AN advisor working just two days a week has helped 16 Bradford people - some of whom were suicidal - wipe out £230,000 of debt in the past year, as research shows 22% of adults do not have enough cash for essentials.
Many who can’t manage their finances have mental health problems, and others struggle with the benefits system out of ignorance – but can be accused of fraud, says Tong Street Debt Centre manager Louise Foster.
The debt centre partners with Christians Against Poverty, (CAP) a charity set up 25 years ago to provide a more holistic approach to debt management. A recent report from the charity says that 47% of its clients have a ‘deficit budget’ of £273 per month on average, meaning they are £273 short of paying for essential items every month. So it’s easy to see how debt builds up.
“Quite often, clients are suicidal or have even attempted suicide because of debt letters and the worry about enforcement agents - and maybe even enforcement agents knocking on their door,” said Louise, who is based at the Gateway Church on Vulcan Street.
“So when we visit their home, it’s like a whole wave of emotion comes out, because quite often they have been banging their head against a wall. Perhaps they’ve phoned the council, they have offered to pay something. They can’t afford the full bill but they have offered to pay the council something - and the council won’t accept it.
“Or they are too scared to ring up creditors because they are not very pleasant to them. So the relief is enormous. And on that visit I am explaining what Christians Against Poverty is, so they know we are not going to pay the debt for them. But we are going to help sort it out. Quite often I am ringing lots of people on that first visit – enforcement agents particularly, and creditors. It takes a huge weight off.
"The first visit for me is the best because that’s when clients are at their lowest ebb. We go in and it’s like the cavalry have arrived, bringing hope and a sense of a light at the end of the tunnel."
Louise, a former nurse, retrained as a debt coach eight years ago and works just two days a week, working with the charity’s head office. She can have 30 clients on her books at any one time, and advises those who need help to keep trying if there is no appointment immediately available, as there are cancellations. The service is free, and the client pays money to the charity, which passes it on to creditors. This provides much-needed breathing space for the debtor.
The debt centre also runs money courses and life skills courses, which help people make their money stretch. There is help with shopping on a budget, reducing bills, and budgeting.
“My role is to visit the client in their home, support them in the journey, get all the information, and make sure head office have got what they need to do their job. Then I communicate that back to the client from head office. So I go back to the client and then say ‘this is the advice and these are your options.’”
“We visit people in their own homes, unless they don’t want us to do that. It’s about understanding why they have got into debt and what can we do to help support them.”
“Before I did the training I didn’t really have much understanding of the benefits system. It was a bit of an eye-opener for me.
“Sometimes people have this idea that people are in debt because they are reckless with their credit cards or they just go and overspend, they don’t pay their bills and they just spend what they want to spend. But it’s not like that at all.”
While most of Louise’s clients are on benefits, some are working part-time. But she says the nature of work and benefits has changed, making work inaccessible for some and benefits easy to overclaim, leading to inevitable debt and accusations of fraud.
“When I first started, once people got out of debt, you knew they were going to be OK. I think this issue with deficit budgets is because, since the cost of living crisis, even though there was an increase in universal credit, people now still do not have enough money to be able to live.
“If someone is living in a one-bed flat they might get their rent covered but quite often what we are finding now is that rents aren’t fully covered - it might be because they have a spare bedroom, or they can’t simply find a one-bedroom flat that easily.
“So they have to top up the rent, or sometimes landlords are overcharging, and the councils say ‘it’s only worth this much and we aren’t paying any more’.
“It is impossible. People need another £273 a month just to cover the basics.”
Louise said that while most of her clients will pay a reduced rate of council tax, and know they are entitled to that, single mums may not be aware that they can apply for a further reduction if they are on a low income. She urges people to phone for help as soon as they realise they need it. “Quite typically it can be 18 months to two years before anybody picks up the phone to get any help, whether it’s CAP or Step Change or whoever.
“So, there is a process. First of all they say ‘well, I will manage it myself, I’ll not pay this and not pay that, or I will borrow from friends, and family.’ Then they go through the stage where they are burying it all - just shoving papers in drawers and putting their head in the sand, hoping it’s going to go away.”
