After opening my in-box to a number of e-mails about it, I’ve just read an article in the Guardian about the proposed new consumer advocate the government wants to appoint.

Most were people asking “is it you?”, “are you going to do it?” Well no. It’s the first I’ve heard of it. If there was a consultation, it didn’t come to MSE Towers.

Having read the piece though I understand the questions… here’s few of the Guardian’s salient points:

• A high-profile national “consumer champion” is to be appointed by the government to help people get their money back when things go wrong and fight for redress over personal finance problems such as unauthorised overdraft charges.

• Asked whether the advocate would have a high media profile, sitting regularly on the GMTV sofa, for example, consumer affairs minister Kevin Brennan said: “Clearly it should be someone who should have a public face, although I don’t think we want to pre-judge an individual and what kind of skills we would want them to have.” A “competitive” salary is being offered, and the successful applicant is expected to be in the job early next year.

• Brennan said the appointment would represent a significant step forward for consumer rights: “This is all about helping people to get their money back.

Now, while there are some differences, it pretty much describes the work that the MSE team, our forum, users and I do everyday and have done for many years.

With over 6m bank charges reclaiming letters downloaded, and millions more letters and reclaims on council tax, PPI, mortgage reclaiming, setting off help, this is what MSE is all about.

Does the government think it can appoint an advocate and BINGO, there you go, it’s all done. Or actually is it more likely that, as another branch of officialdom, the aim will simply be to look as if something’s being done.

In the three years of the bank charges campaign NOT ONCE has Gordon Brown or the government made a statement on it. Recently, in my News of the World column, I asked the Prime Minister to look at setting off, and the nightmare it causes – no response.

In the past, the PM has publically told everyone to pay energy by direct debit, yet failed to respond to the bigger issue of massive over billing, which kills the concept for many, and the lack of rights we have (see fight energy direct debits). And I could go on and on about lack of response.

Will a government appointed consumer advocate solve this? Organisations like MSE, Consumer Action Group, Consumer Focus, programmes like Money Box and others have been collectively doing it, both in high profile media and in public policy.

Even Which? has said: ““The jury is out on the creation of the role of consumer advocate, for the devil is in the detail. It will be interesting to see how the role will fit in with the organisations and roles that already exist.”

Frankly, what we really need is some bloody government response on the issues. As you can probably tell, I read this announcement with a huge level of frustration that instead of solving the problems head on, this seems to be a policy focused on looking like something’s being done, rather than actually doing it.

Comment and Discuss.

A bit of lawyer humour on bank charges… spotted in the New Law journal “Civil Way” column.

Comment and discuss

I wrote in my ‘getting political’ blog a few weeks ago about how I’d had a half hour phone chat with Nick Clegg, the leader of the Lib Dems, about debt policy. I’ve often berated politicians for knee-jerk unpractical solutions that bear little resemblance to the realities people face.

So I was rather pleased today to see that the Lib Dems are now calling for proper financial education in Schools. I did perhaps over-rant about this in my conversation with Nick, but I think the door was already wide open.

I could nit-pick and say I don’t think it should be part of the maths curriculum, but standalone, and should go further than financial literacy: it should be consumer education. Yet either way, to have a political party willing to commit to it in the curriculum is great.

The Full Lib Dem press release is below. And for anyone interested in financial education see the full Teen Cash Class guide.

Comment and discuss

Financial literacy must become a comprehensive part of the maths curriculum to tackle Britain’s addiction to debt, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg will say today.

Speaking this afternoon to a Youth Parliament event in central London, Nick Clegg will warn the audience of young people that total personal debt has risen by £1 trillion since Labour came to power, with debt repayments equating to £3000 per second.

He will warn them that Britain is in danger of mortgaging their future, and that unless we act now, it will be their generation which suffers from the legacy of debt.

