Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury tells it how it is: 

'There’s low unemployment, there’s good news, but the thing we see … now the majority of people that come to the food banks are in work. That is a sign that work is not lifting people out of poverty in the way we would hope.”

Image: Peston on Sunday with guest Justin Welby.

Image: Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

ABC Note: We are growing as an organisation and I am pleased to announce that we have recently been building relations with Northern Ireland, particularly the Department of Communities NI. Northern Ireland is different to the mainlaind UK. They do not provide free prescriptions for example but they are geared to paying Universal Credit bi-weekly.

Being able to compare differences can lead to better practises and better outcomes.  

Image: You can reach the Department for Communities NI website by clicking on the image. 

We have reached out to progressive political parties including the Social Democrats NI who have responded positively.

We have been attracting a lot of interest from the Irish community in general, both North and South of the border. 

Carers are another audience that are following us, and we are aiming to bring more content aimed at helping this audience.

Pensions is another area we want to focus on more and we have some ideas being developed in this area too.

Daily we do get a a lot of emails from political parties, pressure groups, think tanks and not for profits, the business community and more.   

One of our posts attracted over 36 000 responses recently, and what is interesting is that our audience are going through our back catalogue of articles and exploring posts that interest them: VIEW ALL ARTICLES

We are about NEWS and although we try and provide help and advice, we are NOT a blog and we focus on facts and helpful information, rather than opinion.

Recently the ABC helped an Austrian lady whose Scottish husband was killed in a freak train accident in Austria where the gentleman had been living for 21 years. The lady had three children and was clearly desperately worried about how she was going to manage as her husband’s income had also died with him? Trying to sort out complex financial matters in a state of shock and grief is not easy. Via our knowledge and contacts we were able to provide help and advice. It is fair to say this lady was in a much better state of mind when we last received an email from her. She had located her late husband’s Scottish birth certificate and that was the first-step in tracking down pension assets she needed to provide for her young family. Sometimes our work provides rewards you cannot quantify and we were thrilled to be able to help. 

If you feel there are topics we are not covering, please just contact us via email. 

You can visit the Social Democrats website by clicking on the image:  

Image: The Social Democrats

The Felixstowe Christmas Day Dip is on Monday 25 December 2017 at 10am Felixstowe Seafront. Several hundred hardy souls will be baring their all and battling the waves to raise funds for St Elizabeth Hospice. 

Do you want to join in? Please click on the link below:

Image: St Elizabeth Hospice. 

Images: courtesy of the East Anglian Daily Times

ABC comment: Are you running an event that helps the community this Christmas, if so please let us know? 

We met this outfit at a recent exhibition in Colchester

From their base at 15 Queen Street Colchester Wivenhoe Repair Reuse Recycle CIC aim is to help people in Essex and beyond repair, reuse and recycle their household items.

Repair

Home visits can be arranged to repair your washing machine, dishwasher or tumble dryer. 

Our prices are set as low as possible to prevent your machine going to the dump.

As a social enterprise you can expect excellent customer service and an affordable repair

Reuse

Re-use means passing on an item to be used again in its current form. This removes the need for raw materials and the energy required to re-manufacture.

The benefits of re-use include creating jobs, training and volunteering opportunities. Within 2017 we aim to create jobs and link with local employers for work placements, our aim is to more than double this over the next two years.

Recycle

Their volunteers strip out valuable parts and segregate them however small! However there remains the problem of UN-recyclable plastics. But the good news is we will have taken our time to retrieve as much as is humanly possible. In this endeavour we are working with Essex County Council and Colchester Borough Council to further their aim; reducing landfill.

Simple eh! We like this outfit. Our battle with Sainsbury’s regarding the ABC microwave is ongoing. Organisations like Sainsbury, Argos and other electrical retailers ought to support initiatives like this,,,,unless of course they just want to sell you a new appliance? 

You can reach the guys here: www.repair-reuse-recycle.org

Now see if they can fix the ABC vacumn cleaner! 

This is always a popular post from us. We hope we are making it easy for you to find the right address. 

We strongly recommend keeping all correspondence to and from the DWP (or benefits provider in another country) in a ring binder and in date order. Do read what you are given by the DWP or your Work Coach. We always send in mail registered or by recorded delivery. Staple the postal receipt to the copy of the letter you send in. If you agree something on the telephone, note the time of the call and if possible whom you spoke to? If it is important, back it up with a confirmation letter. Keep a copy. 

Image: The tools of the trade. Be organised, pre-empt the potential for things to get lost, or go missing in transit.  It rarely happens in practise but be prepared. 

We hope you don't mind us giving these tips.

Keep a copy of everything.

