Welcome to the latest edition of my blog. According to the latest annual statistics from the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), an additional 2.4 million enquiries for debt advice were received by its call centres in 2009 compared to 2008.
The CAB report shows that of all the calls they received, 34 percent were from people who sought debt advice. In fact, debt advice was the largest topic of advice sought by CAB callers.
The report further shows that compared to the previous year the debts owed to private bailiffs increased by 38 per cent. A total of 19,090 enquiries regarding private bailiffs were made compared to 13,845 the previous year.
Chief Executive of the CAB, David Harker said “We know from our frontline that the human impact of the recession is far from over for people who have lost their job or their home, or both, in the past two years. Yet, there are millions more people struggling with debt and poverty, or missing out on welfare benefits, that Citizens Advice Bureau want to be able to assist.”
Between April 2009 and March 2010 the CAB provided advice on 7.1 million issues which is an increase of 18 per cent on the previous year. Enquiries regarding mortgage and secured loan arrears also increased by 21 per cent over the same period.
David Harker further said, “We were able to help more people last year thanks to some generous additional funding from the government and many local councils. However much of this was short term, and our network of community based services, which rely on the generous help of 21,000 volunteers, may not be able to help as many people in future if funding is cut. It is absolutely vital that we are able to continue to provide the invaluable service we deliver to local communities without risk of major cuts.”
If government cuts are carried out people will still need professional debt advice to help them find a solution based on their personal financial circumstances. Aside from the Citizen Bureau, there are many debt management companies in the UK that are providing free debt advice. If you are in debt, it is important to get reliable, helpful and free debt advice at the earliest.
We ClearStart understand how stressful debt can be and we offer advice on all debt solutions including IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement), specific to your needs. Remember, advice should always be in your best interest.
Thanks
Nigel
Tags: CAB, Debt Advice, Debt Help, debt management, Debt Problems, debt solutions, iva