Justin Tomlinson MP today spoke in a Parliamentary debate on Debt Advice and Debt Management.
Speaking in the Commons, Justin commented upon the importance of the issue. "91%of people in financial difficulty feel that with better information and advice they would have made different decisions. Members of Parliament know through their casework of the distress in which individuals find themselves, and in times of financial difficulties their needs are even more urgent. These people do not necessarily have the time to shop around and make informed decisions, and many people who get into financial distress do so following a significant change in their circumstances, whether it is a job loss, bereavement, illness or family breakdown. At such moments, they are not necessarily in the strongest position to address the challenges that they face."
Justin continued to highlight a number of key areas, including the need for better financial education, the need for clearer labelling of the cost of financial products and the inadequacy of current powers of the OFT to shut down lenders that break the rules.
"I would go further than some other speakers who talked about the need to provide access for free and independent advice. Just as we insist on having a Government health warning on all packets of cigarettes, I would like to see information published about how to access the free independent advice. That way, people can take a few moments out and contact those who can assist them. Too often, we have seen some of these debt management companies create spurious charities, whose people then provide the “independent advice” when they are, in fact, just subsidiaries of the company that is going after the business in the first place. Some have said that they did not want to get rid of this market completely, but wanted to be confident that every single consumer has easy access to the free and independent advice that we all believe is so important."
You can read the full speech here and watch online here (speech starts at 1:11:26)