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 08 August 2007
Confident Consumers - A Fair Deal creating Prosperity & Success for All
 
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Face to Face Debt Advice Project

As part of the Financial Inclusion Fund announced in the 2004 Pre Budget Report, £45 million was allocated to increasing the provision of free face-to-face debt advice in England and Wales (£15m in 2006-7 and £30m in 2007-8). The Government added to these amounts by another £2.5m (£1.5m and £1m) in the December 2006 Pre Budget Report.

The primary aim of the project is to deliver an increase in the number of advisers, and hence in the number clients assisted, within geographical areas and/or social groups both characterised by high financial exclusion.

A Bid Request Document to attract grant applications was launched in late 2005. Following careful scrutiny of the dozens received, a total of 16 final bids for a share of the fund were approved in late March 2006.

The selected bids involve many independent advice providers as well as Citizens Advice Bureaux. They include three national projects, one for Wales, and one for each English region.

The successful bids target specific geographic areas or social groups where financial exclusion is a known problem. Many are specially created partnerships between Citizens Advice Bureaux, members of the Advice UK network and other independent advice providers.

Research has shown that although debt advice is readily available in many forms, for example, telephone help lines and the internet, people with severe or complicated debt often need to talk to someone face-to-face, and are often the hardest to reach.

A major aim of the project is to open doors to a complete package of advice which increases the financial capability of the clients so decreasing the likelihood that they will find themselves in the same situation at a later date.

The Department is working closely with leading organisations like Citizens Advice, AdviceUK, the Money Advice Trust and the Advice Services Alliance, who represent the vast majority of current advice provision, to drive this work forward

A sister FIF project is run by the Legal Services Commission. This has a different remit to pilot outreach money advice to those who would not normally seek advice from debt advice services and who are most likely to experience financial exclusion.

On 14 March 2007, the Treasury announced that there would be a new Financial Inclusion Fund in the next spending period to 2011. This will allow support for providing debt advice to continue.  More detail will be available in the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review (see right hand side link).

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