Monthly Archives: February 2015

350,000 Lancashire households in fuel poverty

Author: Jon McNamara | No Comments yet

While it may be hard to believe, about 25% percent of Lancashire families are living in fuel poverty. This equates to about 350,000 residents of the county. So hundreds of thousands of individuals are part of…

Payday loan interest rates on price comparison sites

Author: Jon McNamara | No Comments yet

In an ongoing effort to protect households from high priced lenders, the Competition and Markets Authority is continuing to put more protections in place for customers. Changes being implemented in partnership with the Financial Conduct…

Customers being overcharged by about £200 on fuel bills

Author: Jon McNamara | No Comments yet

Customers of the big six energy suppliers are paying about £200 more per year than they should on their fuel and electricity bills. The Competition and Markets Authority released the results of their review, and…

Top requests to Citizen Advice are for council tax and credit card help

Author: Jon McNamara | No Comments yet

Over 300,000 households across the UK are projected to turn to Citizen Advice for advice on how to pay down their debts. The two main needs from clients are for finding a solution to council…

MPs ponder crackdown as rent-to-own store triple purchase costs

Author: Kenneth Long | No Comments yet

Customers of rent-to-own stores usually lack the cash and credit to buy household items from ordinary retailers. This is often what drives them to agree to onerous terms that vastly increase the total costs to…

Evictions are at a record level

Author: Jon McNamara | No Comments yet

Evictions in 2014 increased by over 10 per cent from the previous year. When looking at data for just Wales and England, about 42,000 tenants lost their home according to the Ministry of Justice. But…

Community supermarkets may be coming to the UK

Author: Jon McNamara | No Comments yet

One alternative to the increasing number of food banks may be community supermarkets. Various experts and think tanks, such as Demos, are starting to see the value in opening more of these across the UK….

Local welfare reduced in 2015 by £100m

Author: Jon McNamara | No Comments yet

The status of local welfare has been undecided until now. The central government has now made a final decision on the scheme, and they will be cutting back the programme by about £100m for the upcoming…

Waiting lists for housing in England increase

Author: Jon McNamara | No Comments yet

The number of families waiting to receive social housing continues to increase. The latest stats from Home Group and other organisations show that between 1.7 to 2 million people in England are waiting for some…

Campaign to help tenants facing illegal eviction in Scotland

Author: Jon McNamara | No Comments yet

With an increasing number of evictions occurring across Scotland, some of them are questionable if not outright illegal. Many tenants are not aware of their rights and responsibilities, so in an effort to try to…