The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) is now calling for evidence on debt advice clients with deficit budgets. The purpose of this call for evidence is to understand what help can, or could, be offered where a client presents with a deficit budget, as well as what MaPS can do to enable this help to be given.
Where lasting positive outcomes are not obtained for clients, there can be an impact on:
- Clients themselves, who may leave advice with it not having made a meaningful difference to their situation and with the same challenges still to face.
- Advisers, whose morale and wellbeing can be greatly affected by not managing to help their clients as much as they would want.
- The sector’s overall capacity to serve clients.
These impacts mean it is critical for the debt advice sector to review whether there are ways that clients in a deficit budget could be supported to attain better, longer-lasting outcomes. This call for evidence is the first step in this review.
MaPS’ specific objectives for this review are as follows:
- Develop a greater knowledge of deficit budget clients, including the different cohorts that exist and their respective needs.
- Learn how debt advice might support deficit budget clients to achieve better, longer-lasting outcomes, and what providers would need to deliver this (including from MaPS).
- Understand how advice providers and creditors could work together to deliver better outcomes for clients, based on a shared understanding of clients and their needs.
Written responses, in any format, from all interested parties are welcomed. Find out more here.