Liberal Democrat plans to address Britain’s personal debt problem also include:

• Encouraging the BBC immediately to launch a campaign of public education through all its media channels, directing people to the appropriate advice and information to manage their finances.
• A comprehensive network of free financial advice centres, funded 50-50 between the banks and the Government, to ensure everyone has access to impartial information and advice regarding extreme debt cases; issues around benefit and tax credits; pension advice and repossessions
• A 4p cut in the basic rate of income tax, paid for by closing loopholes for the wealthy, in order to put money back in the pockets of struggling lower and middle income families

In his speech, Nick Clegg will say:

“One of the reasons why the economy’s in such a state at the moment is because of all this debt. It is our young who will inherit this legacy of debt.

“We’ve been addicted to debt, and now we’re having to go cold turkey.

“We must not hand on this addiction to you. Personal finance is enormously complicated – we can’t just imagine people will muddle through and magically understand APRs and SVRs and IVAs.

“As anyone hoping to go to University knows, our education system is very good at saddling students with debt – but rotten at educating them out of debt.”

In the last few weeks I’ve been contacted by a couple of politicians/advisors wanting to talk policy issues. While in the past the site has been cited as a model for web based info (see my the power of info blog) it’s interesting to see things are starting to push on.

What I’m pleased about is the requests are from more than one party, and actually that makes me feel more comfortable answering them.

• Lib Dems.

  The Lib Dems have picked up on my blogs (e.g. Mental Health & Debt) and forum discussions about mental health and money issues.

  I must admit this is the one I’m most excited about. As I wrote in that blog, getting any coverage of this issue is difficult, so it’s great to see someone as high profile in the political world as party leader Nick Clegg MP (who this is for) taking an interest in what is sadly often seen as an unsexy issue.

  I’ve agreed to contact a few posters to ask if they’d be willing to talk to his advisors about their experiences and I’m due a phone chat (as his speech is urgent) to talk through my perspective on some of the challenges and issues.

• Conservatives.

  The Conservative policy unit has been in contact to talk about the site, communicating money and especially debt issues, and what can be done about such things.

  I’m due to go and have a chat about it with them in a couple of weeks time. I see this as a chance to push the financial education agenda; as I’ve often said before, we’re a nation that educates our young into debt when they go to university but never about debts. For me, compulsory financial education in schools is a must.

• Labour.

  I’ve had no contact from anyone on the political side of the Labour party (barring a few MPs who are site users, in that capacity).

  Yet over the past few years I’ve done some work with government departments on projects I’m passionate about; these include the parents guide to student finance and more recently childcare tax credits. I’m currently chatting about doing something with the Department of Health about EHIC cards in January.

  Government departments commonly use TV people as spokespeople for various messages. The usual format involves doing a day of interviews for local radio stations around the country talking through the issues. This usually affords them much greater coverage than they’d get otherwise.

  However, I do these slightly differently to the norm, as these days I’m fortunate enough to be able to afford to waive the fee, or donate it to the MSE Charity. I do that because then I can ensure that in the contract it effectively says they get me for a morning – but they don’t get to tell me what to say – so I can be critical if needed.

  Obviously, as part of this we meet beforehand and I discuss my viewpoint (generally they know anyway which is why they come to me, as with EHIC they’ve heard me saying I think everyone should get one), just in case there’s an issue and therefore they can back out if needed. Though thankfully that’s not happened yet.

  Normally this works well, as it means we’re working together on something positive, but pros and cons are given so people can make an informed choice. It’s also meant that I’ve been able to do some bigger publications like the student finance PDF guide.

It’s my hope that doing these things will be of general benefit for the specific issues, but also that it’ll open doors the other way round.

I was always hideously disappointed during the bank charges campaign at how most politicians studiously avoided it. I’m not saying they had to take sides, but it was the biggest consumer revolution since the council tax riots, and yet you hardly ever heard an MP even mention it.

Perhaps the issues above might help push things forward a bit. I also intend to offer the parties the ability to communicate directly in the forum if they want to.

Comment and Discuss