Herald - Issue 412

Page 52 • The HERALD • 16th September 2021 v SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SPECIALISTS v NP Bookkeeping & Accounting • Bookkeeping, VAT, Payroll • Streamlined Services & Free consultation • Insured & Certified 07742 613615 or nandie.pretorius@np-bookkeeping.co.uk ASK A PROFESSIONAL Helen Sparks Mortgages & Financial Services Offering professional advice since 1985 Mortgages Residential Life Time Equity Release Buy to Let – first time landlords Property Portfolios Help to Buy Insurance Buildings & Contents Insurance Life Assurance Critical Illness Income Protection Private Medical Insurance YOUR PROPERTY MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS This firm usually charges a fee for mortgage advice. The amount of the fee will depend upon your circumstances and will be discussed and agreed with you at the earliest opportunity. Some forms of buy to let mortgage are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. 023 8084 4108 helensparks@btconnect.com Helen Goodall T/A Helen Sparks Mortgages & Financial Services is an appointed representative of PRIMIS Mortgage Network, a trading name of First Complete Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority Building Plans & Estimating Building Plans for Planning & Building Regulation approval Builders Estimating Service Free initial meeting and estimate CAD drawings produced on latest software Please call Bob on 07795 692060 Email abbott.bob@sky.com e Centre for Social Justice unveils partnership between baili rms and advice charities as people in ‘severe’ debt is a third higher than before COVID-19. Bold plans to strengthen protections for households facing a post-pandemic tidal wave of debt have been brokered by a leading think-tank. In a ground-breakingmove, organisations representing enforcement rms and charities devoted to helping hard-up families have worked together to ensure people caught in a COVID-19 debt crisis do not face unfair treatment at the hands of baili s. ey have devised a new independent body – the Enforcement Conduct Authority (ECA) – to stamp out harmful debt collection tactics and help vulnerable people in arrears get their nances back on an even keel. e initiative, engineered by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), has been ‘welcomed’ by Government and is backed by former Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan. She said: “It is a stunning achievement of the enforcement and debt advice sectors to have come together to collaboratively develop the Enforcement Conduct Authority with the CSJ. To their credit, proponents of reform in the enforcement industry have listened to concerns about standards of conduct, likewise debt advice charities have worked pragmatically to better protect vulnerable people from harm. The ECA’s potential is unlimited. With a strong mandate to ensure the fair treatment of people in debt, it will provide independent, fair and formal supervision of enforcement. Developing new protocols on vulnerability and affordable repayment, the ECA will ensure that people experiencing enforcement are put on a more sympathetic and sustainable path out of debt.” e move comes against the background of dire warnings by experts about the scale of the debt mountain racked up by the poorest as the country clients supported by debt charity Christians Against Poverty attempt or consider suicide as a way out of their debts before seeking help. In a new report, Taking Control for Good, the CSJ warns: “ What looms ominously on the horizon is no less than a tidal wave of debt. As payment deferrals and the furlough scheme end, the Money and Pensions Service anticipate a 60% rise in the demand for urgent debt advice . . . [and] councils will undoubtedly be ramping up efforts to recover the £4.4 billion of arrears sitting on their balance sheets. What this means in practice is that, in the months and indeed years ahead, tens of thousands more people are expected to receive a call or knock at the door from a bailiff.” Against this grim background, the CSJ warns it is critical that enforcement is carried out fairly, e ectively, and in a way that helps people bounce back from the travails of the pandemic. In the report, the CSJ applauds moves by the debt advice and enforcement sectors – o en at loggerheads in the past – to work together to raise standards, protect vulnerable people, and ensure the industry is t to meet the challenges of the coming decade. e report sets out the framework for a new, independent and fully-funded oversight body responsible for pushing: • the continued professionalisation of the enforcement sector; • measures to address inconsistent and sometimes inappropriate enforcement agent behaviour; • reform to the ‘fragmented and hard to navigate’ complaints system, and; • measures to bring the whole of the enforcement industry into line with wider advances in the treatment of people experiencing hardship or other vulnerabilities. e ECA will be launched later in 2021 and deliver a clear mandate to ensure fair treatment and appropriate protection for people subject to enforcement. is includes: • raising standards through the development of new rules, conditions and competencies, to be developed in consultation with the baili industry; • supervising practice and issuing proportionate sanctions for rule-breaking and behaviour below the standard required of the industry; • improving accountability through a standardised two-stage complaints process; • independently adjudicating escalated complaints; and • introducing fair, a ordable repayment and vulnerability protocols. In April 2021, the Government committed to reviewing the case for putting the ECA on a statutory footing, which the representatives of the enforcement and debt advice sector have said would realise its “full potential”. Bailiffs and Charities Join Forces to Fight Post-pandemic ‘Tidal Wave’ of Debt has battled COVID-19. While wealthier families made record savings from reduced household spending, the charity StepChange reports the number of Brits in ‘severe’ debt rose by over 600,000 to 2.4 million in the rst year of the pandemic alone. CSJ analysis of newo cial data shows the amount of outstanding council tax grew by a record 24 per cent between March 2020 and March 2021, reaching £4.4 billion. New research by the Money Advice Trust shows more than seven million people in Britain (14%) are worried about being able to a ord their council tax bills over the next year. More than a quarter of