StepChange announces new 12-month reduced payment plan for households affected by COVID-19

Plan aimed at people experiencing short-term difficulty who need more time to get back to resuming full payments on debts built up during the pandemic

StepChange has announced a new 12-month reduced payment plan for households affected by coronavirus (COVID-19).

Aimed at those expecting to face only short-term difficulty, the Covid Payment Plan (CVPP) - which is due to go live from mid-November - provides a year-long window within which a person can make reduced payments, allowing them a gradual transition to resuming full payments or, if their circumstances change for the worse, allow them an easier transition into a longer-term debt solution.

Those potentially eligible for the CVPP will be signposted to it via the Money Navigator Tool provided by the Money and Pensions Service.

Commenting on the new plan, StepChange CEO Phil Andrew said - 

'What’s driven our approach is the recognition that, within our own toolbox, most of the existing solutions that we could provide are long-term strategies to enable people to tackle entrenched problem debt – they were not designed to cope with the short, sharp, temporary debt shock that so many people have uniquely experienced due to the pandemic.

As firms now begin to draw back from the blanket emergency support that got us through the past few months, new strategies are needed. We hope that the CVPP will make a valuable contribution to the transition to recovery, both for households and for the wider economy.'

For more information, see New 12-month reduced payment plan for households temporarily affected by covid from stepchange.org