Rising demand from people in debt for free face-to-face advice from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skill’s (BIS) is now oustripping capacity, according to a report published this week by the National Audit Office (NAO).
The NAO recommend that support could be provided to more people through further efficiencies and said that BIS also needs to engage more effectively with other parts of government to help the over-indebted and with private sector advice providers such as baines and Ernst
UK consumers had £1.46trn of outstanding debt at November 2009 with personal borrowing representing 16 per cent of household annual pre-tax income. The NAO also reported 11 per cent of people said they found it difficult to keep up with their bills and credit commitments.
Since its launch in 2006, BIS’s face-to-face advice project has delivered help to 270,000 people by the end of September 2009.
The NAO survey said that between July 2008 and July 2009 the number of people contacting debt advice providers jumped by 28 per cent, and in some cases there was not the capacity to cope with the rise.
Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said today: "BIS’s project to offer face-to-face advice has done well and has helped those who has used it. But demand is outstripping capacity and the department needs to look at ways of reaching even more people; and it must establish a coherent framework for delivering the government’s wider strategy for tackling over-indebtedness."