Giving people more time and space and co-ordinating recovery

The Financial Shield Project has led to the creation of a new ‘Joint Creditor Forum’ operating across Lambeth and Southwark.

This forum currently brings together Lambeth and Southwark Councils with four housing associations with stock in the two Boroughs.

Recognising the need for a joined up approach to collecting rent and Council Tax debts, the Forum has put in a place a new Joint Debt Recovery Protocol for residents.

Once notified that a resident is engaging with the Financial Support Link Workers, participating creditors have agreed to suspend any recovery action for outstanding debts for up to 60-days. This provides the resident with the time and space they need to receive support about possible benefit claims or other help that they could access. At the end of the 60-days the Financial Support Link Worker provides a single report to the creditors setting out how much the resident can realistically afford to repay towards any outstanding arrears.

Where the resident is both a tenant of one of the participating housing associations and also has a debt outstanding to their local authority, the creditors will jointly consider how any repayment amount should be divided between them, and will co-ordinate communications to the resident about this through the Financial Support Link Worker.

And, if there are payment problems in the future, the participating creditors will discuss how best to proceed together rather than pursue individual, and potentially conflicting recovery strategies.

Developing the Joint Creditor Forum

Moving forwards we hope to expand the Joint Creditor Forum to include other types of creditor, for example utility companies and water providers. And as many of the creditors on the forum are also commissioners of local services, including their own financial inclusion and debt advice teams, the Forum has a key role in responding to front-line reports from the Financial Support Link Workers concerning possible gaps in provision across the two Boroughs.

Finally, the Joint Creditor Forum is also actively looking at ways in which additional support can be given to those in the most serious financial problems, for whom repayment of all their outstanding rent and Council Tax may be impossible within a realistic time-frame.