Parliamentary debt group to assess savings schemes

The committee’s aims have attracted the interest of Citizens Advice, which has been taking steps to assist those who were affected by the Farpak collapse and subsequently pushed closer to debt management disaster.

Citizens Advice is keen to see the debt committee bring the short-term savings industry under some form of independent regulatory control and to intoduce a savings aspect to debt solution arrangements.

Director of policy at Citizens Advice Teresa Perchard said: “Many [of our] clients were among the 150,000 casualties of the Farepak collapse, which left them without any of their savings, any proper compensation or any regulatory safety net.”

“Steps must now be taken to ensure these people and others on low incomes are not put off saving for good as a result and that there can be no repeat of the Farepak collapse next Christmas,” she added.

Trade and industry secretary Ian McCartney is involved with the committee aiming to tackle the growing debt problem nationwide and he said last year: “We are doing as much as we can to try to help those with the highest levels of debt”.