Policy and Campaigns Manager for @debtjustice.bsky.social on household debt. Ex-research for Money and Mental Health, the RSA and ex-policy fellow for the Health Foundation. (he/him)
Toby Murray
Loading...
£1bn in fees to lawyers and ceos, paid by customer bills, to access yet more high interest debt, which will at best delay the inevitable.
Just nationalise it already.
www.ft.com/content/eee3... o
Why aren't they engaging? They're worse off - but ALSO because when they do engage, outcomes aren't good. NAO finds satisfaction scores for financially vulnerable customers are much lower than average. People who reach out for help, don't find it.
This report is, at heart, further evidence for the Debt Relief Scheme. It's mortifying that Ofgem and DESNZ have sat on their hands this long. The government needs to intervene and get this policy over the line.
And write off is CHEAP. Writing off £370m of energy debt would cost £77m-£115m. Extrapolating from that, writing off all £4.5bn could cost less than £1bn?? SO CHEAP compared to the profits being made by the energy industry.
Which means the Debt Relief Scheme - frustratingly stuck in limbo - is built on a flawed premise. It insists on engagement as a pre-requisite to write off.
Some of the neediest households will miss out because they can't engage.
We assume people engaging = can't pay. People not engaging = won't pay. But clearly people without repayment plans can't pay either. The distinction we've built policy around doesn't hold.
Most striking is the scale of debt. £2.9bn in water debt, £7.8bn across all utilities. Enormous numbers - and as the NAO highlight, only likely to increase without intervention.
Customers with repayment plans owe £1000 less than those without. But the vast majority of debt has no repayment plan - just 25% of customer debt to energy companies has one in place.
This tells us something important: people engaging and "addressing their debts" are actually better off.
I love when a new National Audit Office report drops - they really get into the weeds of why policy does and doesn't work. Their latest on utility sector regulation is well worth a read. 🧵
www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/u...
Private lenders just squeezed an extra $65 million out of Zambia.
A country where almost half of the population doesn't have electricity.
www.reuters.com/world/africa...
