Unpaid tax debt causes £1.6m hole in Staffordshire council budget

East Staffordshire Borough Council has revealed that residents and businesses which are not paying their council tax and are failing to take action on their debt problems have left a £1.6 million hole in the local authority’s budget.

The council said that after months of chasing tax debts, it had now been forced to take legal action to recover the money. Burton magistrates have granted multiple liability orders which will allow the council to pursue £260,000 of debt from 498 households in the area. Its debt recovery agents will also work to claw back a massive £1.4 million debt which has been racked up in business rates by 80 companies.

A council spokesman clarified the local authority’s position on tax debt recovery, and advised anyone who is struggling to pay any bills or taxes to seek immediate debt help. He said:

“At East Staffordshire Borough Council we follow the legislation laid down by central government in relation to non-payment of council tax and business rates and we take this responsibility very seriously, as it is unfair to those who pay their bills on time to be carrying those that don’t.

“However, taking individuals or businesses to court is our last option and if council tax payers or business rate payers find themselves in difficulty paying their bills, we urge them to contact us as soon as possible as there may be benefits, discounts or reliefs that can be applied which can reduce the amount to pay.”

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Posted in: budget,causes,council,Staffordshire,unpaid

Derbyshire man caught dealing drugs to tackle debt problems

A 24-year-old man originally from Glossop in Derbyshire has been caught attempting to deliver drugs to Dundee in a deal designed to help him tackle his debt problems.

Peter Hadley, 24, was arrested by police leaving a hotel in Perth with more than a kilo of heroin in his possession. He was caught after a tip-off informed police that Hadley was involved in supplying drugs and they spotted his car outside the Travelodge hotel whilst on another call. In addition to the drugs, which were believed to have a street value of £116,000, Hadley also had around £1,700 in cash on his person.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard how Hadley had serious debt problems, and it was this that motivated his crime. He had apparently borrowed money from an acquaintance in Liverpool, and the interest on the loan was mounting faster than he could cope with.

The crooked lender offered Hadley the chance to eradicate his debt problems by delivering packages, now known to contain heroin, to Dundee. Rather than seeking proper debt help for his problems, Hadley took this opportunity.

He had already travelled to the Scottish city on three previous occasions before he was caught, with the promise from the loan shark that his debt would be reduced by a few hundred pounds each time.

Krista Johnston, solicitor for the defence, made the case that Hadley had not previously been involved with the dealing or supplying of drugs, and argued that it was being threatened and even assaulted over his debt problems that had prompted him to do it.

Nonetheless, Hadley was sentenced to 40 months in prison for preparing to deliver the heroin.

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Posted in: caught,Dealing,Derbyshire,drugs,problems,tackle

Overstretched finances lead to debt for Midlanders

Over recent years many people from all around the UK have found themselves facing rising levels of personal debt as a result of the difficult financial climate, soaring bills and inflation, and in some cases a reduction in income. One recent report has shown that many people from the Midlands are now struggling with debt and getting deeper into debt as a result of having finances that are severely overstretched.

According to the report many people from the Midlands are no struggling to make their salaries last for the whole month, leaving them with a shortfall between when they receive their monthly wage and when they next get paid. Many of these people, who are having to cope with higher petrol prices to get to work, higher food prices, soaring bills, and spiralling living costs, are having to bridge that gap by borrowing money, either from friends and family or through credit cards, overdrafts, and even payday loans.

Over the past three months around five million people are said to have taken on more debt, which compares to four million people in the previous quarter. In the past twelve months around two million people have taken on more debt specifically to bridge the gap between paydays. This data comes from the insolvency trade body R3.

An industry official from the Midlands said: “It is extremely worrying that such a large percentage of people nationally are struggling to make it to payday and I know from professional experience that this is also the case here in the region. Many local individuals are using short-term loans to cover the gap in their finances. These loans tend to have high interest rates and often those who use this type of credit find themselves in a vicious debt cycle, particularly if they experience a sudden job loss. If individuals are experiencing difficulty in meeting their financial obligations, then it is important that they seek financial advice before taking out further lines of credit.”

Tags: higher petrol prices, Midlands, higher food prices, vicious debt cycle, debt cycle, financial advice, bills, credit cards, gap

Filed under: News

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Posted in: finances,Midlanders,Overstretched

New OFT Debt Management Guidance Makes Cases Like DCM Apex Less Likely

Debt resolution company, ClearDebt, is pleased that the OFT’s new debt management guidance, published on Tuesday June 14th June is likely to outlaw “full and final settlement” schemes such as those run by companies like DCM Apex, whose clients ClearDebt has been working with since that company went into administration on 2 March 2011.

