How you can help tenants deal with debt
Debt. Bills. Bailiffs. Times are tough – and getting tougher. Never has a topic been more important. How can you help people cope with debt? Here’s something practical
Perhaps our most valuable course ever
Being in debt is just horrible and it’s a deep, dark, miserable hole to get out of once you are in it.
If you too have experienced debt problems you will know it is not a pleasant thing. If you haven’t, then count your lucky stars.
I have - and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. It’s certainly growing because 95% of enquiries currently being received by Advice Agencies and Law Centres relate to debts.
Here’s how it can feel:
- You don’t want to open your post – in fact you dread the postman even arriving
- You are never in when the phone rings, because if you do pick up the phone it turns out to be a threatening call.
- You can’t think straight and you feel fuzzy in the head
- You can’t sleep at night and you wake up feeling utterly exhausted
- You become short tempered and ratty, even with those you love and you find yourself shouting at the children and lashing out at everybody
- Your stomach turns when the door bell rings or a car drives up outside because it might be a bailiff
- You feel you have let everybody down
- You might turn to alcohol or drugs for escape
- You want to run away and hide
- You become depressed, your appearance suffers and at very low points you feel suicidal
A pretty desperate state of affairs. Just imagine what this does for your tenants’ well being and their ability to pay their rent on time?
What’s more, as tenants find it harder and harder to make ends meet and pay their rents on time, it affects landlords. Rent arrears mount as tenants’ disposable income is under attack from credit card companies and debt collection companies chasing arrears and payments.
The good news is that in many cases there are solutions
No one is pretending that they are easy and that there are quick fixes, but if you approach each case in a calm and patient manner, think through the problems, be aware of people’s rights and obligations, you have a chance of solving the problem.
To prove this I have attached a heart moving case of Mrs Smith, a lone parent with 3 children, who with the help of our trainer got out of debt, took control of her finances and turned her life around.
Please click here to read Mrs Smith's story
The very fact that there something can be done by social landlords is why we have asked Stuart Freeman, one of the UK’s top debt advisers & counsellors to put together a one day course for housing staff on the subject.
Stuart won’t try to turn you into a professional debt counsellor, but he will provide you with enough accurate financial and legal information for you to be a real help to your tenants. And he will give you the “tools” to enable some tenants to solve their own problems.
He will show you how to provide the right sort of support over a substantial period of time. And he will show you how to help tenants understand what their debts are, how to budget and what creditors and bailiffs can and cannot do.
Other key areas Stuart covers are:
- How to prepare and understand a budget
- How to manage a budget
- How to deal with creditors
- The Consumer Credit Act and the Administration of the Justice Act 1970
- How to deal with denial
- How to deal with bailiffs
- What to do when there is a petition for bankruptcy
- How to maximize your income
- How to apply for financial assistance from energy trusts
- How to make a complaint in the event that a creditor is harassing and threatening a tenant
- How to deal with problems on a day to day basis as part of an overall plan to become debt free
I can’t remember us putting on a more timely course. Nor can I imagine a more worthwhile way in which to help people. So I do hope you can attend.
This really is an immensely important subject. One day invested in this workshop could turn someone’s life around – many people’s, perhaps - and benefit your organisation.
I believe in all our courses, but as you can imagine, this is written from the heart.
What delgates say about this trainer
"There have been some useful tips i.e. toolkits."
Mohammad Shafiq, Welfare Benefits and Debt Advisor, Walsall Housing Group