Government Cuts Hits Loan Advice
There are a growing number of individuals in the UK who are needing to seek advice and help with regard to their personal loan and credit card debts, as more and more people are finding themselves falling into loan arrears and missing monthly repayments on their loans and cards.
A large proportion of these individuals turn to charitable and government run agencies, such as the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) and the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), as these provide free and impartial advice and help for those struggling with their personal loans, credit cards and other debts.
Organisations such as CAB are already over stretched on heir resources and many people seeking loan debt help may have to wait a considerable time before they receive the advice they require on their loans and other debts, by which time it could be too later in some cases.
Although CAB have provided free loan debt help and advice for thousands of individuals over the past few years and are calling for more staff and resources to support the service, they have now fallen victim to the latest government spending cuts.
The recent government spending review has meant spending cuts in all areas and free debt advice for consumers struggling with their personal loans, credit cards and home owner loans seems to be no exception, as the government cuts the supply of money to the Financial Inclusion Fund.
As a result of this, CAB have announced that they will be forced to cut up to 500 jobs within the specialist loan debt advice centre, with the redundancies coming into effect at the end of March this year.
CAB have said that they will continue to provide free loan debt advice for consumers who need it, but these job cuts could delay the process even further for borrowers and push individuals towards private fee charging debt advice companies.
