Tell us your MALG Member Stories by completing the form below and read on to hear from our other Members:
Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) Members say:
“MALG has been a fantastic forum for me to be a part of – It’s provided a platform to highlight the daily struggles of clients and enabled me to hear regularly from other advice agencies and creditors as well.”
Jonathan Shaw, Sigma Connected Group (ReachOut)
“The MALG Friday Forum is brilliant. Please attend if you can. I’ve attended most of them over 4 years now. Advisors and creditors having open discussions.”
Lynn Crawford, Changing Lives
“Although I tend to ‘lurk’ in the background on the Friday Forum while I am tending to daily admin, I have found it to be an essential part of my training and education. I have also persuaded colleagues to attend and we always try to make sure one of us attends and circulates anything useful/interesting.
“MALG’s list of creditor contacts is the best list in the business. I wish that all creditors/DCAs/EAs/utilities companies etc would contribute to it too so that we could all could use it as a trusted, central, one-stop shop to find the latest live contact addresses for everyone.”
Gordon Wilson, Citizens Advice Colchester
“I have forged several amazing relationships because of MALG. I find MALG amazing, useful, resourceful, friendly. Being able to chat about a case or difficulties you are facing and getting helpful hints and tips for advisors and creditors is invaluable.”
Welfare Adviser
“Five years ago, when traditional in-person connections disappeared seemingly overnight during the COVID-19 pandemic, the MALG Friday Forum emerged to help our industry continue supporting people in financial difficulty when they needed it most.
“As Head of Customer Insight at PRA Group and now co-chair of MALG Scotland’s Regional Steering Group, I can tell you that in my personal experience, the Forum has been a valuable lifeline.
“It created an open network for people who are passionate about helping our customers and gave us a safe space in which we continue to share diverse opinions, knowing that they will be both challenged and wholly respected. Through the MALG network, I have made both professional and personal connections, leading to collaboration opportunities and more importantly, lasting friendships.
“The Forum fosters a spirit of support and shared purpose that continues to grow, thanks to the dedicated team who brings us together. I am incredibly proud of the trust we have built as a group and the positive differences we are all making to improve the experiences of those in debt.”
“There’s a number of speakers at MALG events that have spurred me on to action on issues including economic abuse, benefits calculator implementation, and loan sharks. I’ve also forged personal networking relationships with members of MALG outside of the MALG forum.”
Vikki Wilkins, PRA Group
“I am no longer a front line debt adviser – I therefore find MALG event vital in my efforts to keep up to date with current money advice topics – The Friday Forum is particularly helpful.
“My three other debt advice colleagues attend MALG events and often we exchange information that we have gleaned (particularly the Friday Forum) when we discuss current cases/ difficulties we are facing.”
Money & Debt Team Lead at a local Citizens Advice Bureau
“It’s very useful to have a birds eye view of issues happening around the country. Where/how to get help and advice. Good information to pass onto different teams within my organisation.”
Maria Demetriou, London Borough of Barnet
“As a result of attending MALG events, we’re currently discussing becoming a member of the Collaboration Network and have had discussions with Policy in Practice.”
Amanda Bailey, Link Financial
“Refreshing the Scotland Regional Committee has revived the brand in this area. We have lost the former impact of MAS and MALG now has a bigger role to play in offering something for the debt sector. e.g. MAS is offering more about wellbeing which is very important, but pushing that and not really doing the same for Debt topics seems a loss and MALG can fill that role.
“An example of new work is I’m bringing Vikki Wilkins from PRA Group (who I met through MALG) to a Scope Glasgow Summit – as a DCA I think she could offer the room a fresh view of where Creditors and DCAs sit in a modern landscape; they are compassionate and have strong vulnerability offers. I feel by putting that out there in the world of serving disabled people we can build confidence in this vulnerable group that DCAs are not to be feared and they want to work with clients and not just do things ‘to them’.
“Further, by being involved with MALG I have been able to further my hope for extending the offer of Advice Pro by asking Policy In Practice to extend their better off calculator to include a section that after calculation automatically expresses that the client is in poverty or deep poverty etc – it will be the definitive way to repeat the calculation after working with the client for some time to see if we have successfully lifted a household out of poverty and shows a robust methodology to prove it. These calculations would be difficult, take a long time and would need assessed for accuracy if attempted by hand; it would add hours and complexity to an adviser’s workload and would add hours to a quality controller’s workload also.”
Audrey Laing, Money Matters Money Advice Centre
“Thank you for [having me at the MALG Friday Forum] yesterday! It was a really interesting session and I am looking forward to seeing some more detail from the slides. I just find it amazing how you keep hitting the spot in terms of relevance and then quite lively debate!
“Membership has increased my network and also ensured I am fully up to date in my field; I love that MALG is always ahead of the curve so the right people are talking about the right stuff at the right time. If there is new legislation then I know I can rely on MALG for the key points, same goes for industry consultations. It is also a friendly organisation making a safe space for discussions.”
Fiona Ibbotson, Anglian Water
“Great podcast! Had a listen on my evening walk to the recent session with Cat Divers – great stuff. Only sorry I haven’t listened sooner, looking forward to getting through the rest of them. Keep them coming!”
