The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), which funds the majority of debt advice provision in England has recently contracted with debt advice organisations for the provision of debt advice from the 1st of April 2022.

The new contract is likely to result in cuts to funding for Debt Advice of up to 50%, with face-to-face debt advice particularly affected.  The Money and Pensions Service has decided to move much of its debt advice provision towards call centre style telephone advice and web chats. This decision has been made without ready consultation with debt advisers or the agencies they work in.

This will inevitably have a detrimental impact on some or most vulnerable clients.  Had the Money and Pensions Service asked debt advisers, we would have told them that many clients need face-to-face advice.  Our clients are often experiencing mental health issues or live chaotic lifestyles, they may have learning difficulties or literacy problems, or do not have English as a first language. All of these issues, and many more, impact on the effectiveness of advice and may be unresolvable by telephone or digital advice alone.  

The Unite Debt Advice Network has further concerns about how tenable the new contract is.  We already have reports from advisers working under the current contract that they are unable to undertake all their casework within their working week, often working an average of six hours a week more than they are contracted to.  They also report that low morale, work induced stress and depression are endemic to those working under the current contract.  Yet the Money and Pensions Service’s new contract is demanding more work with less staff and threatening financial penalties for those agencies unable to meet unrealistic targets.

At the same time the debt advice sector is experiencing an exodus of experienced advisers unwilling to work under a MaPS contract and agencies are struggling to recruit to the same posts, because the overbearing demands of the contract itself does not allow employers to exercise their duty of care over employees.  MaPS is aware of these issues which have been brought to its attention by organisations as diverse as the Institute of Money Advisers and the We Are Debt Advisers campaign.  Yet its response is to demand more of the same with less of the support, by cutting the funding and raising the targets for clients seen.

This promises to be a perfect storm for advisers, agencies and vulnerable clients, as well as those agencies whom advisers work in partnership with.  We are particularly concerned about the implications for face-to-face debt advice as many of the agencies believe that they will be forced to reduce their service provision, make redundancies or indeed close their doors permanently.  To give you an understanding of the scale of the problem we anticipate that over 50% of the debt advisers in Northern England will lose their employment.

These issues have been raised with MaPS but they seem determined to plunge headlong into the restructuring of the sector.  As we have noted this will lead to job losses and a shortage of advisers at a time when MaPS own projections see a massive increase, of perhaps up to four million, in those needing to access debt advice. 

In light of the end of the furlough scheme, the cut to Universal Credit, rising living and energy costs, as well as the increase in National Insurance contributions due to start when the new contract does.  We feel that many more people will need debt advice, but it will not be there.  During the pandemic extraordinary measures were taken to assist indebted individuals, with greater forbearance from creditors and a ban on evictions and court actions.  Yet these protections have now been removed along with the furlough scheme and the Universal Credit uplift, making the cases debt advisers see more complex.  We firmly believe that these more complex cases need face-to-face advice. 

For this reason, we have determined to take action.  MaPS is already failing our advisers and our clients; we do not want it to fail further.  Yet this seems to be the course it is determined on.  Consequently, via this petition and more broadly, we are demanding the following:

• An immediate pause to the commissioning process.  The new contract terms were established prior to the pandemic and take no account of the new realities, with many more people now in financial trouble.  No impact assessment has been carried out on the switch to telephone and digital advice or the predictable human cost of the reduction in face-to-face advice.  We are unaware of any assessment on the expected job losses.
• We require a new commissioning process that consults with advisers and their agencies to see how best to design the new advice provision model.  Advisers on the ground know what works and what doesn’t, they can see the need for face-to-face when they meet the client with an eviction notice peeking out of the pile of threatening letters.  Any new commissioning needs to take full account of the need for this kind of advice.
• Advisers need immediate relief from the stress of the current contract arrangement where they are forced to spend more time completing tortuous and bureaucratic forms and ticking boxes than helping their clients.

We urge you to sign this petition in support of this action which aims to build a model of debt advice provision that serves our clients and protects our advisers.  We urgently need your help to build the pressure against the new contract, which has little that recommends it and much that condemns it.  If you want to know more about what you can do, contact us at unitedebtadvice@gmail.com or speak to your local debt advice service to find out how the contract affects them.