MaPS Must Change

WADA, the Unite Debt Advisers Network (‘UDAN’) and Advice UK have today joined forces and called for the Money and Pensions Service to engage in a full and meaningful consultation concerning the future of debt advice. It should start by setting out how it plans to engage with debt advice providers, frontline debt advisers, debt advice membership organisations and wider stakeholders.

In a joint document we have made 14 demands, which MaPS will need to respond positively to if it is to restore trust and confidence with the sector following its failed attempt to cut community based services by 50% last year.

The immediate demands include funding for community based services to be uprated in line with inflation; the abandonment of arbitrary volume targets, and an immediate reduction in the administrative burdens associated with the interim grant agreements which are due to come into effect from 1st April.

Moving forwards, the campaign also calls for MaPs’ promised consultation concerning the future of regional provision to be able to influence the relative funding between national and regional services, and for MaPS to fully learn the lessons from its previous commissioning failures, including with respect to its poor quality Equality and Vulnerability Impact Assessment processes.

Download the ‘MaPs Must Change’ joint demands document here.