ROOF Blog

Homeless charity, Crisis, has been investigating the experience single rough sleepers face when seeking help from local councils. Most were discouraged from filing in formal applications to register as homeless, and many were deterred from even seeing a housing officer. A spokesperson from the charity said that there was widespread practice of councils using the priority need test as an excuse not to give single homeless people the minimum levels of advice and assistance to what they are entitled to.

Nearly half of people having difficulties paying their mortgage do not seek advice, often because they feel their problems are not serious enough or they do not know where to go for help. Of those who sought advice, two-thirds went to their mortgage lender, while one in four got help from Citizens Advice. The Financial Services consumer panel which produced the figures and which advises the Financial Services Authority said there was an ‘urgent need’ for more investment in information and advice, so consumers understand that debt advice agencies must not be ‘seen as a last resort’.

Which? magazine has called for the Financial Services Authority to ‘name and shame’ lenders charging customers with exorbitant mortgage arrears charges. Which? wants the list submitted to judges hearing repossession cases and the culprits fined, with the revenue going to help borrowers access independent debt advice, and it has submitted a Freedom of Information request asking for the names of the lenders. It also wants lenders to provide an itemised breakdown of additional costs, the suspension of arrears charges where consumers have made agreements to pay off the debt, and a review of charges by the FSA.

Chief executive for the National Debtline warns that millions of households struggling with debt could be unlikely to access independent advice because charities are so overwhelmed they can only answer half the calls received. Joanna Elson speaking at the Building Societies Association conference was trying to drum up support from building societies to help homeowners in difficulty as soon as possible, and estimated that around four million people will need debt advice this year.

Research by the Legal Action Group (LAG) has accused the government of failing to help the most vulnerable during the economic downturn as the extra legal aid cash made available in July (£10 million) has been spent in the wealthiest areas in England and Wales. LAG found that the most deprived areas, including Liverpool, Hackney and Manchester missed out on extra spending for social welfare cases, whereas ‘almost all’ the most prosperous boroughs, including Surrey and West Berkshire benefitted. More than 70 per cent of the funding was spent in 20 per cent of the most prosperous boroughs.

The government has announced that tens of thousands of people who faced losing their homes have benefited from free legal advice under the housing possession court duty scheme. The scheme ensures advisers are at court to offer legal aid the government claims they have prevented immediate repossession in 85 per cent of cases. Currently more than 2,800 people are using the service each month.

Meanwhile, the government is looking to recruit 60 European social workers, experienced in ‘social pedagogy’, to lead an experimental pilot programme on the way children’s residential care homes are run. The practice helps children ‘develop and flourish’, rather than just meeting their immediate needs and ensuring their safety. Child care advisers welcome the move, but say its success would need more money being invested in residential care homes and in training staff, with one person saying that without trained and skilled workers, residential care was tantamount to ‘warehousing’ children.

A victory for a householder who had his home repossessed after being mis-sold a mortgage could set a precedent preventing others from losing their property. The homeowner was a housing association tenant, with fixed rent for life, when a mortgage adviser persuaded him to buy the property. He was eventually repossessed, but lodged a complaint that his mortgage adviser ‘failed to consider what would happen when the attractive discounted [mortgage] rate ended’. The Financial Ombudsman Service awarded compensation, ruling that the adviser had broken Financial Services Authority guidelines that advice must be ‘suitable’.

Citizens Advice (CAB) has said they are seeing a big increase in the number of white collar workers seeking advice from them. Its latest figures show a 17 per cent increase in the number of inquiries overall, between April 2008 and the end of January 2009. However, redundancy related queries were up 153 per cent, mortgage and loan inquiries up 49 per cent and debt inquiries were up by 24 per cent, and the CAB chief executive David Harker said the profile of people coming into the offices was changing as there were ‘more richer people coming in than ever before’.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is offering the public free financial advice from every branch from tomorrow. Around 1,000 customer service staff at the bank have been trained by the Consumer Credit Counselling Service to offer impartial help on areas such as budgeting skills and how basic financial products work. They will not be allowed to sell products. The bank said the offer is open to anyone – whether they bank at RBS or not, or even if they do not have a bank account at all.