Get your Work Coach to write the time of your next appointment in your Claimant Commitment booklet. Don’t do it yourself. Add this to your diary when you get home. Either a paper diary or on a Google or Outlook Calendar programme.  

Be methodical, be meticulous in your approach. Read your Claimant Commitment booklet carefully. Have you signed a Claimant Commitment? Are you sure? If in doubt request a copy using a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

Have you checked that the DWP has all the right contact details for you? Have you moved recently? Be pro-active. 

If you want more information you can look at the Jobseekers Act 1995 and the  Jobseeker's Allowance Regulations 1996  here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk

Taking these steps can avoid unnecessary sanctions or a payment going missing. The DWP are providing SMS alerts. Do they have your correct mobile number? 

Always check. Be in control. Protect yourself. 

Change of circumstances? A lot of benefit fraud is not contrived. Peoples circumstances change and they do not update the DWP and their Work Coach. This can result in a substantial overpayment, particularly if you are claiming Housing Benefit.  A criminal record, even a Caution, can effect your employment prospects, working with children or even a holiday abroad if you need a visa. Moreover you will have to pay the money back. 

Remember the adage given to salesmen: ‘Never assume anything, because it makes an Ass-out-of-you-and-me’. When dealing with large organisations its always better to err on the safe side, and to be pro-active in helping them help you. 

Below is a list of DWP Postal Sites. 

PLEASE - click on the attatchment below and download. 

Have a very enjoyable Thanksgiving to our US friends.

Thanksgiving has historical roots in religious and cultural traditions as a celebration for bringing in the harvest. It has long been celebrated as a secular holiday thought it has its roots in the Protestant Reformation. 

Have a fantastic day and remember this sound advice:

Don't drink more than your doctor! 

Four directors of Secure My Money Limited (SMM) have been disqualified following an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

The individuals disqualified are: Mark Robert Kennedy for 8 years; David John Carter Mullins for 8 years; Edward John Booth for 7 years; and Christopher Brotherton for 5 years.

All four were the directors who had responsibility for SMM trading with lack of commercial probity from October 2013 whereby SMM:

• induced members of the public to provide bank/credit card details so that SMM could take money without their knowledge or consent
• did not provide services in accordance with which representations
• made misleading statements in respect of refunds to its customers, company bankers and FCA when challenged
• did not carry out any work for its upfront fee
• charged customers who had already paid an upfront one-off fee, monthly fees without their permission, knowledge or any clear explanation or justification

Kennedy, Mullins and Booth shared responsibility for allowing SMM’s website to remain active, resulting in £181,393 being taken from individual bank accounts, after SMM had agreed with Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to remove from public access and sight all such offending websites.

At liquidation on 31 August 2014 SMM had liabilities totaling £357,628, with assets estimated to be £6,000.

SMM traded as an internet credit broker from August 2011 using the trading styles/brand names MoneyGaGa (to October 2013); Loan Zoo; Loan Junction; and i-loans direct. After October 2013 SMM allowed one of Mr Kennedy’s other businesses to trade his brand the1loan through SMM.

Up to October 2013 SMM had utilized a platform designed by a former director. That platform was dispensed with and a new platform was introduced by Mr Kennedy, who provided technical expertise and finance to support SMM. Mr Kennedy was only formally appointed as a director of SMM between 30 May 2014 and 11 June 2014, though was the key individual in its operation after October 2013.

Customers came to SMM via other companies (described as ‘affiliates’) websites, called ‘pingtrees’. Customers searched for loans online and input their details. SMM paid for these leads and the customers’ details would be prepopulated into SMM’s website. The customer base for SMM was, in the majority, individuals who had been turned down by lenders.

SMM duped its ‘customers’, who were searching for loans, into paying a brokerage fee of up to £69. SMM effectively did nothing in return for that fee. Its websites and correspondence with customers - and its merchant service provider - made misrepresentations which delayed the refunding of sums to customers. The directors then misled the FCA in stating that SMM’s websites had been shut down, when in fact they had not, resulting in even more moneys being extracted.

SMM also directed customers/enquiries to other brokers, with the consequence that these people were exposed to the potential to be charged a number of times by similar brokers.

In May 2014 the FCA made contact with SMM who promised to make changes to its processes and remove or amend certain webpages. These changes were not done as SMM had promised and the company entered a creditor’s voluntary liquidation on 31 July 2014.

