When it comes to personal debt problems, Lib Dem candidates appear to care least.
Results of our survey reveal we found that Liberal Democrat Candidates seem to care a lot less about helping people with personal debt problems. Almost all those that did respond to the ClearDebt survey, whichever party they represented, agreed they would support legislation to help people struggling with consumer debt.
ClearDebt has just completed a survey of general election candidates and we found that Liberal Democrat Candidates seem to care a lot less about helping people with personal debt problems. Labour candidates cared most, but almost all those that did respond, whichever party they represented, agreed they would support legislation to help people struggling with consumer debt.
Labour candidates were most concerned – 20% took a moment to do our poll. Conservatives were the second most caring party (15% response) whilst, of the major parties, the Liberal Democrats came last (just 7% bothered – around two thirds of Labour’s rate), behind not just the big two but also the Green Party, the UK Independence Party and all independents and other parties put together.
Liberal Democrats came last – just 7% bothered – around two thirds of Labour’s rate
Less controversially, the survey showed a very high level of agreement between politicians of any party amongst those who did answer our questionnaire. Almost all wanted new laws that would help people in debt. And, you can see that a number have taken a real interest in the issue and have responded to our blog on the topic.
So, the message to our 26,000 members, and the 11% of voters who have debt issues, is that a relatively low proportion of prospective MPs see consumer debt as an important issue – but that those that do seem eager to see new laws that will help people in debt.
There is just over a week left to raise the profile of debt issues – and to show the power of people in debt: time for everyone to get tweeting, blogging and using Facebook – using these tools is better than emailing the candidates – because they are visible to all.
Our Survey
We emailed all the parliamentary candidates we could find (2,631) and, after two emails a few days apart we had, earlier today, 358 responses – that’s 14% of those we emailed. A good level of response we think – but we would have thought more would have considered the personal debt issues worthy of their time – given that 11% of UK adults are struggling with debt.
The main parties would appear to view to highlight debt as symptomatic of other areas of concern. For instance David Cameron at the brewery linked it to unemployment and paid lip service to the fact that many do struggle with unsecured debt.
Whilst there is generally a catalyst to debt and it could be argued that prevention is better than cure there do need to be more in the way of concrete proposals and distinctions between the parties in this area. This is especially significant given that the banks are now lending public money back to the taxpayer with the part nationalisation. There is a tax on profits outlined by Tory and Lib Dem but the ethos of TCF needs to be instilled in the operation side of the banks through regulation.
Jonathan – I agree with you banks’ TCF (treating customers fairly) is vital – worryingly they still seem to be falling down on this (http://bit.ly/bASwGP), at least as far as the FSA is concerned.
I think the key is to force creditors to deal with non-performing debtors co-operatively rather than competitively, and thus to get a realistic return from someone who feels they are being helped – not hassled.