It's during Louise’s second visit to a client, when the income and expenditure is quantified, that she says “all the debts come out of the woodwork”.
“That can be painful,” said Louise. “And sometimes it’s circumstances that have led to that – sometimes it is trauma, relationship breakdown, or a load of benefit deductions because of benefit overpayments.”
It’s after the second visit that clients can see a change. The phone calls from enforcement agents and letters from creditors stop.
Clients pay money to CAP and CAP pay the debt to the creditor. There is no charge for the service. “It’s purely dealing with creditors so they don’t have to.”
“They may feel too frightened to contact creditors or sometimes creditors won’t accept what the client is offering. So by doing it through us, we will send them a financial statement which is more official.
“If they go through a debt relief order, which is a type of insolvency, it can go quite quickly. Most debts will get wiped off. They can have a fresh start, but will affect their credit rating for six years.
Many clients have mental health issues and do not have good IT skills.
“Everything is online now,” she says. “There is just not enough support. So part of what we do is trying to sort out the muddle of everything else. “A lady was going to be evicted - she was in the final stages of eviction – so we tried to get other agencies involved to help. She managed to get other accommodation, but it was my team who packed up all her belongings, and we moved all her stuff in our cars.
“I think social workers are overstretched but the kind of things that social workers used to do, they don’t seem to do any more. All the services are overstretched.”
She believes that a lack of access to work is also preventing people getting off benefits and staying out of debt, blaming a lack of transport, strange shift patterns, and the need to travel to access even basic work such as cleaning, which is often provided by large companies who require their workers to move around. “Getting there is a problem,” she said, “in terms of shifts and travel. They are offered unsuitable jobs.” One of her clients, a woman aged 60, had been a cleaner all her life but could no longer work full-time due to health problems. She was told she should work in an office by her JobCentre. “But who’s going to employ a 60-year-old in an office with no IT skills and no experience?” said Louise.
“This government are saying we must try to get people into work,” she said. “It’s great if you can get people into work in terms of their self-esteem. But some of my clients couldn’t just go straight into work and work Monday to Friday. “Most of my clients have mental health issues. Most have anxiety and depression. And I didn’t fully understand how debilitating that is. There is a loss of confidence. So this idea that people can just jump back into jobs? They can’t. And the other side of that – if you’re going to employ someone like that – you’d have to put so much effort and work in. Who is going to do it?”
Rather than being “put on a course that doesn’t do anything”, Louise believes some unemployed people should be offered a few hours of work a day to start with, which could be increased over time.
“I have a client now who if she could just go to the local school kitchen, wash dishes and wipe down tables, clear up etc, would be ideal. But there aren’t those jobs anymore. We have taken access to work away from people.”
“Sometimes I think the benefits system can almost trap people in a cycle of poverty. And they do not understand how hard it is for people.”
A benefit called the ‘limited capacity to work’ benefit is for those who have some health issues which means they can’t work full time. “I think all of my clients should get that,” says Louise. “But trying to get it for them is really difficult.”
And the personal independence payment can take three or four months before it’s paid, with the delay adding to money troubles.
Louise says that while there is great satisfaction in her job, it isn’t all plain sailing.
“It does get me down sometimes, but my faith helps me a lot. I lift it to God. I believe in the power of prayer. I do what I can. I do the best that I can. That’s all that anyone can do.”
“There is help out there – it’s just knowing how to find it. Don’t wait before you make that phone call. Get an appointment before it escalates.”
For debt information and advice, telephone Christians Against Poverty on 0800 328 0006 or see https://elimbradford.com
CASE STUDY: POLLY, 60
Polly, who cared for her granddaughter, was left with £30 a month to live on when she mistakenly claimed too much benefit, resulting in a £20,000 overpayment. For more than two years she lived in abject poverty, relying on family and friends for food, and hiding upstairs in her house from creditors.
“I was in a proper bad state. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know where to turn. I felt suicidal. I was embarrassed. I had no money to get food or pay my bills or anything. I had nothing, absolutely nothing. "
“I felt like a scrounger. I lived off toast for a long time. I didn’t sleep. I just didn’t know which way to turn and it’s left me quite emotional. I had two and a half years of poverty. I had nothing. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to live. Polly said it was “overwhelming” when Louise stepped in.
