Latest briefing in the campaign to save debt advice

On Wednesday 17th November, we met with MaPS to discuss our concerns for debt advice. Over 85 debt advisers attended, and we have quickly pulled together a short video of some of the highlights. This is available here. At the meeting MaPS indicated that only 20% of their total funding of £77 million per year will be allocated to services capable of providing face-to-face, casework, services. In contrast, there will be a huge increase in funding going to national, remote, phone and digital services.

When challenged about this funding split, which was not consulted on prior to starting the procurement exercise, MaPS indicated that they felt the need for face-to-face, casework, services was reducing. This was roundly condemned at the meeting as completely out of touch. Advisers also challenged survey evidence that people would prefer telephone and digital access, pointing out that many responding to such surveys would be unaware that these channels will not contact creditors on their behalf.

We also raised the lack of any clear quality framework, and were asked by MaPS to trust that the replacement for the Debt Advice Peer Assessment (‘DAPA’) would be ‘less burdensome’. It would, of course, be hard not to be better than DAPA, but the facts remain that procurement has proceeded without any bidders knowing what the replacement will look like, and that MaPS has not yet set out how it intends to consult with front-line advisers about this either.

We have called for the suspension of the procurement exercise, which we again e-mailed the MaPs Chief Executive about after the meeting. We await the response. However, in the meantime, we have now produced a detailed briefing for MPs. This is available here. We have now e-mailed this to all MPs and ask that supporters follow up to ask them to call for a suspension of the procurement exercise in Parliament and to write to relevant Ministers requesting this.