The
last week and a half has been pretty amazing. I returned from a great two-week
break touring the Scottish Highlands, I've had my 57th birthday, and my first
grandchild has been born! The North West of Scotland has breathtaking scenery and
it was brilliant to spend some quality time relaxing with Mary, my
long-suffering wife. Apart from one afternoon looking at late payment issues
and talking to a Financial Times journalist, I genuinely avoided emails and
voicemails and it made a pleasant change. I'll skirt round my birthday
since I've had so many of them now that there's not much to say!
The
really exciting news is the arrival of my grandson which has brought back all
the emotion that accompanied the arrival of our own children 29, 26, and 21
years ago, and has reminded me of the miracle that childbirth represents. My
blogs aren't often personal but I couldn't let this event pass by without a
mention, although I won't pick up my phone and start imposing pictures on you
as I might if you were here!
On
my office desk when I returned to ICM HQ was the StepChange Debt Charity
Statistical Yearbook for 2012 and it brought me back to the real world with a
bump. On average across the year, someone sought help from the charity every 78
seconds either online or by phone and we have to remind ourselves that
StepChange is just one route for debt advice. There are numerous organisations
offering support, help, and advice and – looking at the most recent Credit
Action debt statistics – I see that Citizens Advice Bureaux in England and
Wales dealt with 7,824 new debt problems every working day during the year
ending March 2013. Worse still, the letter accompanying the StepChange report
reveals that, for about a quarter of the clients they advised last year, they
were unable to suggest a way forward because the client lacked the means to
cover essential living costs while insolvency was inappropriate for their
circumstances.
To
help some of these clients StepChange has launched a new 'token payment' service,
an interim measure of short-term relief allowing clients time to get their
affairs in order where there is a reasonable expectation that their
circumstances will improve in the reasonably short-term. Token payments, of
course, are not new but this approach to their administration is, and it
coincides with a pilot 'Sustainable Debt Advice Project' run by AdviceUK which
is now being rolled out more widely.
Just
as we all have cause to celebrate from time to time, so we all face problems
and many customers get into financial difficulty because of a sudden or
dramatic change in circumstances. We want to be paid what we are owed, and
solutions giving customers who want to pay some temporary breathing space
are to be welcomed, especially if the longer-term prospects are improved as a
result.
Finally,
it would be remiss of me not to thank Charles Mayhew, Sue Chapple, and Sue
Kettle for their excellent guest blogs while I was away. I appreciate their
support and enjoyed their contributions.
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