The Insolvency Service investigation, found that SMM:

• induced members of the public, via its website payment pages, to provide bank or credit card details in order that SMM could deduct a brokerage and/or membership fee without the customers’ knowledge and or consent. It did not make it clear that a fee would be taken nor what that fee would be
• changed its wording on fee charging in March 2014 but by April 2014 it had reverted back as it had affected SMM’s revenue
• failed to provide the service in accordance with which representations had been made
• told customers that SMM needed to notify the individual lenders it had contacted on the customers’ behalf as a justification for not making refunds immediately. SMM did not contact lenders.
• did not, as it claimed to its bankers and customers, compare loan products from a wide range of lenders
• implied to its bankers that customers saw its home pages and arrived at the website prior to a Payment Page, which was knowingly not the case
• provided screenshots to the company bankers that were different to the website operated by SMM and in particular included an opt-in box for the Terms and Conditions on the Payment Page, which was absent on the website
• did not carry out any work for its upfront fee. All customers received the same ‘offers’, many of which were unsuitable for the customers’ needs. As a result SMM was unable to ascertain what loans, if any, had been secured by its customers
• commenced to charge customers who had already paid an upfront one off fee monthly fees of £4.99 in May 2014 with no apparent justification

The Financial Ombudsman Service received 656 customer complaints about SMM between January 2014 and May 2014. On 20 May 2014, SMM informed the Financial Conduct Authority that the websites would be taken down by “…no later than 10am tomorrow”, and thereby made inoperative. Email traffic between the director showed them discussing how the websites would have the appearance of being off-line and unviewable or accessed publicly including “we can always ‘take them down’ for now like the1loan appears taken down but we all know is not.” Between 21 May 2014 and 30 May 2014 the websites remained live and operating, resulting in at least a further £181,393 being removed from customers.

Commenting on the disqualifications, Cheryl Lambert, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:

This company was a shark feasting in a pool of the most vulnerable and financially distressed. It took advantage of their desperation for immediate funds, and its own technical expertise, to induce the unwary into a trap from which it was difficult to escape.

The system that was created resulted in some of the least financially sophisticated members of society having their banking and personal details pinging around a school of sharks to create a feeding frenzy.

This was utterly cynical and thoroughly reprehensible commercial activity.

The disqualification of the four people directly responsible is a warning to all directors. The Insolvency Service is continuing to pursue the rogues, chancers and recklessly greedy. There will be a direct personal consequence to the activities undertaken behind the corporate veil.

The Insolvency Service would like to thank the Financial Conduct Authority for their co-operation in this case.

Image: Stop the Loan Sharks is a Trading Standards Campaign.

Budget 2017: Rescue package for universal credit but no structural reform to keep the promise of greater rewards from work.

Commenting on today’s Budget, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group Alison Garnham said:

 “We were the first to sound the alarm over the waiting days for universal credit, so we’re pleased the Chancellor has acted to remove them and put in place new arrangements for receiving advances as part of an emergency rescue package, but this should have been the budget that ushered in much needed structural reform of Universal Credit to revive the central promise to strengthen the rewards from work and that didn’t happen.  

“Our new analysis finds while effective tax rates may have improved for some families, big falls in family income caused by cuts and changes to Universal Credit have left many worse off overall, overwhelming any gains from increases in the ‘national living wage’, personal tax allowances and help for childcare. Families on universal credit who want to get better off through earnings gained little from today’s Budget. 

“What happens to universal credit will shape the future for children in low-income and just managing families.     The budgets of ordinary families will not be fit for the future until the work allowances in universal credit have been restored to support parents who want to bring home higher wages.”

ABC Note: CPAG’s new research, conducted with the Institute for Public Policy Research, models the impact of cuts to social security over the decade. It finds one million more children will be in poverty by the end of the decade as a result of cuts to universal credit .

It finds working families stand to lose £420 a year on average from cuts to Universal Credit – these are losses across the population, so the losses for UC recipients would be much higher.   And freezes and cuts to Universal Credit work allowances (the income level at which UC starts to be withdrawn) will leave lone parents worse off by, on average, £710 a year, couples £250 a year.

Restoring universal credit work allowances: this would benefit all working families by an average of £150 a year – and those on UC benefit by much more 

On Thursday 8 December the Assembly Committee for Communities will visit two homeless projects in Belfast to mark Homelessness Awareness Week 2016.

The visit to the Stella Maris and DePaul Housing First hostels in Belfast has been organised to provide Members with an opportunity to meet residents, find out more about the issues they face and the range of services available to support them. 

Date:              Thursday 8 December

Venue:           Stella Maris, Garmoyle St, Belfast BT15 1DY

Time:             11.30am – 12pm

Venue:           DePaul Housing First Hostel, Unit 4, Nelson Street, BT15 1BH

Time:             12.15pm – 12.30pm

At least one bank has an alternative plan if the budget goes the wrong way!