“It was quite an emotional thing. It was all a bit much at first. They were having to ring all the creditors. “People were ringing me up all the time. It was awful. People knocking on the door. I had to hide upstairs and keep all my windows shut. I was on the brink of suicide.
“I don’t know what I would have done without Louise - she helped me get a bit of food.
“It’s hard to believe that I got to that stage, and it was very overwhelming. I wasn’t sleeping. I was scared of who was coming to the door, I was scared of what was coming through the letterbox. I didn’t open anything after a while.
“I think if Louise hadn’t have stepped in, I don’t think I would be here today.
“I am not a greedy person for money. I just wanted enough to pay my bills, buy food, and keep a roof over my granddaughter’s head.
“I’ve started being able to pay my bills now. I can pay some gas, some electric, and I can get a little bit of food in now. I just need to top up my phone now, £10 a month.
“There a little bit of a way to go, but the road isn’t as long as it was anymore.
“I can see that little flicker of light, and after next week hopefully I can see the proper light.
“I am so grateful Louise came along. God sent her to me. She is an angel without wings.”
Louise said: “A lot of my clients have this problem with overpayment of benefits and it is not their fault. So then the government are taking off £40-£50 off to pay back a benefit. In Polly's case they reckon she had £20,000 of different benefits that she wasn’t entitled to and even accused her of fraud. And she wasn’t fraudulent. It was quite complicated. We often get this.
“But now she is no longer worried about debt. She is still a bit nervous because of how the DWP have treated her. But because we have taken that weight off her, she is smiling. “When we first went to see her, it was just tears, loads of tears. Often people will just break down just because someone is actually listening to them.
“When she did a new claim for universal credit and they took a load of money off her, she only had £30 a month to live on. But they are not supposed to do that. They are supposed to only take a certain percentage. “She had housing benefit but it didn’t cover everything. She got into a real mess. And she was suicidal, so fortunately she got support from Barnardo’s and Barnardo’s knew about us.
“I first saw her in June and she will be debt-free within the next two weeks.”
HOW TO GET OUT OF DEBT
Seek help early. Lots of people wait up to 18 months to two years before seeking professional help Write down all income and expenditure to see if it can be reduced or cut out unnecessary expenses Check out a benefit calculator to see if you are entitled to anything more. Christians Against Poverty have one on their website Try to cover household bills and priority debts first before trying to pay off non-priority debts such as credit cards, catalogue, old mobile phone debts.
Contact creditors and offer token payments for non-priority debts until you can get professional help
TIPS TO CUT EXPENDITURE
Batch cooking saves fuel Plan meals to avoid buying unnecessary food items on a whim Look for pop-up pantries where you can buy items cheaply Use food banks; CAP coaches can make referrals Turn off or turn down radiators in rooms you’re not using Heat the room rather than the whole house; heat the person by using electric blanket (not unsupervised children).
People on benefits can ask their internet supplier for a social tariff
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT SAYS
A Department of Work and Pensions spokesperson said: “Our priority is to ensure people get the support they are entitled to – with our trained staff on hand to help navigate the application process.
“Safeguards are in place to protect customers who are struggling to manage overpayments, including affordable repayment plans.”
"We will always look to negotiate sustainable and affordable repayment plans when an overpayment has occurred. We are introducing new measures to support customers to help prevent any mistakes which could lead to an unintended debt and provide confidence to the taxpayer that their money is going to those who need it most.
"Major new reforms will be at heart of the Government’s ambition to reach an 80% employment rate, with a White Paper to Get Britain Working to be set out in the autumn.
GOVERNMENT'S 'GET BRITAIN WORKING' PLEDGES
* A new national jobs and career service to help get more people into work
* New work, health and skills plans for the economically inactive, led by Mayors and local areas
* A youth guarantee for all young people aged 18 to 21
* A new Labour Market Advisory Board has been announced, chaired by Professor Paul Gregg. It is a new group of external experts who will provide labour market insight and advice to drive change throughout the system.
* The Government will reform Jobcentres to provide proper employment support and will make health-related benefits more flexible so that it’s easier to move from them into paid work
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