Category Archives: News

Welfare reform: implications for utility companies and creditors

CAB-logo-editedThis paper by Citizens Advice summarises the changes to benefits that have already taken effect and those still to come, and looks at what companies can do to identity customers in difficulty.  It outlines steps companies can take to understand their customers, to proactively work with them, forbear from taking action that may make matters worse, and refer on those who need help.

It is also important that creditors are proactive in looking out for signs of potential financial difficulty and offering support accordingly. Forbearance and breathing space from their creditors will help customers who are having to adapt to a reduced income or a change in the way that their benefits are paid to avoid reaching breaking point.

Consumer Rights Bill

parliament-pic-editedThis bill is aimed at simplifying and clarifying consumer rights, streamlining and bringing together the complex mix of consumer protection legislation which currently exists.  If it is simpler for consumers to understand their rights and responsibilities, they may be more likely to exercise them effectively.

Consumers will be able to:

  • get some money back after 1 failed repair of faulty goods (or 1 faulty replacement)
  • demand that substandard services are redone or failing that get a price reduction
  • a set 30 day time period to return faulty goods and get a full refund
  • challenge terms and conditions which aren’t fair or are hidden in the small-print: for example airlines charging baggage fees will have to make them really clear when consumers are booking to avoid legal challenge

Digital content is included for the first time.

Citizens Advice strongly welcomed the bill, calling for minor adjustments only.  In particular they want collective redress provision to extend to all unfair practices, not just competition cases as currently proposed.  See here for a Parliamentary Briefing from them on the Bill.

Two recent reports on poverty

JRF-logo-edited-2A briefing called Ethnicity and deprivation in England was published in December 2013 by the Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE) and others as part of a series The Dynamics of Diversity: evidence from the 2011 Census. It examines how likely ethnic minorities are to live in deprived neighbourhoods.

The summary is here.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation published Tackling in-work poverty by supporting dual-earning families. The report examines how working families can be helped out of poverty.

The research reviews trends in employment among couple families with children and considers policies and the wider context in four areas likely to affect their employment rate: family leave, childcare, the labour market, and the tax and benefit system. It finds:
◾The risk of poverty is much higher for children in couple families where only one parent works;
◾sole earner families account for a significant minority of poor families with children.
◾Many fathers have to work long hours, making it harder for them to get involved in family life and more difficult for mothers to work. To enable more low-income families to have both partners in work,

The report recommends allowing second earners to keep more of their wages before means-tested benefits are withdrawn; more publically-funded affordable childcare; and phasing in more generous family leave, including longer paternity leave.