Money Box

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The latest news from the world of personal finance plus advice for those trying to make the most of their money.

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Money Box: Saving face-to-face debt advice

19/02/2022

Saving face-to-face debt advice

BBC Radio 4 - Money Box, Saving face-to-face debt advice

Face-to-face debt advice, online subscription frauds & no price cap for home heating oil.

Face-to-face debt advice, online subscription fraud, how to retrieve cash taken by your energy supplier which goes bust and what no price cap for home heating oil means for customers.

Plans to cut back on face-to-face debt advice in favour of regional call centres have been scrapped - for now. We hear from Craig Simmons, Head of Debt Policy and Strategy at the Money and Pensions Service, and from debt adviser Amy Taylor, who is also Chair of the Greater Manchester Money Advice Group. (Debt Advice links below.)

An estimated £75 million a year is stolen from people in the UK by online subscription frauds. You buy one thing and are secretly subscribed forever. Reporter Athar Ahmad investigates the scams designed to tie customers up into monthly payments without them realising. (And there's more on this story on File on 4 on BBC Radio 4, Tuesday 8pm.)

Around four million people have been moved from their energy supplier to one of the remaining big ones as 29 energy firms have gone bust since January last year. And that has left many people not knowing where they are with their bills - how much they might owe and to which firm and of course what will happen to any credit they have built up with the supplier that has gone out of business. So how do you get back £500 taken by your energy supplier who has gone bust? Reporter Dan Whitworth explains.

There are about 1.7 million homes in the UK that are heated by oil from a tank outside. But unlike with mains gas, there is no price cap. We hear from Money Box listeners, and from Ken Cronin, the Chief Executive of the UK and Ireland Fuel Distributors Association, UKIFDA. 

Debt Advice links:
Money Helper - moneyhelper.org.uk/en/money-troubles/dealing-with-debt#
Citizens Advice - citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/
Step Change - stepchange.org
National Debtline - nationaldebtline.org
Advice NI - adviceni.net
 

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Producer: Paul Waters
Reporters: Dan Whitworth & Athar Ahmad
Researcher: Marianna Brain
Editor: Emma Rippon

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