Sebrina McCullough, Money Wellness
“We recently had a client who had been issued with a warrant for arrest for an unenforceable debt. This is something we’d never seen before. Because of relationships built through MALG, we were able to pick up the phone to the creditor, find out how it had happened, and get it resolved quickly.”
Helen Ganney, Relationship Manager, Christians Against Poverty
“On many occasions I’ve found that networking at the MALG Friday Forum has given me answers to questions that I’m not sure I would have found elsewhere. All the different types of people and agencies make it a true cross-section of our money advice world. Added to that (or even first and foremost) I actually rather enjoy it”
Alice Healy, Head of Debt and Money Advice Services, Citizens Advice Cornwall
“I appreciate that MALG South West brings together interesting speakers and people from different organisations to share knowledge and experiences.”
Sarah Ford, Money & Pensions Service
“I haven’t made it to the MALG Friday Forum in ages, I’m really glad I got to go along today! It’s a really useful hour, if you’re a MALG member I recommend you go along.”
Helen Addis, Bristow & Sutor
“Well worth attending [the MALG Friday Forum] this morning. Genuine Open Forum in a cross section professional atmosphere, freedom to say what you like & raise the issues of the day, a handy CPD point as well.”
Paul, Citizens Advice North East Derbyshire
“I am new to MALG meetings. Although my role at London Borough of Barnet does not bring me directly into contact with clients who are in debt and I do not work in debt recovery for Barnet, my manager also manages Barnet Council’s Welfare, Council tax, Business rates and Overpayment recovery teams and has asked me and a colleague from the Quality Assurance team to attend the fortnightly MALG meetings and report back to him on any key issues. I found the topics, speakers at the Regional Members Meeting event useful and very informative and intend to join the Friday Forum meetings as often as I can.”
Laura Rollinson, London Borough of Barnet
“Membership of MALG is very valuable to Experian as it promotes positive discussion and exchange of ideas, along with important opportunities to help people improve their financial future.”
James Jones, formerly of Experian UK
” I thoroughly enjoyed the Friday Forum which enabled meaningful discussion and collaboration between members of the debt advice community.”
Laura Prescott, JT Maxwell
“It is very important as an industry trade body to engage and work alongside MALG and other industry stakeholders to learn and be kept up to date on money advice sector matters so that we can share these learnings with our member companies.”
Claire Aynsley, Credit Services Association
“MALG adds value as it brings together all the main players involved in debt and money advice and it provides a safe haven for broad discussion.”
Yvonne MacDermid OBE, former Chief Executive of Money Advice Scotland
“We are proud to be Members of MALG, supporting a collaborative approach to improving the solutions available for those in financial hardship or vulnerable situations. MALG facilitates the sharing of expertise and best practice and provides a forum for joined up thinking and new ideas. This is beneficial to continuously developing our understanding of customer’s debt issues, enabling us to deliver a flexible and tailored approach to collections which meets the needs of the customer and the creditor.”
Carole Kenney, CDER Group
“I just wanted to send you a note to say well done for organising such a good conference. I’ve both organised and been to a few of these things in my time and your event is definitely a stand-out success. I was trying to put my finger on why – the organisation and attention to detail was excellent: joining instructions, printed programme in the badge, clear direction on the day, great venue, genuine welcome, good tech and tech-support – all essential components. But I think the standout for me was the authentic content and thoughtful programme; it was refreshing to see.”
Jon Hickman, formerly of Flexys Solutions
“MALG provides a forum to discuss issues which impact on our clients and on the services trying to help them and gives the voluntary sector the opportunity to meet with other parts of the financial sector in a cooperative setting.”
Lindsey Poole, Advice Services Alliance
“Debt policy changes cannot be developed in isolation – all sectors of the industry need to talk. MALG has a key role in bringing together people to facilitate these discussions. In areas such as the development of the Debt & Mental Health Evidence Form, it has driven the agenda for improvements. It’s good to talk and MALG is a great forum for getting people together. Long may it continue!”
Sara Williams, Debt Camel
“MALG ‘s forward thinking approach on age old problems and new issues enables members to be on the front foot on how they manage and deal with their clients’ needs and demands. MALG’s ability to showcase the social and stigmatic problems consumers face when in debt has helped member organisations better equip and prepare themselves. MALG’s continuous efforts to forge synergies has helped improve better relations between the advice and creditor sector, making the consumer a direct beneficiary.”
John Fairhurst, PayPlan
“I am a passionate supporter of MALG and I’m really proud to be part of it. It’s so important for creditors and debt advice services to work closely together to develop best practice and to find better ways of helping indebted households. There are always considerable challenges to overcome for vulnerable customers when it comes to debt, but working together means that we have a much better chance of tackling problems and finding solutions that work for everyone. MALG has the potential to bring together industry experts from every conceivable area of money advice including creditors, debt advice agencies, government departments, welfare services think tanks, fintech companies, financial capability champions, financial inclusion experts and service users. This is truly unique.
“MALG has always been a tremendous advocate for welfare and income maximisation advice and with Universal Credit and other welfare changes becoming a cause of debt, we feel it is absolutely the right time to get involved on a deeper level, so that we can highlight benefits issues to the MALG network and, hopefully, find ways of solving issues together.”
Lee Healey, IncomeMax CIC