Commenting, ClearDebt CEO, David Mond, said:

The guidance makes completely clear that it is to apply to firms offering full and final settlements and also that only in exceptional circumstances will a firm be permitted to retain clients’ funds for more than five days. Further, the guidance stipulates that a company cannot hold on to monies that should be sent to creditors unless both debtors and creditors are made fully aware of the fact and it requires client monies to be protected if the company itself goes bust.

Had these arrangements been in place before, it’s likely that many clients of companies like DCM Apex would be much better off now than they are.

The OFT guidance imposes much more detailed requirements on debt solution companies than has been the case until now. ClearDebt believes that the guidelines may force many debt management companies to throw in the towel:

The cost of compliance – both in financial terms and in more onerous business processes – will go up sharply when these guidelines are enforced.

says ClearDebt director of marketing and external affairs, Andrew Smith:

Many of our competitors, especially those that rely on cold-called leads bought from third parties, will, we believe, find it difficult to sustain their business model under these new rules.

By Marketing and is filed under Press Releases.
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Posted in: Cases,guidance,likely,makes,Management

ClearDebt recommends The ClearCash Prepaid MasterCard

For anybody who is in debt or struggling financially, we often recommend setting up a new bank account – particularly if you have debts, such as an overdraft or credit card with your bank.

As an alternative to basic bank accounts, we recommend our ClearCash Prepaid MasterCard® for anybody who has a poor credit history, and wants a payment card which is widely accepted.

The ClearCash Prepaid MasterCard is a payment card which doesn’t let you go overdrawn and has no late fees – you can only spend what you have loaded onto the card.

Another feature of ClearCash is the online BudgetMaster tool which can help you manage your outgoings and identify areas where you are overspending.

Here are some of the other great features:

Standing order and bill payment facilitiesAbility to check your balance online or by text, 24 hours a dayAccepted anywhere the MasterCard mark is shown (over 29 million locations worldwide)Top up your icount by bank transfer, PayPoint, Post Office and ChequeSupport via email, customer services phone line and online livechat facilityFree purchase protection for pay monthly cardholders on purchases made up to £1,500

ClearCash is part of ClearDebt Group plc and if you’d like to find out more about whether a ClearCash Prepaid MasterCard could help you manage your money visit the ClearCash website now.

By Marketing and is filed under Managing Your Money.
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Posted in: ClearCash,ClearDebt,MasterCard,Prepaid,recommends

Do you trust kitemarks?

Increasingly kitemarks are being used by companies in their communications materials to signify importance and trust to consumers.

Kitemarks, or logos from third parties are ever more evident these days, and I’m not just referring to the financial sector. Perhaps the most outstanding example of third party logos are flat screen TVs which manage to plaster ever more combinations of the weird and wonderful stickers of high tech features that your 42? plasma is capable of.

In the consumer finance sector, third party logos and kitemarks are also seeming to trend. This week saw the launch of a new kitemark in the high street banking sector.

Vote in the poll and leave your views below in the comments. If you voted Depends, do explain your thoughts below in the comments section.

Judging by reaction on Twitter from seasoned finance journalists it would seem newly launched kitemarks in the consumer finance sector are coming under scrutiny.

Finding it telling, ironic and a bit sad that our efforts to improve banking products in UK, as a charity, has attracted cynicism. Sigh!Thu Jun 16 10:10:44 via webFairBanking
Fair_Banking

The above is just extracts from various healthy jousting on Twitter, we’re sure the debate will continue, to that end you may be able to follow and add to conversations using the Twitter search of the term kitemarks or better still hashtag your conversation #kitemarks.

So how does ClearDebt use kitemarks?

ClearDebt uses third party logos on its webpage. One of these logos is to denote membership of an important debt industry regulatory body that maintains professional standards and offers extensive certified programme of training qualifications, the first of its kind in the UK, for individual debt advisors. We think this is important.

The other logo is of a independent third party website to ClearDebt that publishes regular feedback and ratings of companies in the sector. We understand it’s not just what we say about ClearDebt that matters to people, we welcome others to be the judge of ClearDebt in an open manner.

Share your thoughts in the comments.

By Paul Gailey and is filed under Debt Management.
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Posted in: kitemarks,Trust

Check the license of a debt adviser

Last year ClearDebt blogged briefly about how to check the license of a debt company with an explanatory video of Consumer Credit Register.

Well, the consumer borrowers champions Zero-credit whom occasionally guest blog here at ClearDebt have produced an excellent in depth video explanation of how to fathom the search page of the Consumer Credit Register.

As Zero-credit states in the video,

with so many credit and debt companies being closed down, it’s easy to worry about picking a dud…

There is a remarkable amount of information available online, sometime it takes more effort than normal to uncover it.

Next week ClearDebt will blog a similar tutorial on a related topic, stay tuned.

ClearDebt’s Consumer Credit License is 0565479 and the company registration number is 5157741.

By Paul Gailey and is filed under Creditor Behaviour.
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Posted in: adviser,Check,license