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New money advice service
A new service has been launched today to offer free advice on financial issues. Money Advice Service, which replaces the Consumer Financial Education Body. The face-to-face aspect of the service will be delivered by A4E in England and Northern Ireland, whereas Scotland and Wales will be delivered through their respective Citizens Advice services.
Funding for the service comes from a charge levied on the financial services industry and in 2011/12, they say they will receive £43.7 million. Services are a combination of online, over the phone and face-to-face. One would imagine that this is another nice little earner for A4E, on top of there W2W contracts awarded last week on the new Work programme?
More here - http://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk
The Money Advice Service has announced it will perform a key role in the coordination of debt advice across the UK from April 2012. The announcement follows months of discussion between MAS, the Government and other key stakeholders, following the Government’s response to the Consumer Credit and Personal Insolvency Review which suggested that the Money Advice Service was well placed to take a role in the coordination of debt advice services.
Mark Hoban MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, commented: “People struggling with debt need independent, impartial and free advice. The Money Advice Service will be able to build on existing work done by groups such as the Citizens Advice Bureau and develop it further so it meets the needs of those looking for help. Delivering good quality debt advice will also benefit financial services firms, who will now take over responsibility for funding the service from taxpayers.”
Not sure whether this signals the end of the Financial Inlcusion Fund, but am assuming that may well be the case from the the Hoban quote.
The Money Advice Service has announced it will perform a key role in the coordination of debt advice across the UK from April 2012. The announcement follows months of discussion between MAS, the Government and other key stakeholders, following the Government’s response to the Consumer Credit and Personal Insolvency Review which suggested that the Money Advice Service was well placed to take a role in the coordination of debt advice services.
Mark Hoban MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, commented: “People struggling with debt need independent, impartial and free advice. The Money Advice Service will be able to build on existing work done by groups such as the Citizens Advice Bureau and develop it further so it meets the needs of those looking for help. Delivering good quality debt advice will also benefit financial services firms, who will now take over responsibility for funding the service from taxpayers.”
Not sure whether this signals the end of the Financial Inlcusion Fund, but am assuming that may well be the case from the the Hoban quote.
I would say your hunch is correct, bye bye FIF hello telephone money advice.
Chaos
I hate to have to agree that this new service would almost certainly apppear to be a replacement for FIF funding and will see the end of these contracts from March 2012. It surprises me as Angela Knight - the banking boss - was at one time quite firm in her view that the cash from the levy should go CAB and other recognised providers, rather than private profit making firms who’ll see it as a cash cow.
This new service is getting regular media promotion with adverts that must cost a fortune on prime time TV. Of course, they’ll rely on evidence of thousands of satisfied callers. The problem with these telephone surveys is they tend to be based on questions during the initial call, such as ‘have we been polite?’ Are you happy that we’ve answered your questions as far as we’ve been able?’ .
What’s really needed is some down the line outcome recording, where clients are contacted some months after the calls to see how they are getting on in real terms with their debt problems.
I wonder just how many people Money Advice Service end up referring to CAB and other organisations as their own remit seems very restricted?
It’s all the more reason to get vocal and protest as loudly as possible via the appropriate channels.
Nick. Mylegal.org.uk Staff member
[ Edited: 31 Jul 2011 at 10:15 am by Nickd ]It may not be so gloomy as predicted in this area, at least in the short term. Apparently, MAS are working with current FIF providers to try and work out how best to coordinate the work of the different services. Partly, this is driven by financial necessity and partly by a recognition that these are quite distinct services allbeit complementary.
Financial Times reporting that six months after opening, the Money Advice Service is to undergo swingeing cuts to staff and a dramatic overhaul of the way in which it delivers free financial advice to consumers.
Mark Hoban, financial secretary to the Treasury, announced at its launch that the service would “help people take the right decisions”. In spite of providing more than 250,000 families with a comprehensive financial “health check”, the service appears to be disappointed with the extent of its reach.
Individuals close to the service are reported to have said head office staff levels could be cut from over 150 to around 20. A spokesperson said the scale of redundancies could not be confirmed but said frontline advice would not be affected.
You may need to register with the FT to view the article, but here’s a link Money Advice Service to be scaled back
Also reported in yesterday’s Mirror Tories axe debt staff
To be fair, this isn’t the service delivery bit but the commissioning side. They said from the beginning that the start up staff numbers would be cut later.