ends –
For more information please contact:
Nathan Alleyne on 0121 410 6277 or nathan.alleyne@nationaldebtline.co.uk or
Helen Newton on 0207 653 9744 or helen@moneyadvicetrust.org
Note to Editors
CASHflow Background
On 2nd July 2009, the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) launched a Consumer White Paper which made a number of proposals to support people in debt. One of these initiatives was the award of £500,000 to the Money Advice Trust to develop an assisted self–help debt advice toolkit, which would support advice clients to make repayment offers directly to creditors, with assistance from a third party money advice agency.
This project (known as CASHflow), builds on the work carried out by a Self-Help Debt Advice Services Working Party, comprising advice providers (members of Citizens Advice and AdviceUK), major lenders and trade bodies. The forum was set up to take forward recommendations made in a report by Citizens Advice entitled ‘With a little help from my friends’ which was produced by an RBS-funded project and made the case for better design, co-ordination and delivery of assisted self–help debt advice services, to support clients in negotiating with creditors directly. A copy of the report can be viewed here: http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/campaigns/policy_campaign_publications/evidence_reports/er_consumerandebt/with_a_little_help_from_my_friends
The working party identified the benefits of creating a self–help advice tool kit that is supported by the provision of options-based advice from licensed advice providers via email, phone and face-to-face advice, which ultimately led to BIS funding for the CASHflow project. Participating advice agencies in CASHflow cover each of the nine English regions and then two agencies in each of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The participating agencies serve both rural and urban areas, including some agencies that target specific client groups such as students, BME women and disabled people.
Participating industry bodies and lenders on the CASHflow Working Party are;
Bank of America
British Bankers’ Association
Finance and Leasing Association
Credit Services Association
Barclaycard
Capital One
HSBC
Lloyds Banking Group
MBNA
RBS Group
Santander Cards
Shop Direct
Santander
UK Cards Association
Egg
Money Advice Trust
- The Money Advice Trust (MAT) is a charity formed in 1991 to increase the quality and availability of money advice in the UK. MAT’s vision is to contribute to reducing unmanageable debt of UK consumers and its mission is to support individuals in the UK with unmanageable debts and to improve the capacity, quality and efficient delivery of free-to-client independent money advice.
AdviceUK
AdviceUK is the largest network of independent advice organisations in the UK, with more than 830 members. The total number of clients seen by AdviceUK agencies
across all advice subjects is in the region of 2 million per year. 397 members of AdviceUK provide debt advice. Members range from large organisations such as
National Debtline and Shelter to small, community-based organisations, many of whom operate in the 50 poorest local authority areas and serve ‘hard-to-reach’
communities. For more information see www.adviceuk.org.uk.
Citizens Advice
The Citizens Advice service is a network of independent charities that helps people resolve their money, legal and other problems by providing information and advice and by influencing policymakers. For more information in England and Wales see www.citizensadvice.org.uk
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