Good Evening,

Thank you so much for signing our petition to save face-to-face debt advice! We are so grateful for all the fantastic support we’ve received, but we are not done yet.

Please now take a moment to email your local MP to tell them why it is so important that these vital community advice services are funded.

To find contact details for your local MP, click here: https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP

Template email:

Dear [MP]

Cuts to Money & Pensions Service funding for debt advice

I am writing to ask you to support debt advisers in our area who are facing cuts and redundancies. This has serious implications for debt advice workers, the services they work for and the clients who seek their help. 

The Money & Pensions Service (MaPS) is the largest funder of face-to-face community-based debt advice in our region. MaPS is currently going through a recommissioning process which will change the structure and funding of debt advice services. 

Funding of community-based face-to-face debt advice is expected to be reduced in some regions by over 50% from April 2022. Some constituencies will be left with no local face-to-face debt advice services at all.

This is happening in the face of an anticipated surge in demand as we deal with the end of furlough, the end of the moratorium on evictions, the £20 reduction in universal credit, the National Insurance increase and rising energy costs. It simply makes no sense to cut the supply of expert advice when it will be needed now more than ever before. 

The emphasis will be shifted from face-to-face advice towards centralised call centre and webchat services. These work well for many people, but a large number who need debt advice most urgently can only deal with their situation in person. 

Reducing the number of face-to-face advisers will affect the most vulnerable debt advice clients the most. Debt advisers’ day-to-day work includes addictions, domestic abuse and homelessness. 82% of debt advisers help clients with mental health problems more than once a week

These cuts will particularly hit clients with the most complex cases and those who struggle to access services online or over the phone. Face-to-face debt advisers do the most legally complex cases, which can be impossible without paperwork, and digital exclusion among some debt advice clients is twice the national average.

The recommissioning process must be suspended for a reasonable time to allow proper research to be carried out into the future demands for debt advice. The current recommissioning process is based on research done before the pandemic, which does not reflect the world in 2022.

And frontline workers must be consulted on any proposed changes to debt advice. Many debt advisers have decades of experience and know the demands of their local community but were never asked for their opinions.

I would be very grateful if you could help by writing to the Government to ask that Ministers:

Pause the commissioning process for a period of at least 12 months
Consult with advisers and agencies to create a proposal for the future for debt advice that takes into account frontline advisers’ knowledge and a full assessment of the impact of coronavirus
Please also highlight the cuts to vital face-to-face debt advice services in any debate around issues of poverty, benefit cuts or rising living cuts. In particular, I would ask that you to attend the Westminster Hall debate on this issue, which has been organised by Emma Hardy MP, on 1 December 2021 from 9:30am until 11:00am.

Yours sincerely,

[your name] 

[your address]